Claymore
The word claymore has been used to describe two distinct types of swords used by Scottish warriors and soldiers. The first was a large, two-handed sword used in the medieval period. It was used in the constant clan warfare and border fights with the English from 1500 to 1650. It was somewhat smaller than other two-handed swords of the era, and was widely feared because its lightness made it faster in combat than its European counterparts. The two-handed claymore seems to be an offshoot of Early Scottish medieval swords which had developed a distinctive style of a cross-hilt with downsloping arms that ended in spatulate swellings. The name claymore is a corruption of claidheamh mòr a Scottish Gaelic term meaning "great sword".
The average claymore ran about 55 inches (1.4 m) in over all length, with a 13 inch (330 mm) grip and a 42 inch (1 m) blade. Fairly uniform in style, the sword was set with a wheel pommel often capped by a crescent shaped nut and a guard with straight, down-sloping arms ending in quatrefoils and languets running down the center of the blade from the guard.
The second was a one-handed basket-hilted broadsword and was issued to Scottish troops in the 18th century. The basket was probably employed to protect the hand while parrying. The latter form of claymore can be seen in some forms of Scottish traditional dance.
See also
External links
http://www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=1267&step=4 photo of a basket hilt claymore
http://www.busybones.com/Two_Handed_Scottish_Claymore.html photo of claymore
Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | European swords