For all swordsmen, past and present.

RECORDS OF THE MEDIEVAL SWORD

Ewart Oakeshott

THE BOYDELL PRESS

© Ewart Oakeshott 1991 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 1991 by The Boydell Press, Woodbridge Reprinted 1991 Reissued in paperback 1998 Reprinted in paperback 2000 ISBN 085115539 1 hardback ISBN 0 85115 566 9 paperback

The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604-4126, USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-47000

This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

CONTENTS

List of abbreviations Preface Sword types Acknowledgements Introduction Medieval Swords Appendix A The Living Sword: construction of modern replicas of the knightly blade by Tony Mansfield Beati Omnipotensque Angeli Christi
(reprinted from Catalogue of the Third Park Lane Arms Fair, London 1986)

vi vii viii
x

1 17 245

Appendix B

253

Appendix C Appendix D

The 'Morgarten'

Sword

261 267 310

A Sword of Edward III

Postscript for Pedants

List of abbreviations

Behmer Boccia & Coelho Christensen & Hoffmeyer Davidson Dufty EAA Gamber, Ortwin Gun Report Hayward Hoffmeyer Laking, Sir Guy Leppaaho Mann & Norman Oakeshott, AOW Oakeshott, MS Oakeshott, SAC Schneider & Stuber Seitz Stuber & Wetler Wegeli Ypey, Antiek Ypey,Offa ZRWK

Elis Behmer, Das zweischneidige Schwert der Germanischen V'olkerwanderungszeu Stockholm 1939 Lionello G. Boccia & Edoardo T. Coelho, Armi Bianche Italiane, Milan 1970 E.A. Christensen and A.B. Hoffmeyer, Gammelt Jern Copenhagen 1968 Hilda Ellis Davidson, The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford 1961 R. Dufty (ed.), European Swords and Daggers in H.M. Tower of London (London 1974) Blair, Claude, European and American Arms. London Die mittelalterlichen Blankwaffen der Wiener Waffensanunlung (Vienna 1962) The Gun Report, Aledo. Illinois J.F. Hayward, The Kretschmar von Kienbusch Collection of Armour and Arms, Princeton 1965 Ada Bruhn Hoffmeyer, Middelalderens Tvaeeggede Svaerd, Copenhagen 1954 Laking, Francis A Record of European Arms and Armour through Seven Ages (London 1921) J. Leppaaho, Spateisenzeitliche Waffen aus Finnland (Helsinki 1964) James G. Mann (rev. A.V.B. Norman) European Arms and Armour in the Wallace Collection (London 1962, 1986) Ewart Oakeshott, The Archaeology of Weapons London 1960 Ewart Oakeshott, Medieval Swords, 'Gun Report' 1987 Ewart Oakeshott, The Sword in the Age of Chivalry (London 1964: 2nd edn London 1981) Hugo Schneider & Karl Stuber, Waffen im Schweizerischen Landesmuseum: Griffwaffen I (Zurich 1980) Heribert Seitz, Blankwaffen Vol. 1, (Braunschweig 1968) Karl Stuber & Hans Wetler (eds.), Blankwaffen, Festschrift Hugo Schneider (Zurich 1982) R. Wegeli, 'Inschriften auf Mittela1terliche Schwertklingen', Zeitschrift fiir historische Waffenkunde III, 1903 'Een Romans Ceremoniel Zwaard, gevonden bij Rees aan den Nederrijn', Antiek June/July 1985 Ypey, J. 'Einige Wikingerzeitliche Schwerter aus den Nederlanden', Offa, 41 (1984) Zeitschrift fur historische Waffen - und Kostumkunde, Vienna

vi

PREFACE
This book marks the culmination of a lifetime of research into the origins, development, classification, usage and mystique of the knightly sword of medieval Europe. What is presented here is a selection from a very large body of photographs and notes amassed and collated over a period of over half a century - and, of course, only shows a tiny proportion of the surviving swords; for instance, I have not been able to include the splendid collections in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Zurich, not to mention countless others in provincial museums all over Europe. Its intention is to set before the reader my own comments and observations, all based upon intensive and (I hope) scholarly study of these magnificent and glamorous weapons. The notes, written down over this half -century originally in the heat of observation or revelation have been organised, clarified and extended as the years of study have passed. My first intention was merely to be able to bequeath them to the library of the Royal Annouries at the Tower of London in order to offer to the students of following generations the benefit of the work I have done. Thus there is a certain informality in presentation since I believed that I would be directly addressing, as from the grave, young students such as I myself once was. Now that a proportion of these notes are to be published, it has seemed proper and desirable to print them as they are, ipsissima verba, so that I may still seem in direct contact with the students who use this book. I have to admit that my approach to this fascinating subject is a romantic one. I have been unable to avoid seeing, and celebrating, glamour as well as the academic niceties in all the books and articles I have written; and the enthusiasm which still bums in me is the outward expression of a love-affair with the sword which began when I was four, seventy years ago. However, the reader will find little romance in the pages which follow and he will have to supply the Glamour himself from what he finds there, for I present only bones - the elegant and stately bones of an ethos and a Zeitgeist which, in the late 20th century, is difficult to understand. Even so, as in pagan graves, along with the bones may sometimes be found a gem. The framework which supports this study is a typology of the European two-edged sword of the High Middle Ages (c.AD1050-1520) which I worked out in careful detail thirty years ago and first published in The Archaeology of Weapons and elaborated four years later in The Sword in the Age of Chivalry. In the heat of youthful enthusiasm I worked out this typological analysis during the 1950s, never dreaming that I might be requested and required to elaborate upon it, so when I came to make this elaboration as a definitive typology, I had to squeeze extensions into the rather sketchy framework I had developed. Now, another quarter-century on, I am faced with having to do it again, once more to press new knowledge, new ideas, above all new finds into what had become a typological strait-jacket which has become a standard reference. Now you will find not only swords which were unknown in 1960, but others, which I had put firmly into certain types, now moved (in the light of new information and clearer thought) into other types. Nor is that all. I have had to add three new sub-types - Xa, XIIa, and XIIIb - and two entirely new types, XXI and XXII. I doubt whether I shall live long enough to elaborate yet again, though I am sure someone will have to do so sooner or later. Space does not permit, nor the work require, that this typology should be repeated here in full though of course the basic typology (bones again) is set out and illustrated; and since inevitably much of what I wrote all those years ago has been outrun and outmoded by another thirty years of research, most of the many errors in those books can be corrected and some of the mass of new discovery included - and no doubt many fresh errors perpetrated which will in their turn be corrected by the uncovering of more evidence as the decades pass. It will fall then, maybe to you who read this, to take over where I have to leave off.

vii

Xa

XI

Xla

XII

Xlla

XIII

Xilla

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XV

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SWORD TYPES

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CROSS STYLES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To name everyone whose support and encouragement has been of such vital importance to me over the past sixty years would occupy far too much space, for in truth their name is legion; I must however, name just a few of them, beginning with four who have gone on before me. They are myoid friends Russell Robinson and Evan Perry of The Tower of London, and John Hayward of The Victoria and Albert Museum: and that towering supremo of the armour world, Sir James Mann, KCVO. FBA. PPSA, a Grand Seigneur into whose presence I firstcrept in 1946 to be received with a warmth of approval that sent me away filled with determined zeal to do what in the end I have done. Without his continued support right up to the time of his death, and the friendship of the other three, I should have lacked the inspiration and drive in those early years so essential to me in my task. There are obvious reasons why I must not name the many friends still engaged in the pursuit and study of arms and armour who have been so generous to me by giving me access to the collections, both public and private, in their care, and who have supplied many of the photographs in this book; but those who read this composite acknowledgement must know how extremely grateful I am to each and every one of them for all that they have done for me. However, two outstanding personalities must be named, for they are old and valued friends of forty years standing, whose emminence in high office has never cooled that friendship. They are A.V.B. Norman, MA. FSA, and Claude Blair, MA. VPSA. My thanks also are due to the present owner of the Sword of Edward III, discussed here in Appendix D, who has most generously supplied numerous photographs of the sword, some of which are reproduced; and to the Bundesanstalt fur Materialprufung of Berlin, in the person of Dr Christian Segebade, whose report is reproduced (in translation) in full. Of course, every author who presents a book of this kind must acknowledge the long-suffering patience of his nearest and dearest, and this I do with all my heart; but there is one whose patience and long-suffering must have been stretched to the very limit - Mrs. Pat Tucker, who with unfailing good-humour has typed and retyped the whole thing over the period of several years, interrupted all the time by a spate of articles and notes all in my very small, cramped handwriting. I would crown her with many crowns. And lastly, as the principal functionaries of any procession always come at the end, I must especially make known the depth of my gratitude to The Worshipful Company of Cutlers and The British Academy, whose response to an appeal for funds to support the production of so large and so fully illustrated a work was given with instant and unstinted generosity. So may this book, which is my monument, be also a lasting tribute to all those, wherever they may be, who have made it possible to turn what had long seemed only an impossible dream into a reality.

INTRODUCTION
I once wrote 'of all the weapons devised by Man in the long lapse of the centuries, the sword is the only one which combines effectiveness in defence with force in attack, and since its Bronze Age beginnings has gathered round itself a potent mystique which sets it above any other man-made object. Though the sword did not reach its peak of practical efficiency in combat until the 17th century with the development of the swift deadly little small-sword in the France of Louis XIV, the flowering of its mystical significance came at the end of the 11th century.' Here, then, underlying the dry bones of archaeological study, is the concept of a most noble weapon which had high significance in the minds of men and fulfilled a most vital practical purpose in their hands. In spite of the deep knowledge of this within the race-memory, many scholars in the last century and a half, learnedly writing about arms and armour, have almost completely ignored the knightly sword of medieval Europe, dismissing it as a crude and brutish chopping instrument of dull and unvarying shape. A glance through the following pages of photographs might seem to support this view but closer inspection will show how false, in fact, it is. These swords have an austere perfection of line and proportion - surely the very essence of beauty - which is comparable with, perhaps, the majestic pottery of the Chinese Sung dynasty; and though all these swords of the high middle ages in Europe are made upon the same basic design of blade, cross-guard and pommel, there is great diversity in all three elements. Each 'type' is different from any other, and across the types run what may be called 'Families' of swords, which, unlike the types themselves, reflect the passing changes of fashionable taste. And if they have beauty, they are also extremely efficiently designed for the work they were called upon to do, being as carefully balanced (for those purposes) as is a modem tennis-racket or fishing-rod, and contrary to popular belief are by no means heavy; from the time of the ancient Celts to the last days when they were actually used in battle (that is, within living memory) the average weight was around 21bs. The 'knightly' sword is derived directly, via the swords of the Vikings, from the long two-edged iron swords of the prehistoric Celts. Very many of these splendid weapons from the first four centuries B.C. have been found in various parts of Europe, though the only ones so far found in the British Isles are small and of poor quality. Most of the Continental-found ones have blades of an average length of 30" (76cms) and are about 2" (5cms) wide at the hilt - dimensions which are of the same average as swords of the medieval centuries. There are of course exceptions - there is one of these swords in the British Museum found at Orton Meadows near Peterborough whose badly bent blade is over 45" (114cms) long, and as I have said there are many short ones, especially from Britain. Most of these iron-age blades are flat with edges running nearly parallel to a spatulate point, and some are of superb workmanship with shallow grooves or fullers running down the centre of the blades almost to their points; some of these fullers are double or treble, and many are decorated with a texture of tiny dots, which at first glance look like rust-pits but are not, for they are distributed to a controlled pattern and are all of much the same size, and they appear only in the fullers. I mention these prehistoric blades in some detail because I want to point out that even in the pre-Roman iron-age in Europe there were bladesmiths whose work was as skilful as those of any later age before the 16th century. These swords, too, are light and well-balanced, admirably made for the work they had to do. Among the fmds of swords dating from these pre-Christian centuries are a few which at first sight would be taken to belong to the late 14th century AD for their long blades are acutely tapered and the two edges are separated by a ridge, giving to the blade the section of a flattened diamond. Most of these have been found in contexts such as the bog-deposits of Denmark, which rule out any possibility that they are not of the iron age. They are in fact the long swords of the Roman auxiliary cavalry of a distinct type called spatha to differentiate them from the short infantry gladius. These long broadswords of the Celtic and Roman Iron-Age were used also by the Teutonic races of the North, who by about the third century AD were obtaining swords of a different kind from probably, sources within their own 'spheres of influence' in Germany and the Rhineland. These were made, as it were, to a different specification, for a very complex method was used in order to produce a good stiff blade, for the older types seem to have had a tendency to bend, and sometimes a warrior would have to straighten his blade under his foot in the heat of combat. The ownership of these 'pattern-welded' blades, which were so rich and rare that they were considered to be royal treasures, was confined to chieftains or especially favoured 'Hearthmen' of Kings, but by about the middle of the 9th century efficient blades of a far simpler style of manufacture were being produced where a much steelier iron was used, thus obviating the need for the elaborate pattern-welding of former times. This was partly because the use of the sword had become much more universal with the spread of the roving and raiding of the Vikings; and it was these swords, carried allover the known world by these far-travelled war-bands, which were the direct forerunners of the knightly sword. These precursors of the later Iron Age - the period of the great folk-migrations - and of the Viking Age which was the culmination of those wanderings have been very defmitely classified by O. Elis Behmer whose Das Zweischneidige Schwert der Germanischen Yolkerwanderungszeit was published in Stockholm in 1939, and by Dr Jan Petersen, who published a complete 1

