Twelve Doors of the Soul
In an old Irish legal text, called Bretha dein checht, we find an interesting list of injuries that are considered by the breithiúna to be the most serious, and requiring more extensive reparations to be paid to the person (or his kin) suffering them, due to the increased possibility that they would result in death. Because the soul was more likely to escape through them, they were termed the "Twelve doors of the soul" (da dorus .x. anma). This being a warrior society, it would be odd, indeed, if they were not known, in some form, by the warriors, since they were certainly understood by the jurists.
Happily, Christopher Thompson (An Ceann-Suidhe of the Cateran Society, an organization which has been painstakingly recovering the lost fighting arts of the Scottish broadsword and other Highland weapon- and empty-hand fighting styles) found references in Scottish folklore referring to specific targeting of the areas in question by warriors. While the warriors may not have used the same terminology as the jurists (or they may have, we can’t know), it is clear that they had an understanding of these concepts as a combative anatomy.
So, to make sure that these concepts get a wide distribution, I offer a list of the Twelve Doors, along with the original Irish passage from which they were translated (the translation was made by D.A. Binchy in the article Bretha Déin Chécht, published in Ériu 20 [1966] pp. 1-66, though I have edited it somewhat for clarity):
1. The top of the head, i.e. the crown or the suture
2. The hollow of the occiput
3. The hollow of the temple (temporal fossa)
4. The apple of the throat (‘Adam’s apple’, thyroid cartilage)
5. The hollow of the breast (suprasternal fossa), i.e. the cavity of the throat
6. The armpit (axilla)
7. The breast-bone (sternum)
8. The navel (umbilicus)
9. The bend of the elbow (antecubital fossa)
10. The hollow of the ham (popliteal fossa), i.e. from behind
11. The bulge of the groin (femoral triangle), i.e. the bull-sinew
12. The sole of the foot
The original Irish reads:
Atat da dorus .x. anma fil i curp duine. Mullach cinn .i. a baites no in comuaim. Clais da chulad. Toll aria huball braiget. Clas ochta .i. locan a braidet. Derc noxaille liag brainne imbliu cairt tuibe ucht riged dercc nixuide .i. aniar. Tulug sliasta .i. in tairbfhéth craide chuissi.
The section immediately following the list of the Twelve Doors of the Soul lists the Seven Principal Bone Breakings, which are less useful as a combative anatomy (except, perhaps, in wrestling forms…):
1.Tooth
2. Upper Arm (humerus)
3. Fore-Arm (radius and ulna)
4. Thigh (femur)
5. Shin (tibia)
6. Point of the Shoulder (collar-bone, clavicle)
7. "One of the bones in either fore-arm or heel, i.e. the point of the heel"
The original Irish reads:
Atat .uii. cnamcomaigh as sruithiu .i. is uaisli fil i nduine .i. combriste cnama is uaisli fil i nduine .i. a fiacail agus a doid agus a righ, sliasait, lurga, delgna gualann. I lethcnaim a riged no seireth .i. saldelgo.
Thanks are very much due to Christopher Thompson for information which expanded and increased the value of this article.