A Flamberge Sword For Comments

[David]

Originally Posted by chmorshuutz

Thesea are also called "kris" in non-Moro areas of Philippines too, at least as early as 1917. But I'm not sure if the older ones are referred as such, but there's a possibility since trade with Sultanates in Mindanao and Spanish Philippines did happen.

Some languages in Luzon (i.e. Tagalog) did use the term "kalis" (the term Moros used as well) as evidenced in 17th century Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala. But as to what happened to kalis in the Christianized areas, it was never specified nor its connection with the non-Moro kris clearly established. The whole information and history about these non-Moro kris were quite murky.

Frankly i am not sure that "kris" is even a word that had much indigenous use at all even with Moro blades. Each Moro tribe has it's own terminology for what we call the kris. But the Moro kris is obviously derived from it's Indonesian cousin. It is larger and became a slashing rather than a stabbing weapon, but the parts are in the same form. Asymmetrical blade (either straight or wavy) and a separate "guard" piece (gonjo or gangya). A keris/keris is not determined by a wavy blade and i believe that calling everything with a wavy blade a kris is a bit of a misnomer. I am sure that these wavy blades from Luzon and other northern Philippines areas had a local name at some time that was not simply "kris".