Re: Thoughts on harps of the Dunedain?
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:44 pm
That's my thought - mere poetic license rather than the body of the harp being literally made of metal. That said, there's been a bit of research in the last ten years that indicates the strings of the wire-strung clarsach harps were at times made of gold in the bass:What of the possibility of mallorn wood being the material the "harps of gold" are made of. The wood is not golden but the trees were known as "golden" due to the color of leaves in the fall.
http://www.wirestrungharp.com/material/ ... eport.html
http://www.annheymann.com/gold.htm
As the latter link suggests, it's possible the taller forms of Celtic harp indicate a waning of the Gaelic culture, as the precious metal strings became less available and longer less-dense bronze ones were substituted in their place.
My own Queen Mary replica had silver strings for the bottom octave, and it worked quite well.