[David E. Cohen]

Hello everyone. I have lurked around occasionally here, and read some very informative articles and posts, but not posted until now. I have a question, from a friend interested for reasons of family history.

I am looking for a picture of a Galloway flail. I have seen two conflicting descriptions. Both feature a weapon with a five foot long wooden haft, sometimes specified as ash. Where they differ is in the souple of the flail. The first is of a three headed flail, with foot long bars of iron at the end of [two foot?] lengths of chain, rather than the spiked balls commonly seen. The second, which I am inclined to believe is correct, is three metal bars, each approximately one foot long, connected in series to the shaft and each other by short lengths of chain. Does anyone have, or know where I might find, a picture of such a weapon?

[Sean Flynt]

Lots of flails here:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=flails

None exactly like what you describe, but I wonder if, instead of iron bars, the articulated pieces might be iron-bound wood, as seen in that thread.

[David E. Cohen]

The sources seemed somewhat specific that the bars were solid metal.

P.S. Even without spikes, given that extra-long (for a flail) haft, and 3+ more feet of metal in the souple, I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end, whether I was wearing armor or not!

[Randall Moffett]

I have never heard of such a thing. What period are we talking about?

RPM

[David E. Cohen]

Not looking at the sources right now, but some evidence back to the late thirteenth century (the Wars of Scottish Independence) with much better documentation in the seventeenth century (in the time of the Covenanters). There are actually several poems extant, in heavy Scots dialect, in which the weapon is featured.