Craisech

[kevin714]

Can anyone help me find who currently makes the closest replica of this spear that would be historically accurate in your opinions to those used in the 16th or 15th centuries by Gaelic Irish horsemen?

Thanks

[Billy]

Have you a description of same said spear?

[kevin714]

Have you a description of same said spear?

Just this from wikipedia

"the Craisech, a long spear used from horseback to pursue a defeated enemy and stab overhand from above, or used with both hands like a bayonet to fight at close quarters after dismounting."

And the Derrick images.

[finnobreanan]

Contact Boyd Rankin at Irish Arms. He may be able to help you: info@irisharms.ie

[Freebeard]

the craisech just seems to be another word for spear. It is also spelled "craísech", "cró�ech", "crúi�ch".

i wasn't able to find any more info on it, however, if you look at the following link you can click on the light blue links and they tell you what texts the crúis�h is mentioned. They may then give more of a description of the weapon, however most often than not descriptions of spears will say that they are "thick-shafted", "lofty", or "have x amount of rivets in it", have a spear head that is "wide" or "grey" or maybe of iron or bronze....these are all common motifs in relation to a spear though. Of course there are unique usages, and descriptions. but these are too numerous to disclose here.

anyhoo take a look here:
http://dil.ie/results-list.asp?mode=ADV&searchText=croisech&HIGH=croisech&respage=0&resperpage=10&Fuzzy=0&bhcp=1

[finnobreanan]

The Hunt Museum in Limerick has a large collection of spearheads and ferrules, but they are mostly bronze and appear to be quite early. Do a key word search "spear".
http://test.huntmuseum.com/intro.html

[Freebeard]

I dunno if this is of any use to you, hope it is though.

It is a translation of a text written in 1397. There is an article out there based on the writings (J.P. Mahaffy "Two Early Tours of Ireland" in Hermathena printed in 1914) - I can't find it anywhere though.
Though I found this in an article by Katherine Simms on medieval warfare.
Anyhoo the writing is an observation on the horsemen of Niall Óg Ó���o�s "king" of Tír �gha�:
�quot;He has indeed forty horsemen, riding without saddle on a cushion, and each wears a slashed cloak ; moreover they are armed with coats of mail, and wear them girded, and they have throat-pieces of mail and round helmets of iron with swords and sword-blades and lance very long, but very thin in the manner of ancient lances, and they are two fathoms long...."

As I said I came across this in an article I was reading today by Katherine Simms.
yes the writing comes from the tail-end of the 14th century but may be taken as applying to the 15th century also.
I thought it may of use to you in your hunt.

Now, this may not be an entirely accurate image of Medieval Irish cavalry, but then again it might be.

The description of the spear is interesting - it claims to be around 10-12 feet long, and very thin, as to make it light, i'm assuming, which seems to fit in nicely with the idea of the horseman using the spear in a downwards thrusting motion (ref. the Bayeux Tapestry), as opposed to an under-arm crouched position like was becoming favourable (so it is said) with horsemen in England and Europe at this time.


I hope this helped in some way


Andrew

[kevin714]

Thanks, that was helpful. Can you send a link to that article by Katherine Simms?

[Freebeard]

unfortunately not.
All I have is a physical copy I printed from an online source about 2 years ago.
The article in question is in "The Irish Sword" (?) if this will help you in any way. perhaps google KAtherine Simms and the title of the article "Warfare in the Medieval Gaelic Lordships" you should find it