typology of Viking swords in Oslo in 1919, De Norske Vikingesvaerd. Both of these typologies, however, were based upon the forms of sword-hilts alone, taking no account of the shapes of blades - which is not surprising, since during those centuries between c. AD250 and 900 there was very little, if any, variation in the actual outline of blades. They varied a little as to size and weight; most of the earlier ones (up to c.850) were pattern-welded while the later ones (c.850-1050) were not, and some had very shallow fullers or none, others had well-defined ones, a few had multiple ones (in a few cases blades have been found with a single fuller on one side and a double one on the other) but these variations were not taken into account in classifying the types. I was able to follow Jan Petersen when in the late 1950s I worked out a typology of swords to go forward into the High Middle Ages, but in my case I had to take into account the form of the whole sword, not just the hilt, because the only way to make a workable typology of these very variable swords dating between c. AD 1050-1510 was to use an aesthetic standard: the appearance, the silhouette if you like, of a sword was what determined its type and the fullering of blades was critical; any type might have a considerable variety of pommels or crosses in its members, but still remain in a particular type. Petersen numbered his types and sub-types in Roman letters from A to X and Y, so, for the sake of sensible continuity. I made my first type X, ten, and numbered them off in Roman figures up to XX*. My Type X was the same, basically, as Petersen's swords in his X and Y categories, so I went straight on, only moving from letters to numerals. This typology (which, like Behmer's and Petersen's, has so far been regarded as standard and has not been superseded) has been set out in detail in another place, but in order to make this collection, this record, of medieval swords comprehensible I must describe the main characteristics of each type. In the typology of entire swords, I added another one for pommel-forms, and a third for the varying styles of cross-guard. (Until the later 16th century this feature of a sword's hilt, which the Norse called the lower hilt, was never called the 'quillons' but always the cross-crux, croix, croisee, Kreuz, cruz, croce etc). In order to clarify verbal description of the types, I append a diagram. All the types have blades with two edges; backswords (single-edged blades) and the various forms of curved sword are studies in their own right, and are not included. In describing the type, I shall add to each its average dimensions, and weight, but it must be understood that such an average will of necessity be vague, for there was in some types (such as XVI, XVII and XVIII) a great deal of variation. Some types have one or more sub-types, which are designated by the addition of a,b, or c.

Dating
The schematic drawing of the typology will show quite clearly the basic forms, while the photographs which follow, with their attendant notes, will show some of the varieties of hilt-forms which were used more orless indiscriminately across the types. When we come to consider the question of dating we are on much more difficult grounds, for with the exception of a very few surviving swords which can clearly be dated to within a span of a few years, most swords have nothing to offer but the internal evidence of their own form, condition, or in rare cases, of the inscriptions upon blade or hilt. Recent (i.e. during the past forty years) discoveries of archaeological material has given some precision, previously unsuspected, to the dating of inlaid calligraphic inscriptions, which I will have to treat as a separate section of this introduction. In considering the possible date of a sword, we have to have some idea of what we mean by its 'date'. Is it the time at which the blade was made? Is it the time at which the blade was mounted in its hilt - a time which could well have been several years after the actual forging of the blade, just as that mounting could have taken place in a region far from the place of that forging? Also, in its time a good blade may have been re-hilted more than once, just as a hilt may have been mounted upon several blades. We know from the clear evidence of the Norse sagas that a good sword may have been in use over a long period, even across several generations, and though such documentation does not exist except in anecdotal form for the High Middle Ages, we have reason to believe that cherished swords were carried often by grandsons of the original owner. (Certainly we do know that many a fine old blade used by Scottish highlanders in the Jacobite risings was still being used, fitted in a regulation hilt, by officers in Highland regiments at least up to the end of the 19th century). So the date of a sword's usage might span a century or two, which is of no use in dating it. Therefore we have to make some attempt to strike a mean, and try to assess the time at which blade and hilt came together to make a living sword. Let me say at once that to put a sword into one of the types is by no means to give ita date. The typology is merely a scaffolding to bring some order into the otherwise amorphous and infmitely varied mass of medieval blade, cross and pommel forms. However, having said that, it is possible to assert that swords with flat broad cutting blades should date to a period before the introduction of plate armour in the mid-fourteenth century, were it not for the absolutely indisputable fact that such blades continued in use right through the Middle Ages, particularly in Southern Europe. The big war-swords of Type XIIIa are to be found quite often in unmistakeable contexts of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. *It is a thought which I rather treasure in myoid age that when I was at the start of my work on these swords, I corresponded with Jan Petersen in the same way as now young students correspond with me, thus spanning a period from before the Great War, when Petersen was doing his research for his thesis, to the 1990's.

This problem is made more complex, too, by the longevity of pommel forms. The so-called typical 'Viking' forms (lobated, or of a D-shaped elevation like a tea-cosy, or of a distinctive brazil-nut shape, or formed like an early 19th century Napoleon-style cocked-hat) are still seen in battle scenes in manuscript or upon sculptured monuments far up into the 13th century; the disc-form pommels (plain disc, or variations upon the so-called •wheel ' form) first appear in art, and in Viking grave contexts, in the 11th century, and continue to be popular until the time of Henry VIn, Charles V and Francis I. To ease this complexity, there are just a few types whose popularity does seem to have been confined to a reasonably short span of time. Late in the 14th century a form which has been dubbed variously of •scent-stopper' or plummet form appears to have become very fashionable all over Western Europe, as well as variants of it, more comprehensively shown in all forms of art of the 1440s to the 1460s, a form likened to a fish-tail. All these forms will beeen clearly among the photographs below. When these particular pommel forms are found upon swords, then it is reasonable to suggest a date with some exactitude; but it must always be remembered that it was (and still is) the easiest thing in the world to dismount a sword and alter its hilt, either in whole or in part, by replacing the pommel or the cross with one either more fashionable, more to one's personal taste, or to give the sword a better balance. So we might have a blade of a sword forged in Germany in the 1360s with a cross made in Italy in 1420 and a German or Burgundian pommel of 1475. These desperate hazards which seem to attend any attempt to date a sword are real, but I have put the matter in the most severe form as an indication that any date any expert may assign to a medieval European sword can at best be speculative, and at worst is absurd.

Findings
Such hazards are of course extreme. The majority of medieval swords which survive have been recovered (from the earlier part of the period, say between c.300 and 1125), either from graves or from the beds of rivers or lakes, or in the Pagan North from the great deposits of arms recovered from peat -bogs in Denmark. Though the scope of the book is mostly concerned with the swords of the High Middle Ages, it is necessary here to make brief mention of these bog-deposits, for they have a distinct bearing upon the actual recovery in modern times of swords from water. The archaeological fact of the deposits themselves is given force by the comments of Roman historians upon certain ceremonial habitsof the barbarians of Gaul and Germany. Orosius, writing of a Roman defeat by the Gaulish tribe of the Cimbri at Aurausia in 105 BC says:
When the enemy had taken posession of two camps and an immense booty, they destroyed under strange imprecations all that had fallen into their hands. The clothes were torn and thrown away, gold and silver thrown into the river, the ring-armour of the men cut to pieces, the accoutrements of the horses destroyed, the horses themselves thrown into the water, and the men with ropes round their neck hung from the trees, so that there was no more booty for the victors than there was mercy for the conquered.

Then Caesar, writing of similar customs among the Gauls, is even more to our purpose:
When they have decided the captured animals and ground; and it is almost remove anything placed to fight a battle they generally vow to Mars the booty they hope to take, and after a victory they sacrifice collect the rest of the spoil in one spot. Among many of the tribes high piles of it can be seen on consecrated an unknown thing for anyone to dare, in defiance of religious law, to conceal his booty at home or to upon the piles.

It has now been established beyond reasonable doubt that some of the great deposits taken from the peat in Denmark were originally laid out as Caesar says, on open ground which over almost two millennia has has become bog; and that some deposits were under water, in meres which have become bog. This is shown by the fact that hollow vessels like buckets, which might have floated, were held down by having stones put inside them, and other floatable objects were firmly pegged down. These great deposits - Nydam, Vimose, Kragehul and Thorsbjerg - contained very many swords. A large number of these were destroyed, as Orosius said, by being either broken, or bent - almost folded up, some of them - or having their edges so violently hacked about that they could never have been used again. Even so, there are plenty which came out in good enough condition to be taken straight into hand-to-hand combat, for peat is a splendid preservative of iron and steel. It is also evident that weapons, swords in particular, were ceremonially thrown into rivers and lakes, for what reason (other than to conform to a religious ritual) we do not really know. That this practice was continued into the High Middle Ages is borne out by the large numbers of swords which have been found in such places. Only very few, by the nature of the rivers they were found in or the places upon those rivers where they came up, are likely to have been lost by being dropped by accident off bridges, or out of ferries or boats, or lost in fighting at fords. The fact that about 80 per cent of medieval swords which have survived have come out of rivers or lakes is, I believe, common-sense evidence that they were not casually dropped in, but deliberately thrown in, especially as most of them have come up in places where there never was a bridge or a ford, or in streams too small to accommodate boats. There is little documentary evidence for this practice from the later Middle Ages except the persistent legend of Excalibur, magically rising from one lake to be given to Arthur, and being returned at his death to another. The 'Lady of the Lake' is clearly a romanticised re-characterisation of the guardian priest of the deposit of arms. The splendid story so well told by Malory and

Tennyson of how the dying Arthur orders Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the mere, ends in a way which may seem to be fanciful, a piece of poetic moonshine. I believe, however, that this is not so. If these lines from Tennyson are considered in the practical light of common-sense, sense may be found in the legend:
So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur But ere he dipt the surface, rose an ann Clothed in white Samite, mystic, wonderful And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him Three times, and drew him under in the mere.

