Scotish/irish equipment, mid 13th cent.? -- myArmoury.com

Elling Polden

Hi ppl.
I have finaly gotten along to borrow a copy of King Håkon Håkonsen's Saga from my local library. (Our group is placed in the 1260's, at the end of his regin.)
In the description of the battle at Largs, the saga states that the scotish footmen was mostly armed with bows an "Spards". The translator adds that the later is a form of irish battleaxe.
Anybody got an idea what he might be talking about?

Yours
Elling

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Fri 18 Mar, 2005 8:32 am Post subject:

Could it be something similar to the kern axe? Or the galloglas axes?

Cheers,
Henrik

David McElrea · Posted: Fri 18 Mar, 2005 11:56 am Post subject:

Hi Elling,

The weapon is normally referred to as a "Sparth Axe". There was some discussion about these in this thread:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=sparth

I've enclosed a pic from A&A's catalogue (originally posted by Alexi in the aforementioned thread). Item 032 is a replica of a sparth axe.

Hope that helps.

David

Jeremy V. Krause · Posted: Sat 19 Mar, 2005 9:46 am Post subject:

Yes, that's a real beauty from the fine folks up in balmy Minnesota- have to get one one of these days. . .