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Slings in Irish legend (Read 26430 times)
Slyngorm
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #30 - Mar 10th, 2020 at 9:36am
 
slingbadger wrote on Jan 9th, 2012 at 6:45am:
The Fomors had a giant named Balor, with one eye. He had to have someone lift his lid, but when his eye was open, he killed anything he looked at. Basically an unstoppable weapon.
Lugh stepped forward, while the eye was only half open, loaded a tathlum into his sling, and hit Balor in the eye so hard he drove the eye out the back of his head. The eye, which was still potent, looked upon the Fomor army and killed them.
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Lámhfada
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #31 - Mar 10th, 2020 at 12:37pm
 
Haha crazy this is the last message posted before I registered.

To continue your story, from that day on, Lugh was known as 'Lugh Lámhfada', meaning 'Lugh of the Long Arm'
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Kick
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #32 - Mar 10th, 2020 at 12:51pm
 
Welcome from Finland! So is "Lámhfada" a reference to the sling, as in, a sling extends the length of your arm?
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #33 - Mar 10th, 2020 at 1:07pm
 
Yep, that's how I read it, Kick.

It's one of a bunch of poetical names given to Lugh, and can be interpreted different ways. Wikipedia says, ""of the long arm," possibly for his skill with a spear or his ability as a ruler)", but I prefer the slinging interpretation.
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Kick
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #34 - Mar 10th, 2020 at 1:11pm
 
It would certainly make sense Cheesy
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #35 - Mar 11th, 2020 at 7:43pm
 
From A Smaller Social History of Ireland by Patrick Weston Joyce:

"Sling and Sling-stones.—A much more effective instrument for stone-throwing was the sling, which is constantly mentioned in the Tales of the Táin, as well as in Cormac's Glossary and other authorities, in such a way as to show that it formed an important item in the offensive arms of a warrior. The accounts, in the old writings, of the dexterity and fatal precision with which Cuculainn and other heroes flung their sling-stones, remind us of the Scriptural record of the 700 chosen warriors of Gibeah who could fight with left and right hand alike, and who flung their sling-stones with such aim that they could hit even a hair, and not miss by the stone's going on either side (Judges xx. 16).

The Irish used two kinds of sling. One, which was called by two names teilm and taball [tellim taval] consisted of two thongs attached to a piece of leather at bottom to hold the stone or other missile: a form of sling which was common all over the world, and which continues to be used by boys to this day. The other was called crann-tabaill, i.e. 'wood-sling' or 'staff-sling,' from crann, 'a tree, a staff, a piece of wood of any kind'; which indicates that the sling so designated was formed of a long staff of wood with one or two thongs—like the slings we read of as used by many other ancient nations. David killed Goliath with a staff-sling. Those who carried a sling kept a supply of round stones, sometimes artificially formed. Numerous sling-stones have been found from time to time—many perfectly round—in raths and crannoges, some the size of a small plum, some as large as an orange, of which many specimens are preserved in museums."
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« Last Edit: Mar 11th, 2020 at 10:18pm by Lámhfada »  
 
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Lámhfada
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #36 - Mar 11th, 2020 at 9:50pm
 
From Irish Fairy Tales by James Stephens [1920]:

"No youngster is any good with a sword," Conan replied.

"You are right there," said Cairell. "It takes a good ripe man for that weapon."

"Boys are good enough with slings," Confro continued, "but except for eating their fill and running away from a fight, you can't count on boys."
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #37 - Mar 11th, 2020 at 9:54pm
 
Lots of slinging action in The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland, by T. W. Rolleston.

"But ere Conall buried the head of Mesgedra he caused the brain to be taken out and mixed with lime to make a bullet for a sling, for so it was customary to do when a great warrior had been killed; and the brain-balls thus made were accounted to be the deadliest of missiles."

"hen Ket leaped up, whirling his sling, and the bullet hummed across the river and smote King Conor on the temple. And his men carried him off for dead, and the men of Connacht broke the battle on the Ulstermen, slaying many, and driving the rest of them back to their own place. This battle was thenceforth called the Battle of the Ford of the Sling-cast, or Athnurchar; and so the place is called to this day."

"So they took him into the wild woods on the Slieve Bloom Mountains, and there they trained him to hunt and fish and to throw the spear, and he grew strong, and as beautiful as a child of the Fairy Folk. If he were in the same field with a hare he could run so that the hare could never leave the field, for Demna was always before it. He could run down and slay a stag with no dogs to help him, and he could kill a wild duck on the wing with a stone from his sling."
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Kick
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #38 - Mar 12th, 2020 at 3:50am
 
The "brain balls" have come up a few times on the forum. It's fascinating really because it's both fantastical but also seemingly quite specific. Here's the main thread where it was discussed:

http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1529864510
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Thearos
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #39 - Mar 19th, 2020 at 4:05pm
 
What is the sling if not a long arm ?
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TOMBELAINE
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #40 - Aug 22nd, 2021 at 3:53am
 
thabaill wrote on Nov 21st, 2018 at 10:23am:
Quote:
Out from Balearic Islands, the modern history of the sling is similar. It was used mainly by the shepherds until the beginning of this Century. In the highlands of the Sistema Central (Central Mountain Range), mainly in the ones of Gredos, Gata and Peña de Francia, there were used slings made of leather strip until the middle 20th Century, as likely were the slings of the Spanish Celts from other times that inhabited this highlands.


Finally I have found yesterday some photos of that type of sling made of one leather strap. This one is from Badajoz. Not far from the highlands mentioned above.

Overall lenght: 115 cm, widest: 6.5 cm

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https://imgur.com/a/KTMrMVb

https://www.todocoleccion.net/antiguedades/antigua-honda-para-lanzar-piedras-ani...


Does anyone have more information about these slings ? Museum, etc... Because I maked a "replica" for my test of "Corsican" grip.
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #41 - Aug 24th, 2021 at 2:47pm
 
pretty sure I've got a full leather strap type sling somewhere.

The bit about david slaying goliath with a staff sling is interesting. don't think I've heard that before.

I wonder which version/edition of the bible that was from.
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Re: Slings in Irish legend
Reply #42 - Aug 25th, 2021 at 4:33am
 
If you still have it, I look forward to see it.
Was it you who made it ?
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