Imagine the scene: in the dim moonlight Bedivere, distraught and exhausted by a long day of battle with defeat at the end of it, stands dizzy at the mere's edge. The sword flashes in the faint light and hits the water with a splash which to his bemused and shattered mind might well seem to be a white arm coming out to receive it. Bedivere, here in Tennyson and in his predecessors, may be fictional, but it is reasonable to suppose that at some time, maybe quite often, when a sword was thrown into water by real people, especially in dim light, the splash its entry would make could well be taken, considering the powerful wishful thinking to which the medieval mind was so prone, to be a white-sleeved arm coming out to take the offering. Why such offerings - for they were offerings - were made is a mystery. We do know that the Teutonic peoples wherever they were to be found put weapons into the graves of their warriors. We know from the sagas that often such weapons, swords in particular, were taken out of graves, often a generation or more after their burial, to be given to a favoured member of the family, or sometimes just stolen, as Skeggi of Midfirth in Iceland one day quite casually landed at Roskilde in Denmark and broke into the burial-mound of the chieftain Hrolf Kraki and stole the sword Skofnung.This was nearly four centuries after Hrolf's death, and Skofnung passed on from hand to hand for a further century and a half. There are many instances of such happenings in the Norse literature, too many to enumerate here. We also know, from the sagas as well as from actual finds, that swords were often broken before they were buried so that they could never be used again. Even in these days of the late 20th century, it is possible to understand the distress it can cause when the time comes for a man to be parted from some piece of property which, for him, has very close emotive ties as well as, perhaps, great monetary value. He knows that it will pass from his loving care to someone to whom it means nothing but a quick means of raising money, and that it will go straight into the sale-room to be subjected to all the horrible indignities which inevitably await it there. Nowadays nobody would dream of throwing thousands of pounds worth of property into a river, or burying it in a grave or burning it in the crematorium; but in the age of the Vikings (and far beyond) such an action would be ritually correct. Unless there was some very worthy relative or especially close comrade into whose care a man's sword might legitimately and trustingly be passed, far the best thing would be for it to die with its owner, as Roland tried to ensure when he lay at the point of death in the pass ofRoncesvalles. Maybe what he said and did with Durendal under the lonely pine-tree on the hillside (in the best-remembered episode of the whole great epic of the Song of Roland) is the true and simple answer to this question. Certainly he speaks for everyone who cares what happens to his sword when he can no longer keep and guard it.
The Count struggles to his feet; he tries to break Durendal on a dark stone which stands there. Ten times he strikes, but the sword will not splinter nor break. 'Eh, good Durendal, you were set for sorrow; so long have you been wielded by a good vassal. Now I am lost and can care for you no longer. I have fought so many battles on the field with you, kept down so many countries which Charles holds, whose beard is white. Let no man have you who would run before another! 'Ah, good Durendal! How beautiful you are, how bright and white! How you gleam and flash in the sunlight!' Again Roland strikes the sword on the stone. The steel grates, but will not splinter nor break. When he sees that he cannot break it, he begins to mourn the sword to himself.

Thanks to these sentiments, we in this age are able to see and handle, study, appreciate, love and sometimes to own these splendid things which in fact did not die with their owners, but were preserved by the soil of the grave or the mud of the river-bed. So well has mud preserved many of them that, far from being dead, like the well-preserved mummies of the Pharaohs, they still live in one's hand, and would be as ready to serve as they ever were.

Find-Places
It is necessary to say a word about the places at which swords have been found. To be able to say that a certain sword was found on the site of a certain battle, thereby providing a firm terminus post quem date, is of no use at all. If half-a-dozen swords, an axe or two, dozens of arrow heads and many spears, were to be found on a battle-site, this would be evidence. But it never happens; it is only the isolated sword that is generally found in a stream or a pond near to a battle-site. After any battle, all the debris of value - and swords above all weapons were of great value, as well as being easily portable - was collected up; all the armour, clothes, jewellery or any other moveable property left upon the dead was stripped off before the bodies were put into pits. The only example so far discovered where there is some armour in grave-pits was found a century or so ago in Gotland, on the site of a battle which took place outside the town of Visby on a hot August afternoon in 1361. We know beyond doubt that the dead were left out in the hot sun for three full days. Before it became possible to bury them, they were in such a nasty condition

that they were bundled into the grave-pits as they were, with their armour on. But not a weapon (except some arrow-heads which were actually inside the bodies) was found in these pits when they were opened. Of course not the rotted state of the bodies would not prevent all the loose weapons being gathered up. Space will not allow me to give more than three examples of the risks attendant upon trying to date casual sword-fmds near battlefields. Early in the last century a sword was found on the field of Bosworth (1485) and was published in a book in 1819, with a drawing, captioned 'sword found on the site of the battle'. Unfortunately it is an unmistakeable 'dish-hilt' rapier of the 1640s. Then there are a number of fme, well-preserved swords in the City Museum of Lincoln, found near that city in the River Witham. There were two famous and splendidly documented battles in Lincoln, one outside the walls, on the river-bank, in 1141 and another fought in 1216 in the town square up on the hill between the castle and the Cathedral, followed by a pursuit down the main street to the town gate. This battle didn't get beyond the gate and down to the river, for a frantic cow got stuck in the gatewhen the beaten French got to the bottom of the hill. This caused a jam in the gate which brought the whole thing to a standstill (except for some very satisfactory slaughter of the French army, which had been sent over by Philip I to remove King John). Nobody knows now what part of the river this group of swords came out of (they were found in 1788). One is a Roman gladius, and one a broken basket-hilted backsword of the Civil War period - the 17th century Civil War, not King Stephen's or King John's. Certainly several of these swords might be relics of Stephen's battle, for a lot of knights did get thrown into the river, but that battle cannot account for the Roman sword or the 17th century one found at the same time. Then, most significant of all because for over a century it has been held up by scholar after scholar (myself the latest of them) as being invaluable as a fixed dating point, is a sword now in the Moyses Hall Museum at Bury St Edmunds, said to have been found late in the last century in a ditch on the site of a battle fought nearby at Fornham, in 1171. It is a finely preserved sword of Type XI, with a beautifully executed calligraphic inscription inlaid in silver in the blade. So, here seemed to be a perfect terminus post quem for not only the sword-type, but for the style of the inscription too. Unfortunately, there are several factors which cast the most serious doubts upon this assumption, and in the 1950s some important excavations in Finland gave very convincing evidence that the very 'handwriting' of this inscription was of a century earlier. Having said that, of course it must not be overlooked that there is no reason on earth why a sword dated (i.e. made) in the late 11th century should not have been lost in a battle of the late 12th. But consider the circumstances of the find-place. To begin with, since 1171 no-one recorded the exact site of the battle, and there has for centuries been no knowledge at all of where it was within an area of perhaps 16 or 20 square miles, especially as the topography of the whole place has changed completely. Secondly, there are two Fornhams, Fornham St Martin and Fornham All Saints, not very close together. This spreads the possible area still wider. And, of course, nobody knows (because the find was not properly recorded) just where the sword was found. 'A ditch near Fornham' (which Fornham?) is very vague identification indeed. So must it be with so many medieval swords found on or near the places where a battle is known to have been fought; but on the sites of great well-known battles - Hastings, Evesham, Bouvines, Crecy, Mauron, Sempach, Agincourt, Beauge, Patay, Mont'lhery, Nancy, Marignano - swords have not been found at all. I believe that any note that a sword was found 'near the site of the battle of X' has to be taken with rather more than a a pinch of salt.

Inscriptions
In a previous paragraph I used the word 'handwriting' in connection with calligraphic inscriptions inlaid on the blades of swords. Thismay seem a fanciful concept, but research which I have been pursuing during the last few years has shown, I believe without muchdoubt, that it is possible to say that, for example, the inscription upon a blade from a Viking grave in Finland is cut into the steeland inlaid with silver wire by the same hand as one from Switzerland and another from Whittlesea Mere in Cambridgeshire, and so on. Such a statement calls for a clarification. From the earliest making of iron swords, various marks have been stamped or inlaid uponblades. Many of the swords of the La Tene III period (c.300 B.C.) found at the eponymous site in Switzerland bear stamped marks,presumably the trade-marks of smiths, many of which marks were still in use in exactly the same form in Europe in the 17thcentury; but it was not until the smiths of, possibly, a region near to modern Solingen in the Rhineland began in the later 9th centuryto produce fme blades of steel without using the cumbersome and complex technique of pattern welding that actual lettered inscriptions began to be inlaid upon blades. The earliest gave the name of the smith who forged the blades - or, more accurately, the family name of the workshops where they were made, for they seem to have been in production under the same name for perhapsmore than two centuries. This name, a Frankish - Germanic one, was Ulfberht. It would, in a modern context, be Ulfberht Ltd,or Ulfberht Inc. A few swords, mostly single examples, have been found with other names (Leutfrit, Niso, Atalbald, Banto for example) but there are literally dozens of Ulfberhts. Another firm came into production a little later, perhaps c.950, called lngelrii and this name gave the essential clue to what it was, for many scholars (even in the face of the fact that there were so manyswords marked Ulfberht) believed that the name on the blade referred to the owner of the sword. Until, in a lake in Sweden, a fine Viking sword came up, with the legend INGELRII ME FECIT. That, of course settled it. These inscriptions (and they were not all smith names: a Finnish grave-find has AMEN on each side of its blade and another

in private hands has IESUS and MARIA) were crudely inlaid into the blade in rather wobbly letters made of strips of iron. Some were exceedingly crude and incorrectly spelt. It is even possible that, like the German bladesmiths of Solingen in the 17th century, workshops of inferior quality forged the names of the great firms. In 17th century Solingen, it was common practice for German smiths (whose blades were in fact excellent) to seek a more fashionable cachet for their products by putting the words EN TOLEDO or TOMAS AYALA and so on, spuriously using the name of the great sword-blade centre of the time, and adding (often mis-spelt) the names of some of the great, and fashionable, bladesmiths of Spain. There is only one piece of evidence, itself rather shaky, to support my statement that in the Viking age a smith may have done the same. In the little museum at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire is a Viking sword with the mis-spelt Ulberht name on one side, and a garbled Ingelrii on the other. However that may be, these iron inlaid inscriptions were rather crude affairs, and were put into the blades by the smith. They had to be. The method was to cut the letters into the un-tempered blade with a cold chisel; then little strips of thick iron wire were cut; sometimes these were twisted so that they gave a sort of snake-skin effect, like pattern-welding, to each letter. Then the blade would be heated cherry-red, so would one by one the strips of wire, each one laboriously hammered into the chisel-cut letters. After that the blade would be tempered, for blade and letters would have now become welded together as one unit. Then, it would be fmished off with files and burnished. With such a method, it is of course totally impossible to identify a 'hand', or even the work of one shop. The smith himself would almost without doubt in those days have been totally illiterate, and would have worked his name in from a pattern given him by some clerkly person. Some of the later examples of this technique of inlay have more ambitious inscription, IN NOMINE DOMINI being the most usual- and the extraordinary muddle most smiths seem to have made in the arranging of those fourteen letters has to be seen to be believed. However, there were other inscriptions. It was believed (until I began to work on it and put two and two together) that the fine, legible, literate and beautifully executed inlaid inscriptions were of necessity much later than the 'old' iron ones, being firmly placed into the later 13th and early 14th centuries. This was held as an absolute truth until in the 1950s Dr Jorma Leppaaho of Helsinki University opened a large group of graves of the late Viking period in Southern Finland. About a decade after these were taken from the graves, very careful x-ray photographs were taken of their blades, and some, which to the naked eye looked like nothing so much as short lengths of rusty iron strapping, were chemically treated (given, in effect, an archaeological barium meal) before being x-rayed, The results were astounding. In blade after blade, beautifully written inlays appeared; some were fragmentary (for most of the blades had been ritually broken before burial) but enough were complete to make it absolutely plain that these were Viking blades, and were (a) contemporary with the iron inlaid ones, many of which were found in the same cemeteries, and much more significant (b) that they were absolutely similar in style and content to the inscribed swords found mostly in Germany and Switzerland, (though at least two were from England -Fornham and Whittlesea Mere) which, since they were authoritatively given time and place in a great seminal thesis by Dr Rudolf Wegeli in 1903, have been held up as examples oflate 13th and early 14th century work. Dr Leppaaho's fmds were published by Helsinki University after his death, in 1964, but the absolute importance of the publication, and of his work, was completely unnoticed until I got hold of it in 1983. Not only was it possible now to place these inscriptions side-by-side with others found hundreds of miles away, but to be able to see individual quirks and idiosyncracies in the form of the letters themselves which seemed very clearly to point in fact, to handwriting. So Dr Wegeli's work has now to be looked at again; so has everyone else's who followed him, myself included. So, many swords which have been confidently and didactically placed in the 14th century (by me as well as everyone else) have now to be re-dated to the late 11th or, at most, early 12th centuries. I have published these findings in considerable detail elsewhere, and have reprinted some of them below as Appendix B, but much will be found in the notes to the photographs to explain what I mean. The point about these finely lettered inscriptions inlaid with silver and occasionally gold and, later, in brass (latten) is that the method by which they were produced had to be totally different from the iron ones. There, an illiterate smith banged his mis-shapen letters into the fine steel of his blade while both blade and letters were at welding heat. The other style was far more sophisticated. For one thing, because the wires with which the letters were inlaid had a lower melting-point than the steel's welding heat, the whole inscription had to be applied to the blade after it was fmished - tempered, filed and burnished. Then the letters were delicately cut in with a burin or a diamond, and this was clearly done not just by a craftsman who was literate, but by one who was in fact a skilled calligrapher as well. The wires of silver or whatever were lightly hammered in; whether this was done by the calligrapher, or the bladesmith, or a jeweller is impossible to know; but there can be no doubt that the whole process was totally different and opposite to the alternative technique of using iron. The comparing of these Viking -age swords from Finland with their analogues from the rest of Europe, which have for so long been misdated to the 13th century, has at least provided fairly firm dating for those with silver inlaid inscriptions. To set against this, the fact that the hilts of many of these inscribed swords have pommels of a type hitherto regarded as belonging exclusively to the late 13th and the 14th and 15th centuries, and not by any means to as 'absurdly early' a date as the late 11th, has loosened many hitherto firmly accepted dates for many un-inscribed swords as well. A particular example of this is one of the finest medieval swords still in existence. This is in the Wallace Collection (A459) in London (noted here at No. Xa.1 below). For the excellence of its proportions and the supreme quality of its blade (which bears no mark or inscription), as well as for its very nearly pristine condition beneath its hard blue-black patina of Goethite (Fe Ooh) and its living, vibrant force in one's

