Claíomh Solais


The Sword of Light is a trope object that appears in a number of Irish and Scottish Gaelic folktales. The "Quest for sword of light" formula is catalogued as motif H1337.
The sword appears commonly as a quest object in the Irish folktale of a hero seeking "The One Story", which culminates in the discovery of a "Tale of the Werewolf". However, the sword is uninvolved in the man-wolf portion, and only figures in the hero-adventure frame story.
The sword of light, according to a different commentator, is a fixture of an Irish tale group describable as a quasi-bridal-quest. This characterization is inspired by the formula where the hero gains a beautiful wife by gambling against a gruagach or wizard, but then suffers loses making him beholden to mount a hopeless-seeming quest. Like the actual "giant's daughter" bridal quest tales, the sword of light hero often gains the assistance of "helpful animals" help him complete his tasks or ordeals.
The sword has been regarded as a legacy to the god-slaying weapons of Irish mythology by certain scholars, such as T. F. O'Rahilly, the analogues being the primeval Celtic deity's lightning-weapon, Lugh's sling that felled Balor, the hero Cúchulainn's supernatural spear Gae bulga and his shining sword Cruaidín Catutchenn.

Forms

The spelling as appears in published Irish text and scholastic commentary is Claidheamh Soluis alternatively cloidheamh solais; but these are pre-reform spelling, and in modernized reformed spelling Claíomh Solais would be used. The name has also been transliterated into Hiberno-English as chloive solais. The sword may be rendered in English as the "Sword of Light", or "Shining Sword".
Likewise, the Scottish Gaelic form is claidheamh soluis "glaive of light", or claidheamh geal soluis "White Glave of Light".

Overview

The folk tales featuring the sword of light may be bridal quests, and the hero's would-be bride often becomes the hero's helper.
But more typically the story is a sort of quasi-bridal quest, where the hero wins a bride by wager, but then suffers a loss, becoming oath-bound to never come home until he has completed the quest for the sword. The opponent who tempts the hero with this gambling game is usually a gruagach or wizard/druid. and the sword's keeper is often a giant or hag, or a sibling of the wizard.
The sword-keeper oftentimes must be defeated, which is not possible except by some secret means. Thus the hero or helper may resort to the sword of light as the only effective weapon against this enemy. But often the sword is not enough, and the supernatural enemy has to be attacked on a single vulnerable spot. The weak spot, moreover, may be an external soul concealed somewhere in the world at large ; or, as in the case of "The Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh", this external soul is encased within a series of animals.
Typically bound up with the quest for the sword of light is the quest for the "One Story", namely, the story of the faithless wife who transforms her husband into a wolf.
The hero is typically compelled to perform sets of tasks, aided by helpers, who may be the would-be bride, "helpful animals", or a supernatural being.

Texts

Below are the lists of tales where the sword of light occurs. Kittredge's sigla are given in boldface:

Irish folktales

The publication of tales from the Highlands predate the Irish tales becoming available in print.
The sword of light is a trope artefact that occurs in a number of Gaelic tales. It also occurs in Irish folktales also, as described below. The "Quest for sword of light" motif is also listed in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.

Grouping

One strand of the "sword of light" tale has been transmitted in French Canada as the tale of the "Sword of Wisdom", and assigned type 305A. However, the Irish cognate had not been catalogued as a tale type by Aarne-Thompson, though recognized in The Types of the Irish Folktale.

One Story and Werewolf's Tale

The quest for the sword of light is an added layer, attached to the core tale of the quest for "the one story", Properly, "the cause of the one story about women".sfnp|Bruford|1966|pp=158–159Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Kittredge analyzes the in-tale of werewolf as containing a lengthy Defence of the Child interpolation, which is in itself a composite consisting of a Faithful Dog tale fused with what he calls the Skilful Companions and The Hand and the Child tale types. The Hand and the Child tale has the motif of a grasping hand that seizes the victim, which gets cut off in some cases, akin to Grendel's arm in Beowulf.sfnp|Bruford|1966|pp=158–159Refn|Also, the wife is replaced by a stepmother in the Scotch variant S.

Quasi-bridal quest

Some tales fall into an actual bridal-quest pattern. In "The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin", Sean Ruadh is assisted by the princess who is his would-be bride in slaying the urfeist. And in the "Widow's Son", the hero promises marriage to the giant's daughter, who also becomes the hero's helper.
However Josef Baudiš gave grouping to tale types which were similar to the bridal-quest type, but were distinguishably different: the hero wins a beautiful wife as wager in a game played against a gruagach figure, but it is a trap, and when the hero suffers a loss, he is compelled to go on a quest, usually for the sword of light.

