David Francis wrote:
David Kilpatrick wrote:
maybe the ballads really go back even further to the
Bronze Age, and ALL iron is 'metal clear' while those old bronze swords
are 'metal broon'...
It's an interesting thought, and maybe not so far fetched. Take a look at
Alan Garner's essay (he
David,
Thanks very much for your interesting, thorough reply. Yes, there are
also a few references to brown swords.
'Metal free' or 'metal clear' refers to the difference between
naturally occurring free iron and iron refined from ore ('metal
brown') - or to the iron derived from different
Clifford Abrams wrote:
In many texts, spears or other weapons are often shod with metal
'free'. Why free. I understand (from the late Tony Cuffe) that a
wee pen knife was really very likely a weapon knife-- which
people were much more likely to carry around in earlier days. (As an
aside, many