hand, it is to my mind the supreme example of a knightly sword of the High Middle Ages in the age of mail. It is of Type Xa, and is always assumed to date in the first half of the 14th century. But does it? Most swords of this type, as shown by the silver inlaid legends and the finds of Dr Leppaaho, must date between 1075 and 1120; and there is no reason why this supreme specimen should not also. The form of its hilt (pommel and cross) are both matched exactly among Leppaaho's Viking finds, and the only excuse which might be found for its late dating would be in the quality of its blade. Yet it is unquestionably of Type Xa; its fine condition is no better than that of many Viking swords of the 9th and 10th centuries; and it is pointless to suggest, in face of the mountain of evidence supplied by blades right back to the Celtic iron age, that because of its quality the blade cannot be as early as the 11th century. On the other hand, there is an equally large mountain of evidence, in contemporary 14th century art as well as surviving, fairly firmly dateable 14th century swords, that there is no very valid reason why it could not be of the later date, either. I give this example at length in order to stress the point that dating of any medieval sword, especially such as fall into the types in Group I, isvery chancy unless the sword has good internal evidence to date it, or was found in a context which at least can give it a terminus

post quem.

Find-Contexts
Thequestion of context, too, is fraught with uncertainties. A sword found in the tomb of a prince (like that of Sancho IV of Castile found in his coffin in Toledo Cathedral- No.xII.7 below) or of a simple knight gives a terminus post quem, but neither a terminus ante quem, nor a place of origin. For consider: a sword is dredged up from the Great Ouse River near to the village of Stretham, four miles upstream from Ely and the causeway from Stuntney along which the Conqueror's Normans finally broke into the defences of Ely itself in 1070. Ergo, says the enthusiastic antiquarian, here is the sword of one of those Norman knights of 1070. Soit could be, were it not for the fact that it was found four miles (as the crow flies, perhaps six as the winding river flows) away fromthat battle-site; and those intervening miles, in 1070, were covered with impenetrable fen and marsh and thicket. How did one of those knights get there? And why? Besides, it has all the stylistic appearance of belonging to a period some century or more later than 1070. In the face of such speculations, it does not seem very safe to assign it to that particular conflict. Now consider further: it is reasonable to assume that the sword was deliberately thrown into the river; its fmd-place is indisputable, but if (as generally happens) it is labelled by experts as being 'probably English', this is absurd. Any sword, found anywhere, mayhave passed (and probably did pass) through many hands in places all over Europe and the Near East. For instance, a blade is forged at Passau, on the Danube, in 1258. It is hilted maybe in Milan; or maybe in Gloucester, or Norwich, or Gisors, or Caen or Montpellier, or Burgos, or Jerusalem, or Cracow. Then it is bought by a young knight in Antwerp, whence it has come in the baggage of one of the travelling salesmen who continually moved across the face of the nations. This knight is involved in a tournament at Beauvais, is unhorsed by a knight of Prussia who, in accordance with the rules of chivalry, takes the sword. He is killedin Lithuania, and the sword falls into the hands of a squire of Poland, who takes it home; he in tum goes to the Holy Land, wherehe strikes up a close friendship with a young knight from Cambridge. The Polish squire dies, and gives the sword to his friend,who goes home in 1272 and lives peacefully in his manor at Stretham until 1310. On his death, at his specific request, the swordis thrown into the Ouse. So what 19th or 20th century antiquarian can say it is probably English? The last person to have ownedit might have been English - but then, in all those centuries of the High Middles Ages, any knightly person in England wasjust as likely to be Flemish, or French, or Spanish, or Bavarian ... Even a sword found in a coffin may have been passed around in this way. And since, until perhaps the tum of the 13th - 14th centuries there was hardly any stylistic difference in the form of swords found from Finland to Spain and from Wales to the Caucasus, there is neither point nor profit in trying to give any sword a local habitation and a name. We can say it is Western European;there are occasions when it may be reasonable to suggest that it is Southern European, or Eastern European, but these occasionsare rare. There are a few hilt-forms - I can only think of three - which seem to have a locality - one in Scandinavia generally; one in Denmark specifically (but this is late, of the 15th century) and one in the Levant, a characteristic, crude, home-made iron hilt generally associated with a blade of very poor quality. The typologies of Petersen and Behmer do suggest that certain forms of hilt or scabbard-mount originated in certain localities. Petersen in particular is able to place his hilt-types according to their distribution in graves or in casual finds; even so, thickly as variousforms are found together in various places, this takes no account of the widespread roving of their owners. Take a specific example,his Type K. Several have been found in France. There are some from graves in Ireland, and one from a grave at Knin inJugoslavia. Could one say then that Type K is Frankish, or Irish (Norse-Irish, of course) or Slavic?

Conservation
What is significant and interesting, if not actually important, about any sword's fmd-place is the physical conditions in which it has been lying. Most finds, as I have said, are from the beds of rivers, which generally preseve them very well. The whole point about such preservation revolves around the amount of oxygen which is able to get at and corrode the metal. A sword falling into deep mud, free from stones or organic debris which might trap oxygen or allow it to penetrate the close covering of mud, will initially become covered allover with a coating of rust, but as time passes the chemical interaction of this rust with the chemical constituents of the surrounding mud covers all the surface of the metal with a flint-hard coat of Goethite (FeOoh) which, once formed, prevents any further corrosion and so yields up to the archaeologist (or treasure-hunter with his metal-detector) a weU preserved weapon, sometimes in almost pristine condition. This coating or patina can be removed either by long and arduous work with abrasives, which must get progressively milder as the goethite is rubbed off, or by submitting to electrolysis the dismounted blade, or the whole sword if there is no organic material surviving on it, such as its grip. It can be done with acid, but this leaves the sword in a nasty condition looking like lead; it seems to take all the life out of it. Some river-mud has better preservative qualities than others. The Danube is splendid, so is the Great Ouse; and so can be the Thames in London, but this has strange characteristics. Many swords have been taken from this river between Richmond and Limehouse, some in almost perfect condition, some so rotted away as to be almost unrecognisable. Their age has nothing to do with their condition; for instance, a sword of c.1470 is only a tatty rotted fragment while a Viking sword of c.900, found in the same part of the river, is still perfectly usable with hardly a rust-pit in it. Many swords, (but only a small percentage of the whole mass of present-day survivors) have been found in the ground while digging foundations, or ploughing. Even some of these are still in remarkably good condition. A few have been found in ancient houses, like a superb XIIIa illustrated and annotated at No.XIlla.5 below, which was found behind 14th century panelling of a house at Linz. We know from evidence in the Norse literature that sometimes a sword would be buried, deliberately, in a stone cist, which they caUed a starfaet. I only know of two actually found thus buried, but both are of outstanding interest. One (see No.XII.lO below) was found near Oslo in 1880 when a railway-cutting was being driven through farm-land at Korsoygaden near Oslo. It was in a stone box - not big enough for a coffin, just big enough for the sword, its scabbard and an iron-bound wooden shield. The other is a Roman gladius-type sword, found in a cist at Klinten in Gotland with its rich scabbard and belt-fittings. It is notable, incidentally, that all the Roman swords of this type which have been found in rivers, or ritually buried, have been richly decorated ones, the swords of officers, for the gladius of the rank-and-file legionary was shorter (about an average of 16" as against 21" of the officer's type) and, since these 'issue' gladii were handed in to be re-worked when they were too worn to be useful, they did not often get a chance to be ritually destroyed in order to be found by modem archaeologists.

Design
The question of the design, manufacture and distribution of swords is almost as impossible to answer with any certainty as is the question of date. That hilt styles - that is the form of pommel and the style of cross - were made to confirm to certain more or less set patterns in various regions at different times is self-evident, but it is not possible, ever, to say that such-and-such a pommel form 'went with' such and such a cross-style. It seems that any form of pommel might be used at any time, in any cutler's workshop, matched with any style of cross in a purely arbitrary way. This is not at all to say that forms of pommel and styles of cross were not deliberately designed, maybe even on the drawing-board, but it is natural to assume that the practical considerations of the using of the swords should have been paramount in any such designing. It probably was, yet there are several pommel forms, for instance, which make a sword uncomfortable in the hand. Those Viking styles which have straight lower edges with a sharpish comer at each end are diabolically uncomfortable - if one holds the sword in a natural way and tries to flex one's wrist, the comer of the pommel digs violently into the junction of hand and wrist With a straight arm and a stiff wrist it is not too bad. If, however, the lower edge is curved upwards, or if the pommel is a thick disc, this does not happen and in fact the pommel is enormously helpful as a fulcrum to bring the sword back into position after making a blow, using the wrist as a lever against it. If the pommel of No. XI.5 below is examined, and then thatofNo.x.3 and imagination applied to both, you will see what I mean. I say this with confidence because I have wielded these swords, and speak from practical experience.

