Slinging.org Forum - Battle of Ventry

slingbadger

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Battle of Ventry
Oct 11^th, 2007 at 12:58pm

This is a passage from the Cath Finntraga, or the Battle of Ventry. Part of the Fenian cycle of Ireland

"And 2 foreigners were set against them that day. And Conncrither seized his long sided sling ( an tabhaill) and put a straight even stone in it, and gave it a straight well directed cast, so that it went into the forehead of his adversary, and took the brain as a lump of blood out the back of the head."

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Steven Interfector Viris Spurii Offline RaptorIsAsRaptorDoes Posts: 2101 Austin, Tx. Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #1 - Oct 11^th, 2007 at 1:39pm eww... ...yuck .... nasty ..... nice cite. Good literary find.
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slingbadger Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Don't Badger a Badger Posts: 3228 Akron NY Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #2 - Oct 12^th, 2007 at 11:24am Interestingly enough, this fits in with something. Seems the Museum of Ireland has leather pieces. They are diamond shaped, but the long ends are stretched out. (Long sided sling). Other than that, they are exactly the same as a regular pouch.
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Curious Aardvark Forum Moderation Offline Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 13965 Midlands England Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #3 - Oct 16^th, 2007 at 11:59am good throw :-)
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Africa_Slinger Senior Member Offline I love Slinging.org! Posts: 259 Johannesburg, South Africa Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #4 - Oct 17^th, 2007 at 9:50am Nice!!! Quote: Posted by: curious_aardvark Posted on: Yesterday at 11:59am good throw Yes, and then possibly followed by a great chuck
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funda_iucunda Senior Member Offline Watt den een sin Uhl is den annern sin Nachtigal. Posts: 317 Germany (north of Hamburg) Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #5 - Oct 18^th, 2007 at 4:27pm Is it realistic that a shot goes streight through the head or is it just "splatter poetry"? funda iucunda
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Dravonk Funditor Offline Posts: 773 Aachen, Germany Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #6 - Oct 19^th, 2007 at 4:38am When you shoot at something that is filled with water the water will transfer the impact in all directions as water cannot compress. So I guess his head could have exploded if the stone managed to crack through the skull and hit the brain with enough speed. But I doubt that the shot would go through the back.
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DesertPilot Descens Offline Oops! Posts: 150 Mountain View, CA Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #7 - Oct 19^th, 2007 at 11:38am If it did leave holes on both sides of the target, wouldn't that let air in, which would make them... ...Ventrylation holes?
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bigkahuna past-moderator Offline Posts: 3894 Delaware, USA Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #8 - Oct 19^th, 2007 at 9:06pm
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slingbadger Interfector Viris Spurii Offline Don't Badger a Badger Posts: 3228 Akron NY Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #9 - Oct 20^th, 2007 at 10:41am Like most heroic sagas, there is exaggeration to make the hero look good. It,s the same in the aenied, where thehero launches a glande so fast that it melts in mid air.
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Curious Aardvark

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Re: Battle of Ventry
Reply #10 - Oct 20^th, 2007 at 6:00pm

depending on range, slinger power and stone shape - yes it could happen.
Mostly you would expect the stone to lodge in the head - but there is no reason a sufficiently powerful throw could not penetrate with a through and through.

If I can throw a golf ball through half an inch of plywood then a professional career slinger can certainly put a hole in a skull. bear in mind that lead bullets tend to deform on impact and a stone would not, thus retaining a lot more energy than a lead bullet. So yep, it's doable :-)

And no I am not standing still while larry bray tries it on me (just thought I'd get that in ;-)

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bigkahuna past-moderator Offline Posts: 3894 Delaware, USA Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #11 - Oct 20^th, 2007 at 10:22pm We've had folks here who could put a stone through a cinderblock, so a skull shouldn't be much of a problem. Plus , with the hydrostatic shock of the strike you could get a lot of brain matter out of the exit wound.
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winkleried

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Re: Battle of Ventry
Reply #12 - Oct 21^st, 2007 at 10:12pm

Hey Badger, Sorry so late on this reply. This seems to be a semi-running thread inIrish folklore.

In the article "Magic Weapons of Celtic Legends" the author quotes

While most sling-balls were naturally shaped stones, some of them
were artificially made and even composed of weird material. Cuchulain
overcomes Foil1 by hurling an iron ball in Foill's " foreheads midst ".4
The blood of toads, hears, and viper.; was mixed with sea-sand and hardened.
j
A ball formed of lime and the brain of the dead champion Mes Gegra,
was kept among the trophies in Emain Macha. One day Cet carries this
ball off ; later he adjusts it in the sling and throws it so that it hit the
crown of Conchobar's head, causing after long illness the death of the
king.6

Magic Weapons in Celtic Legends
E. Ettlinger
Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 3. (Sep., 1945), pp. 295-307.

Marc Adkins
slingbadger wrote on Oct 11^th, 2007 at 12:58pm:

This is a passage from the Cath Finntraga, or the Battle of Ventry. Part of the Fenian cycle of Ireland

"And 2 foreigners were set against them that day. And Conncrither seized his long sided sling ( an tabhaill) and put a straight even stone in it, and gave it a straight well directed cast, so that it went into the forehead of his adversary, and took the brain as a lump of blood out the back of the head."

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slingbadger

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Re: Battle of Ventry
Reply #13 - Oct 22^nd, 2007 at 10:59am

Right Winklereid. Supposedly the Celts would soak the brains of the enemy in lime to shrink and harden it. They called it a tathlum.
This also shows up in another story, where Cochober gets one stuck in his head. It cannot be removed without killing him. For the rest of his life he cannot be angry, lest it pop out and kill him.
P.S. If anyone is willing, I would really like to see if is possible to make a tathlum.

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The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th cent. science has been the discovery of human ignorance The main difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits.-Einstein I'm getting psychic as I get older. Or is that psychotic?

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Curious Aardvark Forum Moderation Offline Taller than the average Dwarf Posts: 13965 Midlands England Gender:	Re: Battle of Ventry Reply #14 - Oct 22^nd, 2007 at 11:05am hmm, well you could try it with a sheeps brain and bottle of lime juice from wallmart :-)
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