There is often a ton of weird research I have to do as I write a book. There is so much interesting information and history out there, and I never thought to share what I have found until now. Why it didn't occur to me sooner, I will never know.
I knew that I wanted to have an interesting weapon for the Lullaby Lady. It had to be Gaelic in origin and something used in medieval times. After looking at several possibilities, I settled on the Irish scian. Bow and arrow didn't work with what I wanted for her - she's all about the up-close wetwork. An axe or claymore would be too big and unwieldy. The spear was a possibility, but then I decided I wanted something smaller, more like what Ruby already used. Unknowingly she had already gravitated to something familiar - even if she had no actual memory of it.
The weapon that appealed to me most was the Irish long dagger. Also called a scian or skean. It was used mainly between the 14th and 16th centuries. The scian is simple in both design and use. It is a long, slender triangular blade that tapers to a point. Being a single-edged blade means that it has a thick blunt spine that is sharpened to a single sharp edge - much like a kitchen knife. So it only cuts in one direction, whereas a dual-edge blade cuts in both directions (making it typically a more deadly and versatile weapon in battle).
Very few of these weapons have survived to modern times. Ireland's wet climate has quite a bit to do with that, I imagine. The Irish National Museum have a few on display. I have included a photo from their collection. As you can tell, it is quite a bit longer than your typical dirk.
The spine of the scian was quite thick. The menacing blade was robust so that it could really do its job - remove enemies from their mortal coil with maximum efficiency. The blade tapers to a very fine, sharp point to assist in that endeavor. The handle is short and almost dainty, made to fit perfectly into its wielder's palm. Most Irish warriors appeared to tie their leather sheath to their belts and had the scian rest across their hips.
I have included a woodcutting image of some Irish warriors wearing the sheathed scians hung from their waist (mostly in the bottom left corner of the image). This was from a 1851 book called "Image of Irelande".
Links to my research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_warfare
https://www.wulflund.com/weapons/knives/scian-skean-irish-dirk-dagger.html/
https://todcutler.com/products/irish-scian-or-skean-medieval-dagger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc--GQx8zpU&ab_channel=RamblingKern
https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/24925-irish-scian/
http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5844&highlight=skean
Posted May 2nd, 2023 by Gwen Demarco