Manufacture
We do find that by the end of the 13th century and onward into the 16th more and more swords fall into what I would call 'families' whichtend to cut across the types, and are pretty obviously the result of recognisable trends in fashion. This matter will be discussed later, for the question of deliberate designing is much more relevant to these families; now we need to look a little at the actual methods of manufacture - about which, I have to say, we know very little except for the complexities of pattern welding. This technique - or these techniques, I should say - have been exhaustively examined and much practical experiment has taken place. Even so, the findings remain rather confused because there are still differing schools of thought as to how it was done. This experimentation has been very thoroughly documented in great detail, and since the period in which the method was in use is outside the scope of this survey, I have not described it. We have to begin here to look at the matter of manufacture with the rise of the Ulfberht factory in the 9th - 10th centuries. It has been established, I think beyond doubt, that this factory was situated in the Rhineland near to - or actually at the site of - the place where the great blade making and steel town of Solingen arose, a town which has always been associated with the making of blades, and where there is now a splendid Klingenmuseum which is devoted to all the arts of the sword There is of course no doubt either that there were many other centres of production, though none perhaps so well documented. Throughout the great chronicle of Jean Froissart there is constant mention of Bordeaux as a place from which all worthy blades come - blades of spears, axes and arrows as well as swords - but there is nothing, except what Froissart and his contemporaries have written, to substantiate this. It is now thought to be much more probable that they did not mean Bordeaux in Gascony, but another quite obscure centre in Haute Savoie called Bordeau - without the fmal x. This is within the region of ancient Noricum, from whence the Celts and the Romans after them got all (or most of) their steel weapons. Probably most of the European cities which became famous for sword-blades were producing them as early as the 12th century - Passau on the Danube, Cologne, Milan and Brescia and perhaps Toledo, though there is scant evidence before the very end of the medieval period that swords were made there. But lack of documentation especially for such early times, is not be considered as evidence of non-existence I can quote one piece of documentary evidence as to the making of swords in Milan late in the 13th century and onward. In a work by one Galvano Fiamma, called the Chronicon Extravagans, the author writes (of Milan), 'In our territory immense numbers of workmen are to be found who make every manner of armour - hauberks, breastplates, plates, helms, helmets, steel skull-caps, gorgets, gauntlets, greaves, cuishes, knee-pieces, and lances, javelins swords and so on. '* To go in detail into the actual technical methods of making blades would occupy too much space and would interrupt the sequence of what needs to be set down in this introduction - besides, let me admit that very little is known about it. At present (in 1990) there are several craftsmen in Europe and America who are making swords; these are not copies of medieval swords, madejust to present an appearance. They are swords, every bit as powerful, well-balanced and effective as their prototypes. It just happens that they are made in the medieval manner, using as far as possible the tools which would have been available in a 12thcentury forge, and following the very form and pattern of chosen ancient swords. Notes from the experiences of some of these modem craftsmen is given below at Appendix A.

Supply
Untilquite recently I held firmly to the view that the medieval knight chose, purchased, used and cherished his sword - or swords, because he would need several; one or two short, light 'riding swords' for going about his daily concerns, a few bigger ones, called in 15th-century England 'arming swords' which would be effectively used in battle, but were best for skirmish or single combat, and a war sword, this being a big one of Types XIIIa, XVla or XVa or XVIIIb, according to his period in history. This belief, which must have some truth in it, is not the whole truth, for it is becoming very clear in the light of recent discoveries, one in particular, that swords were 'issued' on a commisariat basis, even in Viking times. To set against the oft-repeated celebration in the sagas of the intense emotive personal bond between a warrior and his sword, here is one example of something which seems to be the direct opposite. An episode in the last battle of King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway makes it clear that one of the duties of a king, or any war-leader, was to keep a stock of swords in readiness in case of need. In the account of this battle in Olaf s Saga Tryggvasonar in the Heimskringla we find that when he noticed that his men's swords were not cutting well, he called out 'Hey! are you being lazy with your swords? They don't bite for you!' A man replied 'Our swords are all blunt and badly nicked'. Then the king went down into the forehold (the battle was one of ships) and opened the High-Seat chest, and out of it he took many sharp swords and gave them to his men.' An explicit example of swords being part of an army's commissariat is in the Bayeux Tapestry, where swords are seen being *It is interesting to note here that plate armour is specified, before the mid-14th century.

taken ashore from the ships with all sorts of other gear. All through the Middle Ages there are to be found, in chronicles and records, inventories of materiel as part of the supply of an army or an expedition; these generally tend only to specify so many hundreds of thousands of arrow-heads, shafts, bow-staves, gun-stones, spears, helmets, mail-shirts and so on, but now and again in these lists large numbers of swords are mentioned; and though this is not specified there can be little doubt that complete swords are meant, not simply blades. An interesting point arises here: it seems, from all of this evidence from Olaf Tryggvason onwards, that such 'issue' swords were not furnished with scabbards. They are naked in the Tapestry, no mention of scabbards is made in the inventories - and I cannot stress too emphatically that any sword would not go into any scabbard. Even when blades were made to a 'standard' pattern, as we know now that they were, particularly in the 14th - 15th centuries, each blade must differ from every other one in small dimensional, or proportional measures, for each was forged by hand. Therefore each blade had to be used as a mandril for its own scabbard to be made round it, or it would not fit well. This documentary evidence for the supply of swords in bulk has been very comprehensively reinforced in recent years by the discovery in the River Dordogne near Castillon of a hoard of eighty swords, which by their style seem to date to the first half of the 15th century. A dredger brought them up, in a tangled clump. Some are in astonishingly good condition but some naturally enough were bent and broken. It was later established that the swords (no sign of scabbards or metal scabbard - mounts was found) were in a chest, and that the chest was in a barge. None of these things was at all surprising, for a clump of swords all mixed together like that could not have been casually lost, or ritually deposited. That part of the Dordogne was the principal supply-route from the great English base at Bordeaux to the up-river castles which in the 1420s and 1440s were still precariously heldby the English during the closing years of the Hundred Years' War. They were evidently (or at least, presumably) in a barge, which in some way was sunk, going up to Bergerac or Castillon with supplies. These were all fine-quality swords, but they were not new when they reached the mud of the river. All the good ones (most of which I have seen and handled) show unmistakeable signs of wear - considerable wear, nicks in the edges and the irregularities causedby honing. The only assumption one can make upon the evidence so far examined is that they were used blades re-hilted by a contractor, maybe in England or perhaps in the Burgundian low countries. This statement calls for explanation. The hilts of these swords fall into three very distinct patterns, and the blades into two. The first group (the largest) all have deep wheel pommels, most with a recessed central boss (Nos.XV.5 and XV.8) and short, straightcrosses turned abruptly downward at the tips. The blades are not very long (about 32" (St.Zcrns) but broad at the hilt and having a very strong flattened diamond section, in many cases with the four faces strongly hollowed leaving a prominent ridge runningdown the middle of the blade from hilt to point. The blades of Group II are of similar section, but are longer (about 38" -40" (99cms) and narrower. The pommels are mostly of a fish-tail form, and the crosses are straight, thickened in the middle and swellingto hemispherical knobs at the ends. (No. XVa.3). The third group so far has only three examples that I know of, and has a quite different form of blade, such as I have put into Type XXa. There is a ricasso just below the hilt, the section is of a flat hexagon, there is a shallow fuller running for approximately half the length of the blade, and this, on the ricasso which is about 1"(4cms) long, is flanked by a short fuller on each side. The cross is the same as in Group II, but the pommel is different from almostany other so-far known sword in that it is of a pear-shape with the narrow part upward (No.XXa.2). The fact that so many similar hilts on so many swords all found together does very strongly suggest a common source for all of them - i.e. a contractor.

Sword Famities
Thesegroups of swords are very good examples of what I have called 'families' of swords. Those of Group I of the Castillon find areeither of Type XV or XVIII; those of Group II are of Type XVa or XVIII, while those of III are of Type XXa. As I mentioned earlier,the families ran across the Types, because they are recognisable by their hilt forms which I am sure indicate the positive influenceof trends in fashion, so these three groups of these Dordogne swords are in fact distinct families. In this case again a schematic diagram is much more effective than words to describe sword-hilts, so on page 12, I have drawn the principal families which span the period. To support the diagram, I have made a list giving the principal characteristics of eachfamily. This is really only a brief sketch, and an interim one at that, for as time passes more swords will emerge from the careof Mother Earth (and no doubt from obscurity in private collections as well) either to swell the numbers of existing examples of these families or to suggest fresh ones. While some of these families span a considerable length of the whole period under consideration, others seem only to have enjoyed a brief popularity; and it will be noticed that between c.1275 and 1425 no less thannine families arose and then vanished again, as the dictates of fashion (at that period more potent than ever before) decreed. Naturally, I have set these 'family' notes in the chronological orderin which the families first appeared; and I would emphasise thatthis list only shows the more prominent families. There were many smaller groupings, of which only one or two actual swords haveso far survived, and only one or two representations in art, or none. The sword shown at No. XIV.2 is a case in point: it is a typicalXIV, but the odd form of its pommel and the unusual style of its cross can only (so far) be matched by one other sword, butits 'fashionable' date is well confirmed by the appearance in art of three almost identical oddities, one on the Great Seal of EdwardI, another on the seal of Charles of Anjou, and a third on the great seal of John Balliol of Scots, (c.1275 in each case). So I have not included these as a family, yet three of the odd swords (Group III) of the Castillon find, I have. This is because I have notyet seen all eighty of the swords in the find, and I believe others do exist.

11

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SWORD FAMILIES

FAMILY A Very widely in use from as early as c.950 until c.1550. though far more popular c.1050-1300. wheel-shaped pommel and a straight cross. often rather thick in its earlier manifestations.

A short hilt with a disc - or

FAMILYB Most if not all of this family are of Type XIV; and it had a short life from c.1280-1325 - by which I mean it is between those dates that the majority of its representations in art are to be found. A short hilt, with a very wide. flat wheel-pommel with very prominent central bosses. and a fairly thin cross arched toward the blade. with plain ends. (No. XIV. 7). FAMILYC Nearly all swords of Type XIIIA come into this family. though there are examples which can be dated as early as c.llOQ. and they are occasionally represented in art between c.11 00-1250. After c.1250. though. they are to be found everywhere in manuscript pictures and sculpture of all kinds. but particularly monumental sculpture and brasses between c.1290 and 1360. A long hilt. with a very deep wheel pommel and a straight. plain cross (No. XIIIa.7. for example). FAMILYD This follows C. being popularly represented between c.1360-1410. A long hilt. with a deep wheel pommel often with recessed hollows in the central bosses such as are seldom found in pommels of Family C. The cross here is the distinctive feature. It is straight. rather long. generally of a neat rhomboidal section (though this is occasionally circular); it widens strongly at its mid-point to form an eccuson over the rib of the blade in its most elegant mannifestations. though this (in Poor Relations) is not always the case. The arms taper elegantly to the tips which turn abruptly downward through a right-angle. (Nos. XVa.6. for example). FAMILYE These swords. of the same proportions as those of D. have pommels made in the rather complicated shape of a truncated wedge. the upper. broad. end of which is arched and filed into four or six hollow 'scallops'. The grip is long. as is the cross. This arches towards the blade. and is generally of square section. rather thin. with no taper or widening toward the tips and no swelling at mid-point. Because two notable examples of this family were found in the graves of Austrian knights who fell in the battle of Sempach near Zurich in 1386. they are always called by collectors and other experts 'the Sempach type' . (No.XVII.1. for example.) 12

