Celtic Warfare and weapons - Brigantia

The iron age Celts enjoyed combat, and so do we. We train regularly to make our combat shows as exciting as possible, and use metal weapons and authentic wooden shields. We also train to be safe, both for ourselves and for the audience.

We train both for single-combat, such as one-on-one championship fights, and for big battles. We perform combat shows just with members of our own group, and also with members of other re-enactment societies, both iron age and later. At non-authentic multi-period shows such as the mythical Arthurian Battle Of Camlann which is re-enacted at Tintagel each year, we take the field against groups which re-enact periods as late as The Wars Of The Roses.

Combat displays are usually performed at large outdoor locations, such as Iron age hillforts or fairgrounds. Our hosts are national organisations like English Heritage, or local councils, or anyone who organises an open-air show, big or small.

We try to show the audience what the Celts looked like, how they fought and what their characters were like: the last true tribal society in Britain. We field chiefs, champions and warriors (both male and female), equipped with metal swords, spears, javelins, and shields. The chiefs will be showing off their fine clothes, chainmail armour and helms, and the warriors will be ready for battle in warpaint (woad), their hair stiffened with limewash (or a non-corrosive substitute). The show can take the form of a roughly scripted story, usually based (very loosely) on a story from Celtic myth, in which the druid tells the tale to the audience while the re-enactors act it out as violently as possible. Sometimes the show is more historical, an illustration of the way in which Celtic tribal society was structured and their combat techniques and hero feats.

A combat shows usually last about 20 minutes, and there are up to three in a day, depending on the host's schedule. Very often the host will have also hired a Roman re-enactment group who do their show after ours.

Between combat shows the fighters rest or stand by the small living history area that we set up, where we talk to the public and show them our weapons and armour at close range.

We tend to organise our own shows because not many other people do the Iron age Celtic period, but if anyone else is prepared to let iron age Celtic warriors onto their battle field we enjoy being the guests of other societies. We have provided support at shows at Tintagel, the Vectis show on the Isle of Wight, Ethendune (near Warminster) and St Fagans Folk Museum near Cardiff.

EQUIPMENT

There are three main sources of information that we research to find out how the Celts looked and acted, and what their equipment looked like. These are

The archeology - artefacts dug up in the last few hundred years

The history - chronicles written down by the Greeks and Romans at the time

The mythology - stories written down by medieval monks

We strive to make our weapons and clothes as authentic as possible, from the limewash in our hair (actually, we use kaolin to avoid scalp damage) down to our leather shoes, which we make ourselves from a pattern based on iron age Irish bog-finds.

We use blue food-colouring to simulate woad, and paint patterns on ourselves derived from iron age Celtic art from the end of the La Tene period, known as La Tene styles II to IV. Or we just get tattoos.

We make bronze castings for our own amulets, such as boars and wheels, based on authentic and common iron age designs, and we base our clothing and armour on images found on Greek and Roman carvings, Celtic figurines and coins.

We make our swords from EN45 spring steel for safety, and our shields from 1/4" marine plywood.