Each nation associates all its great victories with a certain type of weapon, close to it in spirit and glorified in battles. He is sung by the heroic epic, numerous legends and traditions. For Scotland, claymore became such a weapon - a sword that was once widely used by highlanders, and later found its place in cinema.
Since ancient times, the sword was considered an indispensable element in the equipment of any warrior. He takes pride of place among other legendary weapons. In ancient times, no battle was complete without its use. The weapon has been in many bloody battles.
Sword story
In the territory of Scotland in the fifteenth - sixteenth centuries fierce local battles were fought. Conflicts occurred between the warring clans of the highlanders. Often clashes arose between the native inhabitants of Scotland and their oppressors from England. In these years, Claymore was invented - a sword that was massively used by the Highlanders, and since 1689, after the Battle of Kallikranki, it became the national weapon for the Scots.
Claymore gun sizes
The sword got its name from chaildheamh mor, which is translated from Scottish as “big sword”. The weapon is significant in size.
The Scottish two-handed sword Claymore has a blade 1 m long. Weapons reach a person from the floor to the chest or to the neck.
Design
When creating weapons, many nuances are taken into account, each little thing is given a unique uniqueness, which allows the product to be original and original.
One of the essential elements in the design of swords is the guard. The standard guard has received small changes in the process of creating claymore guns. The sword of the Highlanders differs from its counterparts by the crosshairs of the guard, directed forward at a slight angle to the blade. The peculiar form made it possible for the mountaineers to capture the enemy’s blades and turn them out of their hands.
There are several technical arcs along the blade at the crosshairs. In the area of ​​the crosshairs near the end of the arches, their slight narrowing is observed. Decoration of the sword is also original. To create a drawing, the casting procedure is used. The four-leaf clover skillfully executed on the guard is a traditional decoration that distinguishes claymore (sword). The photo below shows the appearance of this Scottish weapon.
Half-Sword Technique
A characteristic feature of the two-handed Scottish sword Claymore is its large size. At the same time, while maintaining the standard blade length for these swords, some parameters were changed by Scottish craftsmen during the manufacturing process of some products. As a result of improvements, the swords were equipped with a new element - “ricasso” - an undeveloped area near the crossroads of the guard.
The presence of “ricasso” made it possible for the mountaineers to effectively use the halbschwent technique during the battles, which means “half-sword” in Scottish. Its essence lies in the fact that a warrior could safely take his hand over an unsharpened area of ​​the blade, direct it for an accurate strike, without fear of being injured. This technique has been shown to be effective in cases where it was necessary to make piercing strikes in the articulation of enemy armor in battle. In such situations, the legendary Scottish sword Claymore was used as an ordinary spear.
Differences of Scottish Claymore from European Swords
In its dimensions, the sword of the highlanders is somewhat inferior to its European counterparts. Claymore sword, whose weight is also less than similar two-handed European swords of that time, makes it possible for a warrior to wield them much faster and more efficiently. This is due to the fact that the weapon is light, bulky, has increased speed and maneuverability. All Claymore have good balance.
Museum Claymore
- The Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow houses an old Scottish highland sword dating from 1410. The handle of this product is designed for a grip of one and a half hands. Despite the fact that the weight of the sword is only 1.48 kg, it belongs to the class of heavy weapons. The blade is 89.5 cm long and has a rounded point shape. The width of the blade closer to the guard crosshairs is 5.2 cm and gradually decreases further to the tip - 3.7 cm. A similar shape allows us to judge that this claymore was intended more for cutting in order to break through the enemy’s defense than for delivering puncturing punches .
- A similar claymore sword with a one-handed grip can be seen in a museum in Philadelphia. This weapon is significantly smaller than the product stored in Kelvingruve. The total length of the one-handed sword is 89.5 cm. Weight - 0.63 kg.
- The Edinburgh National Scottish Museum houses the Claymore sword, made in the sixteenth century. This two-handed weapon has a total length of 148.6 cm. Of these, 111.8 cm is the length of the blade. Of all the two-handed guns of this type, this is the heaviest claymore sword. Product weight is 2.6 kg.
- In the same museum there is a one-handed version of the claymore. The blade of this sword reaches 87 cm, and the weapon weighs 0.82 kg. The plains of Scotland are characterized by claymore equipped with long and heavy blades. Similar products belong to the continental type.
- The Dublin Museum houses the Scottish claymore sword found in Ireland. The weapon was made by German blacksmiths from Luneburg. The product contains a mark on which a lion standing on its hind legs is depicted. There was an assumption that this claymore was not created in Scotland. This was confirmed by conducting a chemical and metallurgical examination of the sword. It was found that forging weapons used ore characteristic of the German area.
- In one of the museums of Great Britain, a one-handed claymore that is fished from the Irish River Bann is stored, which weighs half a kilogram, and the blade has a length of 72 cm. In museums in England, in addition to one-handed stamps, there are also samples of two-handed Scottish swords. They are represented by products of various weights - from one and a half to two and a half kilograms.
Where forged
Researchers involved in the history of Scottish swords and other ancient types of weapons have the opinion that German blacksmiths made a significant contribution to the manufacturing process. Already processed forging blades came from Germany, from which later this or that sword claymore was created. With their own hands, the Scottish craftsmen only inlaid the brought products and adapted various hilt typical of the plains or mountains in Scotland to the finished blades. An example would be the claymore sword held at Kelvingrove. The stigma of this weapon depicts a beautiful wolf inlaid with a running wolf. This confirms that this sword was made in Solingen or Passau.
Thanks to a series of the famous film “Highlander”, the claymore sword has become one of the most recognizable weapons. The beautiful form of this weapon was borrowed when creating the video game “The Witcher”. Although the name of the sword is not mentioned there, its attractive design found its adherents among the developers of the game.
There are no instructions on the Internet for those who want to create a claymore sword with their own hands. For lovers of the Middle Ages and the culture of chivalry, online stores offer to purchase various models of finished weapons. The owner of the sword Claymore is not just the owner of a souvenir specimen of deadly steel. He is the owner of a part of the soul of a real warrior and knight.