FAMILYF Ask almost anybody to describe or draw a medieval sword, and they will turn to this family, which for a couple of centuries perhaps has been considered to be the epitome of the sword. Justly, too, for handsome specimens are the handsomest of all swords. The great-grandfather of the family is the sword of Henry V in Westminster Abbey (No. XVIII. 1 below) which, though a very plain weapon (fully compatible with the character of such a down-to-earth and practical warrior) is extremely good-looking and isa dream to handle. The family's span of historical time seems to have been between c.141 0 and - what? - 1550. There are many splendid examples surviving, and many are shown in art. Characteristic is the shape of the cross. The hilt is short, with a big wheel-pommel, and the cross, generally quite long (see No.XVIII.l below) is of flat ribbon-like section with its width at right-angles to the plane of the blade. In most cases this ribbon-section is elegantly complex, for, though flat on the top, the underside is triangular. It is arched towards the blade, has a well-marked cusped ecusson at mid-point, and the tips are rolled, or scrolled, over. FAMILYG This has much in common with F; a short hilt, and a heavy wheel pommel, but the cross is a short version of that of Family D, being generally of rhomboidal section, well cusped at mid-point over the ridge of the blade, and with the tips abruptly turned down. Much represented in all kinds of contemporary art between c.1380-1440. (No. XV.8 for example). FAMILYH It is difficult to know quite where to place this in a chronological sequence, for there are not many surivors (though one may be found in nearly every great collection) and it is, unusually for medieval swords, an ugly beast. The hilt (and the blade) are long, made without delicacy or fmesse. The blade is weak in section, its edges nearly parallel and its point rounded. The pommel is a flatdisc, generally with a small circular recess in its centre; the cross is long, a shapeless bar of metal of round or square section. 1 regret having to write in a dismissive way of any sword, but most of the members of this family are dull, lifeless and undistinguished. Even so, they must have been popular, for as far as I can make out, they were in use from the early 13th century to the early 16th. FAMILYI Herewe return to a handsome family. Most of its survivors so far have been found in the arsenals of Alexandria and Constantinople, wherethey have been preserved since the late 14th century as trophies of war. One must because of this assume that the family wasa Southern European one. Its form is quite unmistakeable, and there are many examples of it. The pommels are of bronze, of wide, flat disc form with upstanding central bosses like nipples. The grip is short, and the cross is very much like a rather narrowbow-tie - flat in section, with the width on the same plane as the blade, widening somewhat at mid-point and spreading outstrongly to the tips, which are cut off straight. The blades of all of them are very broad, flat, with narrow central fullers running abouttwo-thirds of the length and with nearly parallel edges and very rounded points. (No XIIIhA.) I know, at present, of no representation in art of these swords. FAMILY J Theseswords have a very distinctive shape. Most of them are quite big weapons, though not so large as the war-swords. The grips themselves are quite short - 4" or so - but the pommels are long and seem as it were to grow out of the tops of the grips. These pommelsare best described as of fish-tail form, and are in many ways very like the truncated wedges of Family E, except that the sides are concave. The crosses are short, of circular section, widening at the mid-point and each arm is 'waisted', ending at thetips in hemispherical knobs. (No. XVIII.8 for example) Most surviving examples are from the Castillon find, and they are oftenseen in contemporary art from c.1420-1470. FAMILYK Thisis a Danish style. The hilt is generally of hand-and-a-half length; the pommel is of a very flat wheel-form with a prominent centralboss of each face, and the cross is of the 'bow-tie' style of Family I. There are few examples, but it seems to be a defmite familyall the same. FAMILYL Thisis, as far as can be ascertained at present, almost exclusively a Danish variant of the long-gripped war-sword of the second halfof the 15th century. The pommel is small and pear-shaped; the grip is extremely long-about 12" -14" (30.5 - 35.6cms) and has four or five transverse ridges at intervals from top to bottom. The cross is short, of flat section with the wider dimension in thesame plane as the blade, and it is very strongly arched towards the point. FAMILYM Thisis perhaps the most common family of swords in use in the Northern parts of Europe during the second half of the 15th centuryand the first quarter of the 16th. The pommel is of wheel-form - or perhaps it is better described as being a thick disc withraised rims set just inside the outer rim of the disc, enclosing a hollowed circular recess. The grip is long, formed in two distinctparts; it is narrow below the pommel, swelling gracefully to a transverse rib nearly half-way down, from which a thicker parttapers towards the cross, which is generally quite long and often has the tips turned, at right angles to the plane of the blade, ina horizontal re-curve. (Nos. XVIIIa.5 below) is a supreme example of this family).
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Ownership
The intriguing question of a sword's ownership is generally quite impossible to answer. There are a very few swords known at present which can frrrnly be attributed to historical personages in whose coffins they have been found, and a few more where paintstaking research based on internal evidence can at least present a firm probability of ownership, but the majority have no known provenance, let alone anything more specific -besides, as I have pointed out above, in the high Middle Ages swords must have changed hands continually owing to the laws of war and the conventions of chivalry: the horse, armour, arms and equipment of a defeated knight became by all the rules the property of his captor, or his successful opponent. There is one perhaps stabilising factor in this - defeated in single combat, a knight (or person of knightly rank) was often given the option of buying his gear back for cash. Even so, taking everything into account, it seems we have to assume that any sword surviving today probably had several owners. In the period we are chiefly concerned with here, the sword was a much more common weapon than it had been during the ages of the migrations and of the Vikings, so there are few references to the 'wanderings' of specific swords in the poetry of the chronicler, unlike those which we find in the Norse literature, where there are several well-documented tales of the wanderings and adventures of particular swords. Space will permit only mention of a few, concerning historical characters. The first concerns the sword Skofnung, which originally belonged to a 7th century king of Denmark called Hrolf, with the added nick-name Kraki. He was a very tall, thin and knobbly man, so he was likened to a pole-ladder, which is a tall pole with foot-rests sticking out each side all the way up. He was buried in a mound in the royal cemetery at Roskilde, and Skofnung was buried with him. This sword was said in Hrolfs Saga Kraka to be 'the best of all swords which have been carried in the northern lands.' Then, generations later as we are told in 'Landnamabok'; Skeggi of Midfrrth one of the early settlers in Iceland' ..... was chosen by lot to break into the mound of King Hrolf Kraki, and out of it he took Skofnung, the sword of Hrolf.' This was towards the end of the 10th century. Later, early in the 11th, according to Laxdaela Saga, the sword was in the possession of Skeggi' s son Eid. When Eid was an old man he lent Skofnung to Thorkel Egjolfsson, who undertook to kill the outlaw Grim, who had killed Eid's son. Thorkel and Grim met and fought, but Thorkel made friends with him, and never gave Skofnung back to Eid. Thorkel still had the sword when he sailed over Broadfirth on his last voyage, but his ship sank; but one of its timbers, with Skofnung stuck into it, was washed ashore on an island (called afterwards Skofnungsey) from which it was recovered and borne by Thorkel's son Gellir; and when he was an old man he took it with him on a pilgrimage to Rome. However, he died on the way home, in Denmark, and (Laxdaela Saga again) was buried at Roskilde: 'He died and rests at Roskilde. Gellir had taken Skofnung with him, and it was not recovered afterwards.' So it went back almost to where Skeggi had taken it from generations back - and it must have been three centuries old then. There is also, of course, the sword Aettartangi, the sword, among many other owners, of Grettir the Strong. Its very name means'S word (or tang) of Generations' . A third is an even stranger story, and a little later in time and concerns historical characters who are authenticated in poem and chronicle outside the Sagas. It concerns Hneitir, the sword of King Olaf the Holy (later St. Olaf) of Norway. According to tradition this also was taken from the burial mound of an earlier King Olaf, and had been given to the second Olaf at birth when he received his name. The Christian king had it all his life until he was killed in 1030 at the battle of Stiklestad. As he fell, he dropped Hneitir on the ground, and it was picked up by a Swedish warrior who had just been disarmed: 'He had broken his sword, and he took up the sword Hneitir and fought with it .... He went back to Sweden and went home. He kept the sword all his life, and his son after him, and so one after another of his kinsmen took it, and always it followed that as each possessed the sword he told the next the sword's name and also whence it came.' A descendant of this man went to Constantinople and joined the Emperor's Varangian guard, but he found that every night the sword disappeared from under his pillow and was found some distance away. The Emperor heard of this, and heard whose sword it had been; so he bought it from his guardsman for three times its worth in gold, and had it placed over the altar of St Olaf's church in Constantinople. This story was told by Einarr Skulason in his poem 'Gesr' and was recited in 1153 in the Cathedral at Trondjeim. These are only three of the innumerable swords which are mentioned in the Sagas and the annals and chronicles of the early medieval period -like the sword of Edmund Ironside (who was killed in 1017) which Henry II (1154-89) is recorded as handling; the sword of King Offa (died 796) which was mentioned in an 11th century will as a bequest from the eetheling Aethelstan to his brother, and so on. There does not appear to be this sort of reference to the longevity of swords in the poems and chronicles of the later Middle Ages, but this does not necessarily mean that there really is none. What it does mean is that nobody has looked for it. We do find it again in modem publication of research into the inventories of armouries (like those of Henry VIII at the Tower) where sometimes swords of former times are specified. A very few swords survive today which have been taken from tombs; and in these cases we can safely say that here were at least, their last owners, however many others may have owned them before they were entombed. These examples are so few that I will enumerate them - and I will leave out legendary ones, or even probably legendary ones like the sword of Charlemagne in the Louvre, and stick to those actually found in coffins.

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(1) Perhaps the earliest of these is the sword, seen but not removed, in the coffm of King John when it was opened in 1742. This was not described, except that it was corroded into four pieces and that its scabbard was much better preserved. 1217. (2) A beautifully preserved sword (No.XII.5 below), probably of Type XII, found in the coffin of one of the sons of Alfonso el Sabio of Castile. This was the Infante Fernando de la Cerda, who died in 1270. It is as well preserved as the prince's fully, ceremoniall y clothed mummified body. This was in the Convent of Las Huelgas in Burgos, in the funerary chapel of the princes of Castile. (3) An even finer sword (No. XII.7) was in the coffin of Fernando's elder brother, King Sancho IV of Castile who died in 1298and was buried in the Capella Mayor of Toledo Cathedral. Here caution is needed: it is now known that the crown upon the headof the King's body had been that of his father Alfonso, and so ipso facto it has been very reasonably suggested that the sword may also have belonged to that earlier monarch. 1293. (4) A sword found in the tomb of the emperor Albrecht I in the Cathedral at Speier. 1308. (5) A once perfectly preserved sword in the coffin of Can Grande della Scala, Lord of Verona, who died in 1326. When the coffin was opened in 1923, the sword and all the other gear was taken from the body, and kept in the Museo Archaeologico of Verona. Now the sword is so perished, never having been properly treated to ensure its conservation, that only a few fragments of the scabbarded blade remain, and the hilt (No.xII.6 below). 1326. (6) A sword found in the tomb - in the coffin - of the Gonfaloniere Giovanni dei Medici, in the church of Santa Reparata in Florence. He died in 1353. This when found was in a worse condition that that of Can Grande at Verona, but has been properly preserved. 1353. (7) A perfectly preserved sword, never out of the possession of one family, of Buonarotto Buonarotti, leader of the Guelph partyin Florence, who died in 1392. This is still in the Casa Buonarotti in that city. 1392. (8) One of the most handsome of all these swords, found in 1698 in the coffm ofEstore Visconti, along with his body preserved by the action of the soil, in the Basilica of Monza. The body was identified by reason of a gunshot wound in the left leg. Estore Viscontiwas killed on January 17th, 1413, during the siege of Monza, by a gun-stone. He was a bastard son of Bernabo Visconti, Lordof Milan, and after a chequered and valiant military life he became at the age of 56 for a few months, from May 1412 until hisdeath, lord of Milan in his tum. In recesses on the four sides of the pommel are four enamelled plaques, two with the Viper of Milan and two with a cross. It has been suggested that this sword must have been made only after Estore became Lord of Milan in 1412,on account of these plaques, but it is not necessarily so, for arms of this kind could very easily be applied to an existing sword,or put in to replace older ones, so such arms are not a reliable dating criterion. However, there can be no doubt as to this sword's ownership, nor that its date must be before 1413. There are, of course, certain swords (mostly of the High Renaissance and therefore not strictly within the purview of this sketch)to which attribution of ownership can be given by reason of arms or legends etched or inscribed upon them. There is for instancein the Musee de Cluny in Paris a beautiful sword with a bronze-gilt cross and a pommel which is of fish-tail form; and etchedarms on the forte of blade which are those of Lodovico Sforza, il Moro, Lord of Milan in the 1490s. Here again, we are notcompelled to believe either that the arms were put on the blade at the time of it making, or indeed that it really belonged to Lodovico. It is as easy to apply etchings to a blade as it is to change the elements of a hilt. In the same way, in the Waffensammlung in Vienna, there is an exquisite sword attributed to one of Louis XII's marshals, Gian Giacomo Trivulzio of c.1500. The etched decoration suggests that it was his sword but ..... However, there is one sword, perhaps the most beautiful late medieval sword still extant - indeed, it must be one of the most beautifulever made, for not only are its proportions excellent, of High Renaissance style, but its great blade is as powerful as a Viking's.The delicate decoration, etched upon the blade and engraved upon the gilt-bronze hilt is of the finest Italian renaissance workmanship - and under the arch of the cross is an inscription which reads CAES: BORG: CAR: V ALEN: and the arms of the Borgias.This not only places the sword firmly in the possession of that superbly romantic and much maligned character Cesare Borgia,but dates it as well. He was only Cardinal of Valentino between 1493 and 1498. This is in the Casa Caetani in Rome. There are of course many swords of this period of the end of the Middle Ages whose owners are positively known: the Emperor Maximilian I, and his father Frederic III; Carlos I of Spain (the Emperor Charles V), and his father Philip the Handsome, and so onbut these are all highly decorated swords owned by the most potent and best-known monarchs of Europe, not simple knights. Asit is the swords of these simple knights we are concerned with, rather than the captains and the kings, I will end this introduction to myRecord by elaborating a little upon what I said at the beginning about the mystique of the sword and its powerful significance to the life and work of the fighting man both in its practical and spiritual aspects. You will have noticed that where particular swords of the Migration and Viking periods have been mentioned, they have names. These names as you can see are celebrated in poem and saga, while in the literature of the later Middle Ages this is not so. However, there can be no doubt that favoured swords were given names just as their predecessors were, though we do not havethe same documentary evidence. The practise of naming things is a very natural, human one - for instance, in a 15th century willin which the few belongings of a merchant's family are itemised, a wooden drinking cup named Edward is specifically mentioned;and in an inventory of some of the personal property of King Charles VI of France is the entry of 'A little sword called Victoire.' A sword was a living thing, and was named for this. It is a pity that we cannot know, now, what the surviving swords ofprinces were called; no doubt their owners named them, but it was often all a very personal matter (it still is: one gives one's pipeor one's bicycle a name, but it isn't generally written down in one's will). The average life-span of the owners of these swords

