A claymore (; from , "great sword")["claymore". Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989. [1] (subscription required)] is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval Longsword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a crossguard of forward-sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations and was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries.
The word claymore was first used in reference to basket-hilted swords during the 18th century in Scotland and parts of England.
Terminology
The term
claymore is an
anglicisation of the Gaelic claidheamh-mòr "big/great sword", attested in 1772 (as
Cly-more) with the gloss "great two-handed sword".
[Thomas Pennant, A map of Scotland, the Hebrides, and part of England, cited after OED. See also ] The sense "basket-hilted sword" is contemporaneous, attested in 1773 as "the broad-sword now used ... called the Claymore, (i.e., the great sword)",
[James Boswell, The journal of a tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, cited after OED.] although
OED observes that this usage is "inexact, but very common". The 1911
Encyclopædia Britannica likewise judged that the term is "wrongly" applied to the basket-hilted sword.
Countering this view, Paul Wagner and Christopher Thompson argue that the term "claymore" was applied first to the basket-hilted broadsword, and then to all Scottish swords. They provide quotations that are earlier than those given above in support of its use to refer to a basket-hilted broadsword and targe: "a strong handsome target, with a sharp pointed steel, of above half an ell in length, screw'd into the navel of it, on his left arm, a sturdy claymore by his side" (1715 pamphlet). They also note its use as a battle-cry as early as 1678.[Wagner, Paul and Christopher Thompson, "The words claymore and broadsword" in Stephen Hand, Spada II: Anthology of Swordsmanship (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2005)] Some authors suggest that claybeg should be used instead, from a purported Gaelic claidheamh beag "small sword".[Nick Evangelista, The Encyclopedia of the Sword, 1995, , p. 113. The suggestion appears as early as 1835 in a letter to the editor of The United service magazine p. 109: "the claybeg or Andrew Ferrara, now worn by the officers and sergeants of the Highland corps, and which has usurped the venerable name of the ancient Scottish weapon".] This does not parallel Scottish Gaelic usage. According to the Gaelic Dictionary by R. A. Armstrong (1825), claidheamh mòr "big/great sword" translates to "broadsword", and claidheamh dà làimh to "two-handed sword", while claidheamh beag "small sword" is given as a translation of "Bilbo".[ A Gaelic Dictionary, p. 120. see also . Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary (Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1988, p. 202); Culloden – The Swords and the Sorrows (The National Trust for Scotland, Glasgow, 1996).]
Two-handed (Highland) claymore
The
two-handed sword claymore was a large sword used in the late
Middle Ages and early modern periods. It was used in the constant
Scottish clan warfare and border fights with the English from to 1700.
[ Swords and Sabres, Harvey J S Withers] Although claymores existed as far back as the Wars of Scottish Independence, they were smaller and few had the typical
quatrefoil design (as can be seen on the Great Seal of
John Balliol King of Scots).
[Ewart Oakeshott, Records of the Medieval Sword pg.117 BOYDELL&BREWER Ltd] The last known battle in which it is considered to have been used in a significant number was the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. It was somewhat longer than
longsword. The English did use swords similar to the Claymore during the renaissance called a greatsword. The two-handed claymore seems to be an offshoot of early
Scotland medieval longswords (similar to the espee de guerre or grete war sword) which had developed a distinctive style of a cross-hilt with forward-angled arms that ended in spatulate swellings. The lobed pommels on earlier swords were inspired by the Viking style. The spatulate swellings were later frequently made in a
quatrefoil design.
[Highland grave slab national museum of Scotland.]
The average claymore ran about in overall length, with a grip, blade, and a weight of approximately . For instance, in 1772 Thomas Pennant described a sword seen on his visit to Raasay as: "an unwieldy weapon, two inches broad (), doubly edged; the length of the blade three feet seven inches (); of the handle, fourteen inches (); of a plain transverse guard, one foot (); the weight six pounds and a half ()."[Wagner, Paul & Thompson, Christopher, "The words claymore and broadsword" in Hand, Stephen, Spada II: Anthology of Swordsmanship (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2005)]
Fairly uniform in style, the sword was set with a wheel pommel often capped by a crescent-shaped nut and a guard with straight, forward-sloping arms ending in , and running down the centre of the blade from the guard. Another common style of two-handed claymore (though lesser known today) was the "clamshell-hilted" claymore. It had a crossguard that consisted of two downward-curving arms and two large, round, concave plates that protected the foregrip. It was so named because the round guards resembled an open clam.
Popular culture references
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The song "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" by the Scottish band Middle of the Road mentions Scottish warriors going to battle with "claymores in their hands".
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Drew McIntyre's finishing move in WWE is known as the Claymore Kick. McIntyre has also entered matches with a Claymore sword named 'Angela', after his late mother.
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The video game Team Fortress 2 features an unlockable, haunted claymore known as the "Eyelander" and a Zweihänder misleadingly named the "Claidheamh Mòr".
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In the episode "Day of the Dove", the character Chief Engineer Scott finds and keeps a claymore when the ship's weapons are replaced by antique weaponry.
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In the video game For Honor, the character Highlander wields a claymore.
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The claymore is a recurring weapon in the Dark Souls video game series.
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In the 2023 remake of Super Mario RPG, one of the weapon-themed bosses is named Claymorton.
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In the video game Genshin Impact, the Claymore is one of the five weapon classes which can be used by the game’s characters.
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The American Rock band Ween sings about a Claymore in their song titled "The Blarney Stone" from their 1997 album titled The Mollusk.
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In the 1995 film Braveheart, William Wallace carried a Claymore. At the end of the film, the Claymore was tossed onto the fields of Bannockburn and was stuck point down in the ground. Final image of the film showed the Claymore still stuck in the empty grassy field.
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In the 2001 dark fantasy shōnen manga Claymore, written and illustrated by Norihiro Yagi, a group of female warriors are called "Claymores" due to use of the weapon.
See also
Notes
References and further reading
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Claude Blair, "Claymore" in David H. Caldwell (ed.), Scottish Weapons and Fortifications (Edinburgh 1981), 378–387
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David H. Caldwell, The Scottish Armoury (Edinburgh 1979), 24–26
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Fergus Cannan, Scottish Arms and Armour (Oxford 2009), 29–31, 79, 82
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Tobias Capwell, The Real Fighting Stuff: Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums (Glasgow 2007), 84
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Ross Cowan, Halflang and Tua-Handit: Late Medieval Scottish Hand-and-a-Half and Two-Handed Swords. Updated version of two articles originally published in Medieval Warfare 1.2 & 1.3 (2011).
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Ross Cowan, 'Lairds of Battle', Military History Monthly 32 (2013), 47–48
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G. A. Hayes-McCoy, 'Sixteenth Century Swords Found in Ireland', Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 78 (1948), 38–54
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J. G. Mann, 'A Late Medieval Sword from Ireland', Antiquaries Journal 24 (1944), 94–99
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John Wallace, Scottish Swords and Dirks: An Illustrated Reference to Scottish Edged Weapons (London 1970), 10–17
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Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary (Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1988, p. 202)
External links
