Chrotta
Contested Irish instrument
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The charota, is a musical instrument played in Ireland, whose exact description is contested.
According to Irish historian Gratton Flood, it was a small harp played with a bow. The instrument could be rested on knees or on a table.[1]
Flood notes that the historian Gerbert[who?] had described the charota as an oblong instrument with six strings, four of which on a fingerboard and two off of it.[2]
Historian Carl Engel noted that a 6th-century CE Italian writer, Venantius Fortunatus, had mentioned the "Charota Britanna" in a poem, but did not mention any bow.[3]