Del Chliss (Weapon)

Del Chliss was another spear of Cu Chulainn
Cúchulainn's spear, first belonging to Nechtan (1) and used to kill the sons of Nechtan Scéne. Formerly the name for the charioteer's goad, a split piece of wood.
Another projectile weapon, the deil cliss, is also exclusive to him.67 He threw it at Túachall in his final youthful exploit in the hope that it would ‘confound him so that it may riddle him like a sieve’ (TBC I, ll.750-1). Like Fer Diad and Lóch mac Mo Femis, no weapon was deemed capable of wounding this warrior. Conversely, he uses it instead on his brother Fóill in TBC II, fatally wounding him in a horrendous manner: 
[Cú Chulainn] hurled it so that it landed on the flat of his [Fóill] shield and the flat of his forehead and took the ball’s equivalent of his brains through the back of his head, and he was holed like a sieve so that the light of the air was visible through his head (TBC II, ll.1107-10). 
It is described as fón n-ubull n-athlegtha n-íarnaide ‘the round ball of refined iron’ in TBC II (ll.1102-4). DIL offers ‘piece of wood, spear, wand, sling, pillar’ as the meanings for deil thus suggesting that it is spear like weapon. Considering the obvious lethalness of this weapon, it is unusual that Cú Chulainn did not make 67 Windisch (1905, 281n; ll.2574-5) views deil in the context of the feat cor ndelend and in conjuction with the reference ocht cleittini ma deil chliss in LL as a type of cleittíni. 54 more use of it. While he is listed as carrying it late in TBC I as noted above, aside from these, there seem to be no other extant references to it. 
Category:Weapons
Category:Spears
Category:Legendary Weapons