Greneng

[Gavin Nugent]

Hi, all that I have learnt of the Kris is relatively new to me from study and an elderly friend who spent a very long time in and out of Bali in the 70's and 80's with the people who inhabited a 10th century water temple far removed from the tourist Mecca we all know of today. From all that I have read and learnt first had from those who have travelled there is that it is entirely form before funtion with regards to these knives.
From all that I can gather from my talks with Max, the Kris and every part of it is all a spiritual connotation, much like the importance of the Gajah in their culture which it also found on Kris knives as are other "items" that are held with great importance like the Naga and many others I have seen on old blades.
I have always said to Max how much the Genang side of a Kris reminds me of the Indonesian Archipelago and I am only surmising that Genang being a city in this Island chain is represented on the blade, it may be how it all came about, or this ideal of mine may go back further and hence this is how the city received it's name. If anyone can touch on the origins of the city of Genang, here may be the answers....

Hold your Kris knives up against the map in the link below and tell me what you think? I beleive the line between Ganja and the main blade of the Kris represents the break between the major islands which would put Genang in the correct position on the blade.
http://www.traveljournals.net/explor...51/genang.html

regards

Gavin

[A. G. Maisey]

Interesting!

[Gavin Nugent]

Yep, I go off on a tangent sometimes and think too much but I think there is a thesis there for either myself or someone who wants to get the jump on me with further research, heck maybe someone wants to help me with it and get an honouree doctorate

Gav

PS I think I had a moment of madness and dropped the "r" from the Grenang to get Genang, though there still maybe be some validity to these mad thoughts

[t_c]

I agree with you DrD about #1 and #2. If you will indulge a little speculation: judging from how the keris is held, I would surmise that the intention was to simply keep the hand from slipping down the blade on a thrust if one's grip slipped. I think it would feel better to put solid pressure on the hand there than at the fingers. It would also make sense that it would protect the users hand when parring an opponents weapon with the blade (assuming this was a strategy with a keris), the decoration acting as a "sword catcher" in the sense that a blade couldn't skip or slide past that area and onto the forearm, but I can't see getting enough leverage out of it to disarm or catch a blade though.
Tom

[PenangsangII]

I would say no. 3 - the signature of an empu that can be translated these days as marketing ploy. I am quite sceptical about sword catcher theory as according to Malay keris fighting tradition, keris is not to be parried against another keris or other edged weapon for that matter.

[drdavid]

Some excellent ideas here gentlemen. t_c having grasped a few of my keris in response to your answer I think it is very sound and suspect that stopping your hand sliding down onto the blade is a very practical 'form follows function' explanation...and perhaps that the idea of preventing slip was then extrapolated into the more exciting and gory theory of diverting blood to prevent slip. The carvings of the greneng could deflect or turn an attacking blade slightly I'm sure but like you I really doubt that could be used to catch a blade or twist it from the attackers hand.
Freebooter your map of the archipeligo theory is very very interesting indeed, and bears more thinking about.
Penangsang II thanks for the insight on fighting tradition, I have not found much information in the texts on how these were used in their heyday (I respect the fact that there are martial artists who have developed a method of combat using keris in the modern era but we dont really know that that was the original method). I have been told that the keris was used commonly as a weapon of stealth, a quick thrust before the victim knew what was coming and then the attacker was away. If that was the usage then the need for building an elaborate defence strategy into the keris would be minimal.
drd

[kronckew]

just to mix the batch a bit, the moro kris has a similar construction, (possibly the overall design was already 'locked' from it's indonesian roots by the time it evolved into the moro version?), though used for the cut rather than the thrust, and other moro weapons designed for the cut may or may not have a guard capable of preventing such slippage even though the blade is capable of such.

the grips on most malay/indonesian keris i've seen (tho not all) are more like a push dagger where the grip itself would prevent sliding down the blade even without a guard, also ensuring the weapon cannot slide out of your hand in the opposite direction, and even guardless filipino weapons tend to have a bulbous, or hooked pommel end to prevent that slippage away from the blade even if there is no guard preventing slippage towards it...

scandinavian knives traditionally have a guardless form, a child is given a knife with a guard however, and a sign of his coming of age is when he learns how to use a knife without one even under slippery conditions cleaning game or fish, or the occasional human.

spanish knives, khyber knives, choora, canary knives, gaucho knives all solve the sliding on thrust problem by having an offset grip in line with the spine, with the swell in the blade below the grip preventing the hand and fingers from sliding forward, and most people i've heard discussing those also indicate it offers some ability to deflect an incoming attack and protect the fingers if not the whole forearm...

the decorative notch near the grip (kaudi or cho) of a kukhri has also been described by some as a blood deflector, sword catcher, etc. but the main conclusions about it's purpose and origins are that no one really knows. a kukhri is not really one without it tho. the same goes for the kris, which is incomplete without the ganja/greneng.

[David]

Originally Posted by drdavid

Some excellent ideas here gentlemen. t_c having grasped a few of my keris in response to your answer I think it is very sound and suspect that stopping your hand sliding down onto the blade is a very practical 'form follows function' explanation...

This might explain the function of gonjo itself, but not the greneng per se.