by Wendy Fraser

Created on: August 09, 2009   Last Updated: August 10, 2009

This article chronicles the changing role and status of the blacksmith and farrier in Europe from the time of Greek mythology to nearing the end of the 20th century a period of four thousand years. It is divided into sections and each one is introduced with an appropriate piece of literary text or verse.

As you read this it soon becomes apparent that he has proved to be a craftsman always held in high regard who has adapted and changed his skills with the necessities of the times.

For since the birth of time, throughout all ages and all nations, has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the people. Evangeline, Longfellow

As soon as man could harness the power of fire, extract iron from the earth and use one element to craft the other, the blacksmith has been held in awe and accorded great respect. Fire had become his servant and he guarded closely the secrets of his skills enabling him to shape and produce items for agriculture, domestic life and war. The Roman god Vulcan is traditionally linked to fire and the blacksmith, but some scholars claim he was the god of destroying fire. The Greek deity, Haphaistos, of Oriental origin, was venerated as a divine smith with a forge beneath the earth. Kallimachos and Virgil portray him under the ground making bolts for Zeus and arrows for Artemis, whilst Homer portrays him working in heaven producing wondrous statues and impenetrable armour. Magic is connected with other mythological smiths such as the Idaian Dektoloi, six gigantic smiths assisted by their five sisters.

The introduction of iron working arrived in Britain in 500BC after the Greeks had popularised it in Europe, bringing an end to the Bronze Age. With no more than an anvil, fire, a hammer and a pair of tongs the early blacksmith fashioned iron axes for the Celts and heavy iron tipped ploughs pulled by oxen for the Belgae who turned forests into cultivated plains. Before 800AD and the Carolingian period, when iron from rich northern European mines became more readily available, iron was costly and reserved for weapons and important tools. The Anglo-Saxons continued the process of cultivation until, by the 11th century, British farmland had taken on the characteristics that are still present today in some unspoiled agricultural areas.

The first documentary evidence of horse shoeing is contained in a list of cavalry equipment issued by the Roman Leo VI in the 9th century AD, where 'lunar or crescent-shaped ironshoes and their nails' are mentioned.

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