Celtic Swords - Resources to make a project?

[Leigh Robinson]

Hi,

I am considering making Celtic Swords. At the moment our company focus' on Oriental weaponry and we would like to see what a historically accurate Celtic sword would look like using our skills and knowledge.

Its a new topic so I don't know where to begin. So I started with the internet.

I have had a look around the internet and there is very little information. But I have found a couple of books:

The Celtic Sword by Radomir Pleiner - Out of Print
British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards I M Stead (British Museum Press 2006) ISBN 0714123234 - Over £80

One is out of print and the other is over £80!

Could anyone give me a little advice or opinion on how to start the task of getting correct and historically accurate information on the Celts swords?

Thanks for any help.

[thomas]

Couple of books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_...0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

[Leigh Robinson]

Been Shopping

Got the two books from amazon. Its a shame I can't get the Celtic Book.

Thanks for the link

[H˙llyn]

I think you need to bear in mind one thing.

"Celtic" per se is a very ambiguous and broad term which in my opinion is often misused just for marketing purposes. In books like Radomir Pleiner's 'The Celtic Sword' it is used more as a convention to be able to encapsulate in a single title the variety of swords belonging to several (different) peoples during a broad period of time.

With that sorted, you need to realize that investigation, be it for academic, personal or business purposes costs money so if £80 seems too much to you, most likely what you will end up offering is just more pseudo celtic crap.

So in good will I offer you the following bibliography if you are interested in getting it, however a lot of it is highly specialized and some of it you can only find in Uni libraries or straight off archaeological and history society journals which of courses can cost about £30 a piece.

The Celtic Sword, Radomir Pleiner
(This is not per se a typological study, it is a compilation of pieces that have been studied and as such the result are published in the book, do not look for lots of drawings of swords which is what I think you are after to then send to china for it to be replicated)

Guerre et Armement chez les Gaulois, Brunaux and Lambot
(Entirely in french it does offer a more in depth study of the weapons and fittings of the weapons of that which is defined as Gaul: Cisalpine, Transalpine Gaul and Belgic Gaul. Brittany is left out of the picture and so is Iberia but pieces from the British Isles and some parts of the Balkans are included. The amount of images in this book is satisfactory to those who are looking for them)


NAVARRO,JOSÉ M.DE. The finds from the site of La Tène I: Scabbards and the swords found in them.
London, 1972. 2 vols. XXVI,353,XVI,102 pp. 37 figs & 158 plts. Cloth.
EUR 177.00 = appr. US$ 219.48
(This book does offer you a really vast amount of information of La Tene I style swords with plenty of images but as you can see it will cause a dent to your pocket)

Fernando Quesada Sanz. El armamento ibérico. Estudio tipológico, geográfico, funcional, social y simbólico de las armas en la Cultura Ibérica (siglos VI-I a.C.). Monographies Instrumentum, 3. Montagnac, 1997. 2 vols., XXII+962 págs., 356 figuras en texto y 16 páginas de láminas B/N. ISBN 2-907303-09-0 (vol. I) y 2-907303-10-4 (vol. 2). 850 FF
(This one is an excellent source albeit in Spanish for a full typological study of the weaponry of the Iberian Peninsula but comes at a price of £110 plus shipping)

British Iron Age Swords And Scabbards (Hardcover)
by C. r. Cartwright (Author), Janet Lang (Author)
(This one is also worth the dosh with plenty of images and info and I believe you can find it at the library of the British Museum)

Swords and Scabbards of the British Early Iron Age, Stuart Piggot
(This one is an article but it has plenty of images, however you need to pay £30 or so to be able to find the copy from The Prehistoric Society I believe)

Ok after having said all of that, and having looked at your site and what you offer, you seem fairly enthusiastic about giving it a serious go, but I recommend caution and serious study if you truly want to pursue the making of historically accurate stuff, otherwise you are just better off calling it inspired by.

[owen bush]

Hyllyn ,that is a good book list

my collection is always growing and those will be added to the want list .

when your interests get specific book prices go up ,they are however worth it I now consider books in the £80 to £150 range and view them as cheap for the info in them )

[H˙llyn]

Hyllyn ,that is a good book list

my collection is always growing and those will be added to the want list .

when your interests get specific book prices go up ,they are however worth it I now consider books in the £80 to £150 range and view them as cheap for the info in them )

Absolutely, I mean I am aware that people like Verhoven (sp?) initially put their works up for grabs to whoever wanted it as it had been funded by public money (through University funds). However some of these folks when doing work have to go on for rather long periods of time with paid leave from their work, and well sometimes even unpaid if more time is required, so it is only fair that the work is appreciated as what it is meant to be, specialist stuff.

I will gather some other sources when I can and add them to the previous post for those who be interested.

Regards

[ERL]

For inspiration you could look at Patrick Bárta, i love his work and would like to own one of them.

http://www.templ.net/english/

[cosco]

[H˙llyn]

For inspiration you could look at Patrick Bárta, i love his work and would like to own one of them.

http://www.templ.net/english/

Yeah he's used plenty of literary sources in his own research, so as you can see , doing that enables him to command respect and prices he might be happy with. However once more I do say, do exercise caution, copying the superficial aesthetics of a blade isn't exactly going to make it a good one. I'm sure other folks here would agree with that opinion.