15

was not much more than 40 years, and they reckoned to be fully-fledged warriors by the time they were seventeen; so we have to remember that swords belonged to and would be named by young rather simple-minded and unlettered fighting men, not middle-aged erudite 20th century academics. If to the modem scholar it may seem silly for a man to name his pipe Herbert (or a wooden drinking-cup Edward) he might have done so when he was young, romantic and foolish. It is the same with inscriptions on blades: most of the medieval inscriptions were religious invocations, but many consisted of strings of seemingly meaningless initial letters. It has (by 20th century middle-aged and erudite academics) been assumed that they, too, were invocations of Our Lady or the Deity. No doubt many were; but perhaps not all? An inscription containing the letters NED could be construed as containing the initials of the words NOMINE ETERNI DEI, and so on. Again, one has to accept that there could be other, now to us utterly hidden, meanings of either a personal nature, or at least a secular one. There can now be few people living who remember the cryptograms which members of the armed forces in World War II put on the backs of the envelopes of their letters home: SWALK, ITALY, HOLLAND. To you, the young student who reads this, perhaps in the 21st century, these cryptograms are as obscure as would be DICNLACDICLAE upon a 12th century sword-blade; but to us old men who put them on our letters home, they meant Sealed With a Loving Kiss; I Trust and Love You; Hope our Love Lasts and Never Dies. Cryptic, but full of intense personal meaning. Silly? Yes. But we were young, and scared and homesick. So may it have been with those who caused inscriptions to be placed upon swords. In short, we cannot assume anything; we have to admit that although we can make guesses, erudite and informed guesses, we may still be hopelessly wrong. In the Viking age a chieftain would often give gold rings to his followers as a reward for valorous service Gust as the Pharaohs did three thousand years earlier) presenting them sometimes on the point of his sword. In some German poems of the 11th and 12th centuries we read of swords also being used this way in the ceremony of marriage. The priest blesses the ring, taking it from the flat of the bridegroom's sword. In one of these poems in particular we find that the essential and binding act of the ceremony was the placing of the bride's thumb upon the pommel of the groom's sword. In this particular poem, which concerns a girl who was forced into marriage, her parents got her to the altar all right, but when it came to it by no means could they get her clenched hands open and a thumb placed on the groom's pommel. Unfortunately, the end of the poem is lost, but enough survives to indicate that the girl eventually got away with it. There is another example of a similar function of a chieftain, or a king's, sword. This is from an account from Norwegian court law of the 13th century which is based upon a 12th century version, though it is likely to go back to earlier tradition. This is the ceremony when a king appoints 'hearthmen' - personal bodyguards who once would have been called 'huscarles' - and the new recruit takes his oath of allegiance:
At the time when the King appoints Hearthmen, no table shall stand before the King. The King shall have his sword on his knee, the sword he had for his crowning; and he shallturn it so that the chape (of the scabbard) goes under his right arm, and the hilt is placed forward on his right knee. Then he shall the move the buckle of the belt over the hilt, and grasp the hilt so that his right hand comes over everything. Then he who is to become a Hearthman shall fall on both knees before the King on the floor ... and shall put his right hand under the hilt while he keeps his left arm down in front of him in the most comfortable position, and then shall he kiss the King's hand.

In the same way, when the king receives a man as a 'Gestr', or member of a band of warriors of lesser rank than the hearthman, he is directed to put his hand forward over the sword 'where the hilt meets the guard'. The new man puts his under the hilt, kissing the king's hand at the same time, and thus swears the oath. All through the Middle Ages and far beyond, the sword has been regarded as the embodiment of power and lordship, and what was essential to both - valour and force. With the burgeoning in the second half of the 11th century of the renaissance of art and culture came also the institution of chivalry. This brought the sword to its full glory. It attained a complete symbolism, and to all its ancient attributes was now added the touch of sanctity. Its very shape was that of the cross; it was a specific against evil and fear, a reminder that the sword was to be used in the defence of all that was good and noble in society and the Christian faith, and to the confusion of all that threatened these things. Its two-edged blade stood for truth and justice, one edge for rich oppressors of the poor and the other for the strong who persecute the weak. Chivalry adapted and modified the time-honoured tribal ritual by which a youth was invested formally with arms, thereby becoming a man and a warrior and a full member of the tribe. In the complete, elaborate ceremonial of the making of a knight, the sword was the central ritual object. Laid upon the altar and blessed by a priest (or by a bishop, where possible) the sword, sanctified now, was handed to the aspirant and the words 'Accipe gladium istum in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, et utaris eo in defensam tuam et SanctiDei Ecclesiae, et ad confusionem inimicorum Crucis Christi ac Fidei christianiae:' (,Receive this sword in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and use it in your own defence and that of the Holy Church of God, and to the confusion of the enemies of the Cross of Christ and of the Christian faith'). Virtue has passed into it, and from it to its new owner. He brandishes it three times, sheaths it, and hands it to his sponsor who completes the ceremony with the fmal, primeval act. While the new knight's friends fasten the gilt spurs to his heels, his sponsor girds the sword to his waist. So, the original pagan act of investment with the arms was adopted by the might of the Church. Thus, it is very probable that any medieval knightly sword which may come into a collector's hands was once given this mystical aura of virtue and power at the begining of its 'life', and was offered to the mystical forces of water at its end. It should be regarded as more than just a piece of ancient steel; some of the magic remains, if one knows where to look for it.

16

MEDIEVAL SWORDS

Precursors 1-3

Theseeight swords from some of the Danish bog -deposits are a minute selection of the great mass of swords from the Celtic Iron Age (co4OO BC - AD 100) and the Migration Period (c.250 - 600 AD) which are the ancestors of the knightly swords of the High Middle Ages. I have included them becausethey show this, and also because they show, right at the startof the 'Record', how well-preserved some swords may be, even from remote periods, provided the conditions of their burialhave been conducive to good preservation. The student of arms should never be put off on the grounds that a sword appears to be 'too good to be true'. This is a trap into which thecompilers of sales catalogues have resoundingly fallen in thepast. Any object of antiquity has to be assessed on its own meritsif it has no well-authenticated provenance, like so many of the swords shown here. If you meet a fine, beautifully preserved medieval sword in the sale room, or offered by a dealer, don't jib at it if it looks smooth and black without rust-pits-or even if it has been cleaned and the patina offerrite or goethite cleaned off. Because it is smart and in good conditiondoesn't necessarily mean that it is a modem fake. Onthe other hand, there are superb modem fakes .... One has touse one's 'nose' and one's common-sense. But to reject a swordas a dud either because it looks too good, or because somebodytells you that he/she has 'never seen one like it' is absurd.If one considers the hundreds of thousands of swords whichmust have been made between co4OO BC and AD 1525 - probably millions - unless one can honestly say one has seen allof them, it is not honest to damn something because 'I have neverseen one like this'. There were infinite variations of detailin the style of pommels, crosses, blades and inscriptions, most of them according to some medieval person's own particularfancy. One has to remember what a tiny percentage ofthesethousands of swords are available for study now. The numbergrows all the time, but it is still an incredibly small percentage. I. Type: La Tene II. Find-place:a bog at Lindholmgard, Denmark Collection:Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen Bladelength: 2611.z"(6704 ems) Pommel-type:Unclassified. Cross-style: nclassified. U Date: c.300 B.C. Condition:Very nearly perfect The bone/wood/ivory missing. Marks: one N Publication:Oakeshott, AOW; Behmer; Seitz.

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This sword is perhaps the finest example of the long swords of the Celtic Iron Age, or the period of the La Tene culture. There are many of these big iron swords (a number of superb ones are in the British Museum) but this is perhaps the best preserved of them all. As you can see by its shape, it is meant purely as a slashing weapon, having no point. The delicate pattern in the double fullers of the blade - and how sophisticated' and how carefull y forged, these are - is not an indication of Pattern Welding, but is made by a multitude of little etched pits. The arched element at the top of the blade and below the lower ferrule of the hilt belongs properly to the top of the scabbard, from which it has become detached. The straight ferrule immediately above the lower one would once have been half-way (or thereabouts) up the grip. The little spherical pommel is of silver, capped with a pyramidal block of iron to take the rivetted tum-over at the top of the tang, as in all swords (European ones, that is) up to the present time. It is not only the superb quality of this sword, which is of forged steel, not cast bronze, but its almost incredibly fine state of preservation which makes it so outstanding. The peat in which it was found has preserved the steel of the blade, and the thin iron plates of the scabbard in pristine condition so that the blade could be drawn out of the scabbard. Only the grip, of wood or bone or ivory, has perished. If this sword, with a restored grip, were to come up for sale in one of the great London sale-rooms, it would be catalogued as ' .. .in the style of La Tene III' - i.e., as a fake. These La Tene period swords were the grandfathers of all medieval 'knightly' swords. I have put this first in this 'Record' for that reason, and as an indication to the student never to be led into the belief that because a blade is (a) wellpreserved and (b) beautifully made in a highly sophisticated form, that it cannot be 'old'. Bladesmiths were as capable of making a fine blade of steel in 300 BC as they were in 1500 AD. This ought to prove that many others to be shown below in as good a state of preservation are as honest and genuine as this one. 2-3.Type: Elis Behmer's Type V. Find-place: Kragehul bog-deposit. Collection: Copenhagen, National Museum. Blade-length: 30" (76.2 ems) approx. Date: Both c. AD 400. Condition: 2. Very considerably perished blade. Bronze hilt and mounts, good. 3. Rusted into wood, leather-covered scabbard. Good, bronze hilt and mounts perfect.

