Medieval Welsh Weaponry

jswillems · 20th March 2010, 04:32 AM

I'm currently working on a paper about medieval Wales and thought that it would be interesting to do a section on the waponry used by the medieval Welsh. I was wondering if anyone on here had any information on this subject or any links to information. Thanks for any help you can give me.

- Josh

Jim McDougall · 21st March 2010, 09:31 PM

Hi Josh,
This is going to be quite a paper, if you are covering the entirety of all the range of medieval periods and types of weaponry used by all aspects of warfare by all the tribal peoples living in the varied regions of Wales and the geopolitical situations involved

In any case, I agree, very interesting topics. For the study of the swords from earlier Middle Ages basically up to the Edwardian conquest in the 13th century, the Germanic tribes were regarded as 'saeson' (=saxons) inhabiting these regions. These tribes referred to themselves as I understand as Britons, and the regions were occupied by England for centuries, becoming part of the Kingdom in the mid 16th century. The kingdom joining England and Wales was known as the Angevin Kingdom.

I would recommend "The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England" by H.R. Davidson (1962), "The Archaeology of Weapons" E. Oakeshott, and "Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England" (ed. Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, 1989), for the earlier centuries from post Roman Britain c.3rd century up to the 12th-13th.
After that I would rely on the "Records of the Medieval Sword" by Oakeshott along with his other works, and works by Davidson on swords of the Middle Ages. General warfare is covered in most of the works on medieval knights.

Admittedly you have a lot of work ahead of you but these references are likely the best to begin with. I believe that aside from very specifically identified weapons provenanced to certain Welsh figures or events, the weapons and warfare will generally follow the categories I have mentioned. I have not searched online for specifically attributed Welsh weapons, but there may have been articles with this theme at times.

I hope this will be of some help to get you started, and look forward to anyone else out there who might know of more specific references.
Best of luck, and very best regards,
Jim

fearn · 21st March 2010, 10:40 PM

And whatever you do, don't forget about longbows and brown bills!

Best,

F

Jim McDougall · 21st March 2010, 11:46 PM

I guess it should be remembered that one of the most legendary swords of all was Excalibur as known in French versions of Geoffrey of Monmouths 12th century work "Historia Regum Britanniae", of course with the legend of King Arthur. The Welsh term was Caliburnus (Latinized). It is further very interesting that last year near Monmouth, Wales there was a sword stud excavated, one of the very few finds on this extremely little known part of this history of the Anglo Saxon dark ages in these regions.

Another term for sword in Welsh was caladbolg which seems to have derived or been associated with figures in Irish mythology. The Excalibur legend seems to have counterparts in Norse and other mythology.
In Welsh tradition there was a dagger named Carnwennan as well as spear named Rhongomniad as well as a ceremonial sword of peace named Clarent.
No long bows found yet Fearn

!! nor what thier names were. To me one of the most fascinating things is the Welsh language itself, and how completely unique it seems alongside the English language.

Just thought I would add this,
All the best,
Jim

fearn · 22nd March 2010, 05:07 AM

Hi Jim and all,

It's a common story that the English longbow developed from a Welsh predecessor. I don't know the origin of this story, but I figure it's probably true, given how the English traditionally felt about the Welsh.

As for the others, "bolg" means belly, or possibly lightning, and caladbolg means "hard belly" or possibly "hard lightning. Cuchulainn had a spear called "gae bolg" (belly spear or spear of light) Not sure why Celtic mythology has so many bolgs (including the fir bolg) but there you have it.

Best,

F

Jim McDougall · 22nd March 2010, 05:19 AM

Thanks Fearn, really never knew much of this aspect of the British history but its pretty interesting, glad Josh posted it.

Hotspur · 24th March 2010, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fearn

Hi Jim and all,

It's a common story that the English longbow developed from a Welsh predecessor. I don't know the origin of this story, but I figure it's probably true, given how the English traditionally felt about the Welsh.

As for the others, "bolg" means belly, or possibly lightning, and caladbolg means "hard belly" or possibly "hard lightning. Cuchulainn had a spear called "gae bolg" (belly spear or spear of light) Not sure why Celtic mythology has so many bolgs (including the fir bolg) but there you have it.

Best,

F

However,

In what I have read over the years regarding the "modern" Ed the Ist longbow development was Scandanavian southern plains Brit ish heritage and not the mountain Welsh tribes who used short hunting bows shown strung drawn to the chest and not man/long length bows drawn to the ear. If I recall correctly, it is actually Edward that first employed the longbow against the Welsh in early campaigns (I will find the battles if they seem scarce to others but this should be elementary history research for any). By the time of the 100 years war, Richard II was a darling amongst mid medieval Welshmen militaries and the infamous Cheshire archers that later blindly (and were falsely) led by the Percy camp to rise against Henry IV. Shrewsbury possibly being the epitome of British longbow warfare on both sides of that battle. Edward the oneth use of the longbow squads was to protect the more mobile and fellow spearmen. Again, I am abstracting but the notes of those actions of longbow development on the island are out there.

