One of the stories about the sword is how its cruciform design had been chosen by Macsen MacGhille Fhionntaig. This detail of the sword's history came to me years ago from Mearle Van Braken (Mearle was my great aunt, originally Mearle Lindsey) ... according to her, at the time our sword was forged our family clan was quite divided in religious belief. Part of our clan followed Christianity while part of it followed the path of Druidism. When our clan chief, Macsen, had the sword forged he envisioned a sword that would, in design, be symbolic of both belief systems and perhaps, in that dual symbolism, bring some peace of mind to all so that one belief system would not be viewed as favored above the other.

Since the chief symbol of Christianity is a cross and the chief symbol of our druidic believing family members was the oak tree (which is represented in runic form as the shape of a cross with a small circle at the top), he chose for his sword to be cruciform in the sense that, if held point down, it would be roughly the shape of a cross with the disk shaped pommel being not unlike the small circle that is seen at the top of a cross-rune that depicts the symbol of the oak tree. Likewise, according to Aunt Mearle, there is a meaning for the diamond patterned etching in the pommel of the sword ... the diamond etching is symbolic of the "weave" that binds and intertwines our physical world with the spiritual world (or, "Otherworld" as she was fond of calling it ... Aunt Mearle was half Scot and half Irish and a firm believer in the Otherworld ... which, she very often referred to as Albion, and whenever she said the word "Albion" there was always a sort of weird reverence in the way she said it ... she believed that this physical world of ours is joined and intertwined with the Otherworld and that they are a part of each other). Aunt Mearle was about as Celtic as you can get and she knew, it seemed, every tale and custom. Whether her story about the sword's cruciform design is true or not, it is a part of the family lore of our sword that I always found interesting. It was also Aunt Mearle who first told me the name of our sword and what the Gaelic word meant in English. The Gaelic name can be translated in two ways ... "Discerner" or "To Discern". As far as to why that particular name was chosen, she could never say. I merely refer to our sword by the English word Discerner ...

It has recently come to my attention that Discerner may have been named from this New Testament passage:

Hebrews 4:12. "For the word of Jehovah is quick, and powerful, and sharper than a two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." -- King James Bible

Discerner is such an unusual name for a sword that there had to be some thought process behind his naming it by such a name. This could well explain a lot, because for all of the things we don't know about Macsen there are some things we do know ... and one of them is that he was a very deeply spiritual man who respected the beliefs of everyone (so long as the path they chose to believe was one of Light and not of Darkness).

This could also shed some new light on Macsen's personal beliefs ... whenever I'd speak of these matters, wondering what sort faith Macsen had, my grandfather and Aunt Mearle firmly believed that he was of the older pagan belief system, but respected the newer Christian faith highly. However, if Macsen were to have chosen Discerner's name through the inspiration of such a Biblical passage, it might be an indicator that the opposite is true and he might have been of the Christian faith respecting those of the older pagan beliefs. What an interesting twist or thought this is in regard to the naming of the sword and what he personally believed (although it might have been part of his attempt to please and appease people on both sides of the belief systems).

I will also never forget one time how, in Aunt Mearle's presence, I referred to our sword as Caladbolg after I'd heard another family member call it that ... Aunt Mearle became furious and told me never to use that name again. She said that in legend Caladbolg was the famed sword of a Celtic hero named CuChulain and that he was, in Irish folklore, not unlike King Arthur in British folklore. It was when I mistakenly called our sword Caladbolg that she told me the actual name of our sword and wrote it down for me on paper. She spoke fluent Gaelic and since I could not easily pronounce the Gaelic name very well she always said that if I must call it by name, "Discerner" would be good enough in English.

My grandfather also told me the story of how Macsen once killed a man merely for picking the sword up from a table. According to the story, he straightway grabbed another nearby sword and in a fit of uncontrolled rage he ran the man through … and then boldly proclaimed that while he lived no man's hand would fall upon Discerner's hilt lest they fall under the penalty of death. He was apparently very touchy about the sword! Of course, because Macsen was a deeply spiritual man, most of us in the family believe that this particular story is mere folklore ... but who's to say what is really fact and what is legend? I'm told that people in those days held a real sense of property, therefore, the poor fool who picked up Discerner from that table and died for it might have merely caught Macsen on a bad day!

Here is another story that came to me from Clarence, who painted the small painting I have now: He told how Macsen had a habit of trying to use the sword to guide him to a familiar place if he should become lost … the story goes that he had a habit of standing in the grass and tossing the sword up in a spinning motion to let it fall back down to the grass … then, as it lay in the grass, whichever way it pointed was the direction he'd follow. Of course, in a realistic sense, if he really did this he probably became more lost than he was to begin with! I used to laugh a lot whenever Clarence would recount this tale.

My grandfather was proud as he could be over my blazing interest and fascination with the sword. Because of this, I was his "pet" and he delighted in telling me of the sword's construction. For instance, not only does the diamond pattern in the pommel represent something, but the very lines that separate the diamonds each have meaning.

There are seven diagonal lines slanted in one direction and seven more crossing them diagonally to form the elongated diamond shapes. Each set of seven lines going in one direction stand for seven virtues … Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Justice, Faith, Law and Mercy. The seven lines crossing them represent seven other virtues … Strength, Bravery, Forbearance, Loyalty, Understanding, Wisdom and Knowledge.

The wire wrapping around the grip was made with a very fine wire. Instead of two wires twisted together, as seen in modern day wire wrapped grips, there were three strands of thin fine wire braided in such fashion that the grip had a more jewelry-like quality in its appearance, almost like fine shiny cloth, unlike the typical "obvious wire-wrapped look" other swords have.

So fine was the wire wrapping that it looked nearly smooth without the bulky look that normal wire wrapping has. It was a thing of beauty as well as functionality and my grandfather always insisted that the wire wrapping was sterling silver wire … and that is what gave the grip its almost white color in appearance.

Since going through my notes, I also found a detail I'd forgotten about. There was also symbolism behind the use of three wires braided together … each wire represented one of man's three great aspects: Mind, Body, and Soul. Likewise, it is sometimes said that the three wires represent the Great Trinity being Three yet One.

Another story that came to me from the only other surviving "old timer" I've spoken to about the sword, tells that there were initially to have been two swords made. Discerner and an almost identical twin, the only difference between the two being the design nested in the raised ring of the pommel. Discerner's pommel has, of course, the diamond mesh engraving … the other sword was to have had the clan's Celtic knot engraved into it. According to Travis (the old timer I'm speaking of), the second sword was never made because Macsen died before he got around to having it done. What the reason for having a second sword would have been is not known.

While I was rummaging through one of my boxes for any photos I could find, I ran across a slip of paper that had a correction to this story. The correction was by good ole' Aunt Mearle, who said that Travis was almost correct. According to her it wasn't Macsen who was to have had the second sword made, it was Sir Arthur David. When he dropped the "ay" from Lindsay and adapted the "ey" changing the name to Lindsey, it plunged several of the family members into a dire rage ... his "goodwill" effort to stave these hard feelings was to plan a twin sword that he would offer as the new clan sword for Lindsay while his new line of Lindsey family name retained ownership of the original sword.

The twin would have one difference in design ... emblazoned over the diamond pattern would be the coat of arms of Lindsay, an eagle displayed proper. His plan was bold but unrealized because of his untimely death during that little land title feud with the clan of Ogilvie.

Aunt Mearle was a wealth of knowledge about the sword and between her and my grandfather, I obtained most of what I know about it today.This has become like a treasure hunt... there is no telling what other little tidbits of information jotted on paper that I might find as I continue to look around for pertinent photos and illustrations.