The Book of the Sword

Note 67 — Chapter II · MAN’S FIRST WEAPONS—THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST AGES OF WEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OF HORN.

Reading edition

The stone-weapon was also called

betulus

belemnites

, and

ceraunius

(thunder-stone),

ceraunium

and

ceraunia

. So Claudian (

Laus Serenæ

, v. 77)—

Pyrenæisque sub antris Ignea flumineæ legere ceraunia nymphæ.

‘Fuerunt auctores’ (says Aldovrandus) ‘qui hunc lapidem ceraunium, nempe fulminarem, indigitaverunt.’ According to Skulius Thorlacius, the stone-axe typified the splitting; the hammer, the shattering; and the arrow, the piercing, action of the bolt (Om Thor og hans Hammer). People carried these belemnites about their persons, because lightning was supposed never to strike twice in the same place.

Return to CHAPTER II. MAN’S FIRST WEAPONS—THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST AGES OF WEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OF HORN.