Eirinn. Fionn may have borrowed his hammer from Thor long ago, or
both may have got theirs from Vulcan, or all three may have brought
hammers with them from the land where some primeval smith wielded the
first sledge-hammer; but may not all these 'smith-gods be the smiths
who made iron weapons for those who fought with the skin-clad
warriors who shot flint-arrows, and who are now bogles, fairies , and
demons? In any case, tales about smiths seem to belong to mythology,
and to be common property."--CAMPBELL, Popular Tales of the West
Highlands, Preface, 74-6.
...]
When William the Norman invaded Britain, he was well supplied with
smiths. His followers were clad in armour of steel, and furnished
with the best weapons of the time. Indeed, their superiority in this
respect is supposed to have been the principal cause of William's
victory over Harold; for the men of both armies were equal in point
of bravery. The Normans had not only smiths to attend to the arms of
the knights, but farriers to shoe their horses. Henry de Femariis, or
Ferrers, "prefectus fabrorum," was one of the principal officers
entrusted with the supervision of the Conqueror's ferriery
department; and long after the earldom was founded his descendants
continued to bear on their coat of arms the six horse-shoes
indicative of their origin.*
[footnote...
BROOK, Discovery of Errors in the Catalogue of the Nobility, 198.
...]
William also gave the town of Northampton, with the hundred of
Fackley, as a fief to Simon St. Liz, in consideration of his
providing shoes for his horses.*
[footnote...
MEYRICK, i. 11.