Silk Thread – Green

Description

A 100 meter bobbin of 100% real green silk thread, it is a natural product, brilliant for whipping arrows.

“…in my hand a bow of red yew ready bent, with a tough tight string, and a straight round shaft with a well rounded nock, having long slender feathers of a green silk fastening, and a sharp-edged steel head, heavy and thick, and an inch wide, of a green blue temper…”

The work of George Agar Hansard 1840 mentions a manuscript in the library of the Welsh School in London whom he is indebted to the Rev. Thomas Price of Crickhowel for translating. The tale is attributed to “Iolo the Red” bard of Owain Glendower in the latter part of the 14th century, relating an old tale from the end of the 12th Century (1170-1195) concerning the enmity between Dafydd ab Owen Gwynedd, prince of the North and the Lord Rhys of the South. The details and specific wordings no doubt original, the rest and the manner of its writing is Victorian Romanticism. The footnote to the passage is interesting in that he states the common Welsh words used in the text is bon-cawiad; compounded of bon, the butt end, and cawiad, a whipping or lapping around. This is repeated by Erik Roth in ‘With a bended bow..’; The same word cawiad, and the verb cawiaw, are used for whipping on a fish-hook, so that the meaning cannot be mistaken. He goes on to describe the manner of binding from Flemish and English arrow-makers and that the custom is very ancient, and affords a full interpretation to the phrase, “green silk fastening”.

Make of it what you will.