Monday, August 10, 2009

It Slices! It Dices!

The Knife of Llawfrodedd the Horseman 

This knife would serve 24 men - whatever the heck that means.  Does it create food enough for 24, or is the ultimate Ginzu knife and slices 24 slices at once.  Apparently there is some connection to Excalibur for this knife, but I cannot find out any more than that.  Maybe they are cutlery cousins or something like that.  The guy who drew the picture below (some chap named Vorp - poor fellow) calls it the Ornate Celtic Cheese Cutter. 


There was a contest on the Concept Art web site that challenged artists to design the 13 treasures of Britain.  You can see all the designs at:


I cannot find any more about the knife; however, there is more about this Llawfrodded guy.  The guy is a Welsh hero.  Not only did he own the knife, but he also had Cornillo, one of the Three Prominent Cows of the Island of Britain (say that three times fast).  He is mention in the role call of heroes in a few texts dealing with King Arthur.  Probably he is one of the Men of the North and lived in the sixth century. 

Next... the Spork of the Lady of the Lake

5 comments:

Jennifer Innes said...

Thank you for your information about the 13 Treasures of Britain. What is your source for the information? Also, are you familiar with the 4 sacred symbols (I think that's what they are refered to) of Ireland? http://www.danann.org/library/symb/002.html

Mark Alford said...

I was reading Bernard Cornwell's books on King Arthur (a great read) and in it Merlin is trying to amass all the treasures to bring the gods back to England. That got my interest and then I started looking for it on the web. Unfortunately, it is hard to find much information on these, other than a brief description that everybody has. So I just surf around until I find something.

I have not heard of the 4 sacred symbols of Ireland. That sounds interesting. Maybe I'll do something on those when I'm done with the Treasures of Britain. Thanks for the link! I'll also have to check out your Fantasty Writers Unite blog some - looks interesting (http://fanwritunit.blogspot.com/) for anyone to check out.

David Johnston said...

This is the most bizarre of all the treasures. The problem was people needed knives as eating utensils, but the culture of the time was such that impulsively stabbing the guy next to you was a real problem. So the rule was "only one knife per table" tethered to make it difficult to use it against your fellows (like a pen at the bank). The knife somehow got around this problem by being easily used by up to 24 people when it was the only utensil at the table and apparently could not be used for impulsive murder by your guests. I imagine it sort of teleporting around as needed and teleporting away when people decided to get murderous, allowing for more a more harmonious eating experience.

Mark Alford said...

David, that's good thinking! I should have thought of that before. It sure makes more sense than anything I was thinking it would mean.

Mark Alford said...

David, that's good thinking! I should have thought of that before. It sure makes more sense than anything I was thinking it would mean.