Wisdom
of
Daghda
GOD DAGHDA:
The highest Celtic god living on top of an endless pantheon. His other names are the father of all, the master of knowledge, or the king of the four elements. A wise and educated old man, perfect in all known knowledge, versed in witchcraft, art, master of crafts, abundance and war. Daghda is usually depicted with a long blouse, over which he has a black coat with a hood draped over, and gilded riding boots are glistening on his feet. In some cases, he was also depicted as a human figure with antlers or half human and half deer, similarly as the Celtic god Cernunnos. Its attributes are, a magic mace whose end kills and the other gives life, next is the inexhaustible Undry cauldron, which Dagda supplies with an infinite amount of food and beer. The trio of magical items ends with Uaithne magical harp made of living oak, which changes the seasons. To this god is a consecrated oak.
The inspiration for the basic form of this project is formed by the swords of the Hallstatt culture, specifically swords with an antenna pommel. These swords appeared around the 8th century BC. which is the early Iron Age. The project is a combination of a pattern welded blade with a mosaic core, wood of ancient bog oak, younger bog oak and dark bronze, which is complemented by pale silver inlay and silver details. Since the oak is consecrated to this deity, I chose its various types, two types of bog oak and a white oak massif for the storage chest. The decoration of this piece is strongly inspired by the spiral Celtic decoration - (partly the Hallstatt period and partly the La Tène period).
SYMBOLISM:
The decoration of the bronze components of the handle depicts the faces of the god Dagda in two forms, the handguard bears his human image, the pommel bears his animal look in the form of a deer. The faces are made out of pure silver, from which the silver inlay emanates, which spreads over the bronze antlers and thus creates the imaginary silver veins of life. The bronze components of the scabbard carry a spiral ornamentation, which is complemented by silver inlay, in the middle of the upper fitting of the scabbard is a silver harp Uaithne which is one of the powerful attributes of this god, below it is a symbol of a silver human skull symbolizing Dagda's power to take life. At the tip of the fitting of the scabbard is a silver triskelion, a symbol representing Dagd's power to change the seasons. The sword grip is a combination of ancient bog oak, younger bog oak, bronze and pure silver. There is also a wood carving of the Triskelion symbols in the wood of the ancient bog oak handle. The scabbard made out of ancient bog oak contains a wood carving of a spiral ornamentation, this ornamentation points to the origin of this Deity.
The belt holder is made of younger bog oak, its decoration shows two spirals in the shape of Harp Uaithne and cauldron Undry. The blade of this sword contains a forge welded core representing the all-seeing eyes of the god Dagd and thus his wisdom. This core is surrounded by bright torsion bars and highly layered edges.
After all, part of this project, which represents the wisdom of the highest Celtic deity, is also the appropriate balance, which is created by the hard, flexible and very sharp blade in combination with bronze and silver parts of the handle.
BLADE:
Multibar pattern welded blade composed of 4 rods and a mosaic core. Blade hardness 54-55 hrc.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
Blade thickness under the guard: 4,5mm
Blade thickness at the peak: 2,8mm
Total weight: 1182g
Total length: 830 mm
Blade length: 660 mm
Blade width under the guard: 58 mm
Handle length: 170mm including handguard and pommel.
point of balance from tip: 535 mm
MATERIALS:
Handle:
Ancient bog oak, younger bog oak , bronze, silver.
Scabbard:
Ancient bog oak, younger bog oak , bronze, silver, leather stripes.
Wooden storage chest:
White oak masif, fur of deer, forged hinges and fastening.