Celtic dagger – a symbol of war

celts at war

Almost all societies in history had their warriors, the Celts were no exception. The Celts drew their warriors from the upper and middle classes and it was they who fought while making use of the free poor classes to drive their chariots.

Celtic warriors lived for war. Boasting their victories in gory detail was part of the warriors’ rituals. It was also not unusual for warriors to fight each other and, in fact, they considered this an important part of their lives.

The Celts were famous for bringing home trophies, particularly the heads of their enemies, earning them the title of headhunters. After the battle these heads were displayed at the entrance to their places of worship, many also dedicated their enemies’ weapons to the gods by throwing them into a river or lake after the battle. Today thousands of guns have been dredged from Lake Neuchatel in La Tene.

Celtic chieftains, along with the wealthier Celts of the day, wore armor and rode before battle in full view of their army, banging their weapons against their shields as they loudly proclaimed their great deeds. This practice was also designed to challenge your enemies in single combat. They must have been a terrifying sight dressed in fur and decorated with blue tattoos. It was also not uncommon for warriors to go into battle wearing nothing but blue dye, covered in Celtic artwork, naked as the day they were born.

Evolution of Celtic weapons

Celtic warriors are known to be great swordsmen and would wield them over their heads in battle, spinning and slashing from side to side, then down on their enemies as easily as if they were chopping through a piece of wood. Using their daggers and swords in this way absolutely terrified their enemies and earned them a reputation as formidable opponents in war.

Dagger

To understand the dagger, one must first explain how the Bronze Age influenced the weapons of that time. Celtic swords were primarily the weapon of choice during this era, indicating that warfare was perhaps fought on a small scale between groups of elite warriors. The Iron Age influenced classic Celtic longswords with their characteristic blade blade design.

The long sword fell out of favor among the Celts with changing patterns of warfare and short thrusting daggers made their appearance, evident by the large number of them found in the tombs of those warriors buried in high status burials.

Longswords became shorter, single-edged, and lacked the pointed tip common to swords. These daggers were primarily designed for cutting, although some were used for cutting. Swords in Britain and Ireland became shorter and thinner and with the increase in the Celtic population, the change of warfare and larger armies, the spearman began to gain in importance, resulting in a decline in the functionality of the dagger and the sword.

Roman writings

The Greeks and Romans were the first civilizations to face major threats from Celtic invaders. It was these civilizations, whose thoughts shaped the history we know today and whose writings helped create a picture of the savage ferocity of the Celtic warrior that persists today, yet it was the Roman Empire that ultimately conquered this great nation of warriors.

It is not mentioned that the Celts fought en masse with daggers, their weapons of choice included javelins and arrows and their defense strategies involved fighting in close order to form a defense against advancing Roman cavalry, in fact Caesar wrote of this and they used their daggers in close combat, something they were highly skilled at.

Celtic warriors used swords and daggers from 280 BC. C. when Brennus led his Celtic tribes against Greece. It is interesting to note that Brennus originated in a region of Senones which later became famous for its production of high quality steel which they used to form their weapons.

During this invasion of Greece, a large part of this Celtic army turned to the east, where they eventually founded Galatia and produced a source of mercenaries throughout this Mediterranean area, represented by illustrations showing troops armed with daggers and oval shields. This image is one that is still commonly used today to represent the Galatians.