Helpful animals

Kittredge has recognized the presence of "helpful animals" assisting the hero in the tales, catalgoued in the range of Types B300–590, "Helpful Animals" in Thompson's Motif-Index. Kittedge recognizes the Skilful Companions motif in the werewolf in-story, but that portion does not much concern the sword, as aforestated.
In O'Foharta's Irish text the helpers are a hawk, otter, and a fox. In Campbell's Scottish The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, the helpers are a dog, hawk, and an otter. In McInnes's Scottish version there are not three, but four animals.
It might be noted that Irish bridal quest of the "giant's daughter" type is recognized as a equivalent to folktale to the Six Go through the Whole World type, and this type features "magical helpers" or "extraordinary helpers".

The secret about women

In the Irish folktale, the hero goes on quest for ' The Only Story' which is though to mean ' truth about women '. That meaning is illuminated in versions that provide a more fuller title, e. g., "The Shining Sword and the Knowledge of the Cause of the One Story about Women", This has been corrupted to "news of the death of Anshgayliacht" in the L version. is also a corruption of this.
Kittredge considered the "secret about women" element to be an essential and original part of the Irish story, as seen in the stemma of texts given by him, even though the "woman" part of it has been lost in some variants, such as Kennedy's Fios Fath an aon Sceil
A more familiar Arthurian tale perhaps than Arthur and Gorlagon which embeds the quest of "What is it that women most desire?" is The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle.

External soul motif

The external soul motif in Sword of Light stories have been noted for example by Gerard Murphy.
The tale "The Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh" was also given as a typical example of "External soul" motif by folklorist Katharine Mary Briggs. It has been pointed out that the Easaidh Ruadh refers to a place name in Ireland, probably the Assaroe Falls in Ballyshannon, County Donegal.
A similar Irish tale involving the "external soul" is the Donegal tale "Hung up Naked Man", studied by Roger Sherman Loomis. While Loomis does not explicitly state a connection to the sword of light, he remarks that there is parallel to the Irish giant Cú roí whom he describes a "solar host" or "solar divinity", and notes that Cú roí was "slain with his own sword",.

Three attempts

In the specimen collected by Kennedy, the hero is assisted by the king who is his own father-in-law, who happens to be the brother of the sword owner, and the hero's antagonist, the Druid demanding the sword.
The Sculloge's rides forth to the dwelling of the sword owner three times, his horse being hacked by the sword in the first two tries, but succeeding on the third. The three time's the charm element that occurs here is also present in the Morraha tale collected by Larminie.

As a mythological sword

The assertion has been made that Claidheamh Soluis is "a symbol of Ireland attributed in oral tradition to Cúchulainn", although none of the tales listed above name Cuchulainn as protagonist. T. F. O'Rahilly only went as far as to suggests that the "sword of light" in folk tales was a vestige of divine weapons and heroic weapons, such as Cúchulainn's Cruaidín Catutchenn. This sword is said to have "shone at night like a candle" according to a version of Echtrae Cormaic.
T. F. O'Rahilly's schema, roughly speaking, the primeval divine weapon was a fiery and bright lightning weapon, most often conceived of as a throwing spear; in later traditions, the wielder would change from god to hero, and spear tended to be replaced by sword. From the heroic cycles, some prominent examples are Fergus Mac Roigh's sword Caladbolg and Mac Cecht's spear. But Caladbolg does not manifest as a blazing sword, and the latter which does emit fiery sparks is a spear, thus failing to fit the profile of a sword which shines. One example which does fit, is Cúchulainn's sword Cruaidín Catutchenn which was aforementioned. And the legacy of these mythological and heroic weapons survive in the "sword of light" in folklore.

Connection to Arthuriana

A broad sweeping parallel has been made between the light or lightning weapons of Celtic tradition and King Arthur's Excalibur, described as brightly shining in several places of the Vulgate cycle Roman de Merlin. Similar passages obviously occur in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which uses this as a source.
;Wounding by one's own sword
A more precise parallel which has been argued is that just as the sword of light in Irish and Scottish folktales contain a " wounding by one's own sword" motif, the Arthurian cycle contains an episode where Arthur is imperiled by his own sword, Excalibur. In the Huth Merlin, Morgan le Fay plots to have Arthur killed with his own Excalibur, by stealing the sword for her lover Accalon, who unbeknownst fights his lord King Arthur with it. The Lady of the Lake intercedes at the right moment to prevent Arthur's death. The episode has been copied by Malory as well
;Sleeping giant
Dáithí Ó hÓgáin deduces that certain properties of the sword of light is likely borrowed from Arthurian material, because there is evidence that a version of Fios Fatha an Aonsceil had been told about Gearóid Iarla of the 14th century, whose family had close ties with Arthurian tradition. To the Earl is attached a Barbarossa legend, which makes the figure conducive to be transformed into a "sleeping giant" of folktale.
;Grail sword
Other commentators have equated the Sword of Light to the Grail sword. Loomis also suggested that the sword obtained by Cei in the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen must be "related to the sword of light which is the object of the Irish and Scottish folk-tales".

Explanatory notes