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Jim McDougall · Today, 02:01 PM

Robin, thank you for bringing up this old thread. Its funny looking through the entries and one mentions the futility of discussing the ULFBERHT inscriptions on 9th century blades. We've come a long way in the past 11 years

Ironically, we are presently discussing just that on a concurrent thread.

With 'EISENHAUER', just as with the ANDREA FERARA conundrum (whether an actual maker or term 'good steel') and others, it is often hard to get to the bottom of the kinds of thinking that went into these blades.

There were British military swords in the 19th century marked LEAD CUTTER.
I had a Chinese sword with very old blade which was marked in old Manchu script rarely seen, when I finally got the translation, it was simply characters indicating essentially 'good steel', or to that effect.

So while sword blades are often emblazoned with mottos, invocations and magic or talismanic motif, the more mundane character of quality and reduction to simple commercial motivation is often the case.

As Sir Thomas Mallory said in "Le Morte d'Arthur" (1485), "....the name of the sword sayd the lady is EXCALIBUR, that is as muche to say, it cuts stele".
The complex etymological analysis of the word goes to old Welsh, Cornish and Breton terms bringing the Welsh compound 'caled' (=hard) and 'bwich (=breach, cleft), and there are other complex versions to the Welsh author Geoffrey of Monmouth (c,1136) 'caliburnus' deriving from latinized chalybs from the Greek word for steel.
In this maelstrom of linguistic and etymological confusion it seems that literary genesis was keenly at hand in using descriptive and meaningful words for swords very much in the age old convention of naming weapons from the age of the Vikings.

Today, 02:01 PM	#24
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,522	Robin, thank you for bringing up this old thread. Its funny looking through the entries and one mentions the futility of discussing the ULFBERHT inscriptions on 9th century blades. We've come a long way in the past 11 years Ironically, we are presently discussing just that on a concurrent thread. With 'EISENHAUER', just as with the ANDREA FERARA conundrum (whether an actual maker or term 'good steel') and others, it is often hard to get to the bottom of the kinds of thinking that went into these blades. There were British military swords in the 19th century marked LEAD CUTTER. I had a Chinese sword with very old blade which was marked in old Manchu script rarely seen, when I finally got the translation, it was simply characters indicating essentially 'good steel', or to that effect. So while sword blades are often emblazoned with mottos, invocations and magic or talismanic motif, the more mundane character of quality and reduction to simple commercial motivation is often the case. As Sir Thomas Mallory said in "Le Morte d'Arthur" (1485), "....the name of the sword sayd the lady is EXCALIBUR, that is as muche to say, it cuts stele". The complex etymological analysis of the word goes to old Welsh, Cornish and Breton terms bringing the Welsh compound 'caled' (=hard) and 'bwich (=breach, cleft), and there are other complex versions to the Welsh author Geoffrey of Monmouth (c,1136) 'caliburnus' deriving from latinized chalybs from the Greek word for steel. In this maelstrom of linguistic and etymological confusion it seems that literary genesis was keenly at hand in using descriptive and meaningful words for swords very much in the age old convention of naming weapons from the age of the Vikings. Last edited by Jim McDougall; Today at 02:16 PM.