Celtic broken spears

[Duncan Head]

"Most Celtic fighting was conducted with swords, since spears usually broke after the first or second thrust..."

Can anyone think of any evidence that might lie behind such a statement?

[RichT]

Sounds like he (Esposito?) might be misremembering Polybius' comment on swords being useless after one or two blows

[Mick Hession]

The Irish stuff is later of course, mostly medieval. 

In the mythical second battle of Moytura between the barbarous Fomorians and the Tuatha De Danann : Now the Fomorians marvelled at one thing which was revealed to them in the battle. Their weapons, their spears and their swords, to wit, were blunted and broken and such of their men as were slain used not to come on the morrow.   

In the Tain, after a day spent fighting each other with darts and javelins, the heroes Cu Chulainn and Fer Diad choose thrusting spears for the second day's combat:
'What weapons shall we use today, Fer Diad?' said Cú Chulainn. 'Yours is the choice of weapons until night' said Fer Diad, 'since I had choice of weapons on the day that is past'. 'Let us then' said Cú Chulainn, 'take to our great long spears today, for we think that thrusting with the spears today will bring us nearer to a decisive victory than the casting of missiles did yesterday. Let our horses be harnessed for us and our chariots yoked that we may fight from our horses and chariots today'. 'Let us do so indeed' said Fer Diad. Then they put on two broad, strong shields that day. They had recourse to the great long spears that day. Each of them began to pierce and wound, to overthrow (?) and cast each other down (?) from the twilight of early morning until sunset.

So they fight for a day with no damage to their (admittedly heroic) spears. On the third day they fight with swords and then in the final day's combat they use a combination of all weapons. After an exchange of javelins they fight in close combat and "Such was the closeness of their encounter that they caused their spears to bend and turn and yield to pressure from points to rivets."


High medieval accounts like the Triumphs of Turlough occasionally hint at spearshafts getting damaged. At the battle of Tulach in 1313:
"Now was the hitherto muteness of the contending hosts turned to unearthly uproar: dull sound of emblemed standards and of ensigns flapping; boom of the boisterous wind that made way through the ranks; crackling harsh noise of snapping shafts that gave discordant answer; jarring sudden twang of warlike garb rent by the linesmen forcibly; hard clink and spiteful thud of swords that fell on warriors' helmets, heads and bones."


And at Corcomroe in 1317:
"But when actually they crashed together, straight before them with their spears they pushed undeviatingly, and so stiffly stood to it that the tough shafts, no more enduring the distress, were sprung and shivered until in red-wetted fragments they strewed all the ground."


However most accounts don't make reference to spears breaking in combat even when describing sustained and intense hand to hand combat.   

Cheers
Mick

[Duncan Head]

Thanks to you both for the ideas; yes, Rich, it is indeed Esposito. The slightly odd thing is that, although he might intend the idea to apply to the Celts generally, the sentence appears in the first chapter, about the Hallstatt culture, 700-450 BC - when we have no written evidence, and little or no artistic, for Celtic warfare, and what little we think we know can only be deduced from surviving weapons.

The idea that Celts, later Celts at least, were primarily swordsmen is of course purveyed by several Classical writers. But even then, I am sure I recall quite recently seeing a reference to a Gallic weapon-hoard, or cemetery, which provided ten spearheads to every sword. There are of course several possible interpretations of that (how many of them were throwing-spears, for instance), but I think the explanation chosen by the author of that piece was that a minority of swordsmen were backed by a majority of (poorer?) men with spears.

Now if only I could remember where I saw that ...

[Dangun]

The idea that Celts, later Celts at least, were primarily swordsmen is of course purveyed by several Classical writers. But even then, I am sure I recall quite recently seeing a reference to a Gallic weapon-hoard, or cemetery, which provided ten spearheads to every sword. There are of course several possible interpretations of that (how many of them were throwing-spears, for instance), but I think the explanation chosen by the author of that piece was that a minority of swordsmen were backed by a majority of (poorer?) men with spears.

Are there any examples of proto-historical societies where we suspect a majority of soldiers were running around with swords?