What particular age of medieval is the paper to address? We are looking at five centuries and more in that regard but the arms of the Welsh by 1066 and all that mostly regard the influences of other Norman and more Norse backgrounds. There is some mystical fancy in my mind that some seem to think the Welsh less organized or structured than the rest of the world. Check out Madoc on your way through mythologies as well.

The Medieval Sourcebook web pages http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/Sbook.html might help any and any graced with JSTOR access has the informations at their finger tips. Welsh arms before Ed I also include Roman and other Scandanavian influences of arms. Swords were already well formed and implemented by those owing them and showed no real outstanding ethnographic traits before Norse intermingling of the islands at large.

Look also to the writings and compilations of earlier English history by Thomas Walsingham (toss Froissart in the bucket in regard to the Welsh, you'd be better off reading Shakespeare). Also the British history online site
www.british-history.ac.uk/Default.aspx with the old histories, as well as
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Also a great portal that pretty much began my internet interests early in the game is the Sir Clisto Tome and indexes
www.sirclisto.com/ Yes, SCCA but quite a list to browse and leads to the real depths of data well beyond poor old Ewart, et al.

Cheers

GC

20th March 2010, 04:32 AM	#1
jswillems Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Northern California Posts: 32	Medieval Welsh Weaponry I'm currently working on a paper about medieval Wales and thought that it would be interesting to do a section on the waponry used by the medieval Welsh. I was wondering if anyone on here had any information on this subject or any links to information. Thanks for any help you can give me. - Josh

21st March 2010, 09:31 PM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,954	Hi Josh, This is going to be quite a paper, if you are covering the entirety of all the range of medieval periods and types of weaponry used by all aspects of warfare by all the tribal peoples living in the varied regions of Wales and the geopolitical situations involved In any case, I agree, very interesting topics. For the study of the swords from earlier Middle Ages basically up to the Edwardian conquest in the 13th century, the Germanic tribes were regarded as 'saeson' (=saxons) inhabiting these regions. These tribes referred to themselves as I understand as Britons, and the regions were occupied by England for centuries, becoming part of the Kingdom in the mid 16th century. The kingdom joining England and Wales was known as the Angevin Kingdom. I would recommend "The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England" by H.R. Davidson (1962), "The Archaeology of Weapons" E. Oakeshott, and "Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England" (ed. Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, 1989), for the earlier centuries from post Roman Britain c.3rd century up to the 12th-13th. After that I would rely on the "Records of the Medieval Sword" by Oakeshott along with his other works, and works by Davidson on swords of the Middle Ages. General warfare is covered in most of the works on medieval knights. Admittedly you have a lot of work ahead of you but these references are likely the best to begin with. I believe that aside from very specifically identified weapons provenanced to certain Welsh figures or events, the weapons and warfare will generally follow the categories I have mentioned. I have not searched online for specifically attributed Welsh weapons, but there may have been articles with this theme at times. I hope this will be of some help to get you started, and look forward to anyone else out there who might know of more specific references. Best of luck, and very best regards, Jim

21st March 2010, 10:40 PM	#3
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	And whatever you do, don't forget about longbows and brown bills! Best, F

21st March 2010, 11:46 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,954	I guess it should be remembered that one of the most legendary swords of all was Excalibur as known in French versions of Geoffrey of Monmouths 12th century work "Historia Regum Britanniae", of course with the legend of King Arthur. The Welsh term was Caliburnus (Latinized). It is further very interesting that last year near Monmouth, Wales there was a sword stud excavated, one of the very few finds on this extremely little known part of this history of the Anglo Saxon dark ages in these regions. Another term for sword in Welsh was caladbolg which seems to have derived or been associated with figures in Irish mythology. The Excalibur legend seems to have counterparts in Norse and other mythology. In Welsh tradition there was a dagger named Carnwennan as well as spear named Rhongomniad as well as a ceremonial sword of peace named Clarent. No long bows found yet Fearn !! nor what thier names were. To me one of the most fascinating things is the Welsh language itself, and how completely unique it seems alongside the English language. Just thought I would add this, All the best, Jim

22nd March 2010, 05:07 AM	#5
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	Hi Jim and all, It's a common story that the English longbow developed from a Welsh predecessor. I don't know the origin of this story, but I figure it's probably true, given how the English traditionally felt about the Welsh. As for the others, "bolg" means belly, or possibly lightning, and caladbolg means "hard belly" or possibly "hard lightning. Cuchulainn had a spear called "gae bolg" (belly spear or spear of light) Not sure why Celtic mythology has so many bolgs (including the fir bolg) but there you have it. Best, F

22nd March 2010, 05:19 AM	#6
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,954	Thanks Fearn, really never knew much of this aspect of the British history but its pretty interesting, glad Josh posted it.