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Mostswords of the Viking Age come into this category, and X (ten) has been chosen to defme the type, rather than 1 (one) because in the definitive analytical study of the swords of the Viking Period presented by Dr Jan Petersen in 1919. He classified the latest of the Viking hilt-styles (those with brazil-nut shaped pommels) as Type X (letter X). Since most of these Viking swords with brazil-nutpommels, as well as those which are rather vaguely called 'Pilzformige (mushroom-shaped)' by German archaeologists, all fall neatly into the first category of the typology of swords which I presented in 1960. I began my typology where Petersen leftoff, with X - number Ten. At the same time I, perhaps unwisely, re-named the 'Pilzformige' or mushroom pommel (which itwasn't, being D shaped in elevation and flat in plan, not like any mushroom or toadstool known to botany) as 'of tea-cosy form' . This, to non-tea-orientated continental students must have made little sense. However, in an English context it is perfect. The laid-down 'lazy D' is just like a tea-cosy. Those which are flat in plan are like one empty, those of a stouter and more rotund shapeare like a tea-cosy with a teapot inside it. In the quarter-century which has lapsed since I named, or mis-named, this pommel formit is pleasant (to me) to find that in fact the name has been very generally adopted. So, Type X is the 'typical', if there is such a thing, Viking sword with its great variety of hilt-forms and styles: and it goes on intothe 12th century. Indeed, one may say it goes on into the 18th century as far as blade-shape goes, but there is no doubt that it is seldom found as a blade-shape in any blade made new later than c.1200. Of course, many very old blades continued in use, re-hilted according to changes of fashion, as long as the sword was used.

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swvivin.g exam,ples" pa:ttem,-'weJded blad,e.s 'w'e.r-e never i.nblid, ~'. ~ ,." .-' ,to ~". de :&\6" .' '11'i' .. ..' ' ."]. "" ;-.- ·'b-"'1i:·'f~·~,::", In uon, SO. ,',ll ,IS_",U,JIC.U,ilJ 't" 0 ,-recon.CLe ;tb": ..' .'.,' t, .. ' ,POSSl,llJJlU.es'i "e",eS6'WO oded' d" & d" :'.. .lIC "t, ___ ..cooe e '. __ Th"" b- '1......1," 1S ra:th er- h ,eav'il'','1' co,m'·"...;' ::.' ,. an:, '[ . ,~oiun·:.,:It. d-if"C" U l' to 'make out 'whether it. was "patte:m,,..,w'elded o.r :inla.id~ :But it did seem 'to 'be both. This is a, g'ood exam,ple of an .aberrant "d-' thai 't·: th . 'u'g······- ('i:n,m',e 'h n""' -~." h . . 'en' 0"" "n c-·f'\'U' 'C·'l , . "-"0' . died" St\PP'~'m' en~' b 'U"'t w···" "h .. ~ " '111 d .-,,:auti's"ve, 'it.......... exaDllnw; very ,', ...... A 0_ SDrVlvID,g' pattem-weJJ,: edl hI"'..I..... I~n f 'Ii.... d d"' many •1lJ,I.Ousan-s, W 'h'· h ,are,nota'V,alM'. I e ~ ~.1C.' liorstu'y", w,erre ma,'d e, .in the centuries between, say ,AD ,250 and 850~ So' 'who shall say' with hones.ty 'that '('no PW b'lade was ever inlaid in. iron lette.ring', 'because I have never :seen ,one'?!t
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X 'E,I'~II"C' d,:' Iu... 8":0' rn,. W'.._ .ere unrecord -:d :1'y" Ah r~lI -pl v": Collection: Philadelphia Art Museum, ex C40. Von Kienb!UscbCollection" Pommel 'Ir.[ly.~· Un class ifi.ed tvne: 9' ,-I .....' . D IE:: C/-': 5"0 .' 000'/.;: Condition: EXC3V'8.'ted .. Considerable corrosion, only faint tmce.s, of iron 'inlaid inscription, left
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of a. sword of Petersen's 'T·1lM_X 1 coinciding w: U, my': O''..'.'W'_', "T' ~JY"'-' X···:·· I bave never 00'-· e·"0" -'rJ'It'¥'" ," .. ' ,. _'. "', ._ . ---,-:" ·'·'·0-' obI· In examine .".'L.'.. $I SW'Ofu, so, do' .... t A.OOW' wnet... II ·81_.pattern ~ '·-'1 .~ ,i.,.." inla I'd ' ... -. e .. ,.... uu '_8. ]8, en the r-everse side, but :it would. certainl y be one of the more-or... standard. patterns used by the 'UL,FBEHRT .turn less h .,'10.. of'bl'ad'esmitns, as I'D me examp Ie at 5· ..· I·: eiow, ~.' ".: .~IJj I' , t,.'·· ... ·ai-c • . ,__ .' '., - -" .or- ~.:_:. ,U_. 6l,ulS IS a' more·... less. n··v·"eOlOD=c_·. X'" b . t' e pomm.eJ!..·.'ti IS T nil h d unusuar, ......... h examp l':es .IuA6 it are sr own '. I'ta]"" 8i1l_ tnoug in 1130 r. h f' tUe ·0···· lb·". . - t' .. '~ , ~~anlS" ,,,,"1. 0" ","'II.. 1-.._:,.;.. II " th.- COOl' un.es, ,l1JbUcadon: Christensen and Hoffmeyer; Hayward .. ,
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F,ind~place: The River Thames, in King's Reach. off 'the 1'··' .. '.' .' Tem ple_.in_,__:_::. .:"'n', Londo "-' '. '" "' Co.1'11' ecuon; "Bna,s:b M useum ('AS'20' 23)': I.: t "~'~,:,,;"'i~~>: '.. Blade-length: :2,9!~(73.. ems) 7 Po '.mmel-tvoe: W·····:·-h,ee.··.le~.,..'..sIT~· ,r-I ._ . ...} "'_40' ....' ,~, · J' ,r- .. Cross-style: Too ,early for classification.
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Condition; Excellent for a,'river-found sword, There Is a Iittle ..'~·l·t';n., . "d' me an pi ~J.g unc er" th ha cd bn '.-- pauna, ". "b'l'~" L.. .... on one ..own -.-t;, r uaoe ~~ sidee._aename u :. G IN"'G"'/~LR'[I' m 1- '.- ieuers m 81.: In iron, on ::""&"r. .~, iarge 1..... inlaid ,," .. _l~ tho ..... me oihera,.,~ ·_v ..: .... IUU.~' \I.' .pright . strokes adiazonal cross and seeuenceofthre ." ".... .. : _1I.Ilv.~".. . .'.c-":s., ._ ~ tdini '. .~! mese mscnpnons thr-ee more upng h,tS a1.som 181'[.m uon, -B thth are exactlyI., par" ,.' .. alleled by those on tb:e''S··W· ord once l·n·· y CIIJrr'e' : -, ~.' m :'. __ l .. ~ p.• t (N' X'g··· ies) now m .L e Gla sgow M"" . ",'_useumsee~' .0 .•...•. ' _m; .18, senesj, .. "1 . b11- ' .... _. ,..11..-. . --_. xl i 9' 5"0' ad" ,.. U nUL. I' was al,le to examine uns swore m 1" :>"'~I no bod- .,;y. h-ta . '·:··_··biF.-::..."....I!,~"IO!Ii ... ·. !·--':C .. "b'" ',"',.1 rki . .' OIW _.'e .. no 'Ccu ~Ue lDS._··D.p ~ons,1.1111 n,g belc the pauua.. On'ce [b" d· .. -.-, " I~a identified them, they' were cleaned. and brought to light. by Dr rbeert r - 'L.. .. -. . .. la . . _.- t _ -. M-': . . H· er, r Mary' ',_.,o.o 10. Ule R-' ese.arc, . iI bom t-ory ·8_ th·· -'. e!c_useum.~ Publication: [ think it would be safe to say every book, almost -.. - ~ - 'Ii " '. .. . nd - -. . .... every- arucie, In 'E'- . 'Ii~ .h ueaung - WIIu,' arms anc armour, fro>,rt m :~.·ng d ·'1" . ith,S'. the late ]'9'111 century until 'the latest one .. David Bdge's The rm . JJ I.""! M·I··. . ..tt:. Knig '. . A' :r'~ a" nd ./"1T.. '·0· ·"u-·~r-' oi t f.W '_. 'edieva... ·1: _11.,...•.. ·h\,t'London '-19'~,Q'8"'"~ 0.· -- - - , .. - bli, sh..... .... 'r 1111' - t··~ ... 0;." r·, ,,,.. ~. 1- 9 5': _, .rI ,A '00, t· e, .was, pu~·.. S . QI. :10. .':;1. A' n.zquar1.e s ~ OUTna' '/: In . '..-. 1 .'1r-. V."1 X·X··X··I J'00-·'A: ····1·'9"·4;'] N' - '1"'--"d2'" 'A.n' ~.~.,Ln.gelri Sx " di .. o.:iF ....~, ,_ - ·_:.pr . -'. ".:.OSE I W1:~, . 'I,~wor' In .~ .. IU_,.~. th,a B·I·n·~....sh M'·:useurn 'i..~ym"e"
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" 8 Typ-e' X Find-place: The, River W'itham near Lincoln Collection: The British Museum Blade~lengm: 32.'1 (81,~2 ems) 'p __ ]-! ~ .. ...:omme.c..:"·Il;iJPY~>:h· . I'er s 'T"ype V···· _.-,00 . -, . I Cross-style: Not in the typology :Date,: c~900~950 Condition: .A nearly perfect example of the unblemished fl' Co'.. ..~ . _ nda --_. . -. I:th' ' .-. . nver .... 'd'- '. . .re:re are a Ilew pits, an·:,· ome erosIon 0.11 ne. ed' g-es.. _].D··.~ s ..... 'bot 0'·'1-;.·:-·· -is e J_:. sur' face un.'cr U)·.· 'p..-'00" .3 0 f'- G·'·oo·:- e. thiu U le.r\V1->· irs ace, ' nd '.'- the. . ,8.: ., ". ..1 rtr '0'" .·0,,1. IS nearlY pel.JlCC .. '" TIll.. flame,'L" EJU"J"J:txIT' ·~th' the \..L'C,· h)'" . '1'-~ .. /J' ·, t "e· .- -..... 'I_Wllt .e first T placed. upside-down) :i8 inlaid in iro:n on one side, and tile single letter S on the other, These inscriptions J: was able to discern in 1950 at 'the same time as I noticed those on the INOELRI sword from the Thames" both subsequently being clean -;I ~'n'C' .\...~ Research Labo ·~tory·-,·::" f th e m 0' seurn 0' IUl~ ,__:_~~~.:_.~ .... ..._ There is. a similar sword (in the same condition) with this name .bb ion 0':, ...•. _' . ln xussia .. ~ (pronan l' y a, version of LE'O" -FR' .:]'C:-.).... -R' Publication: The list, would be 'l00 long, :for .it has appeared (like the Thames one) in almost every publication where the Vikinas or .~ ap near since '1:'1 was taken , J!,J, :o:m'. tho. e·· ~r·· ,.LM~.~.f!Ii.;] ~, their s W·'·'·O·'·. rd l""""'--"" v __ .. .. waiter in the 184jOs.~.
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Date,:: cJ~SO' 'pittiq overall. 'with deeper ;and,more concerarated corrosion It the point 'When th:is carne into my care in, 1960" there W'8S no visible .. '" " trace 0f'.. '1'aild InSCI1,pUons.~H" .owever, very care" f-'u '(' exammIn .,'," .! ,atmtm strong sun .Igh" sr oweo +'1.. .L were iron m I ays on In -t h .-..,...:11 ulat mere ~.!ll'l:"" side l make '0':":0: '.' the 'UL,• -, D ... t' ,.'_·'·,r l~l~IlJl.!!!oi.·._:, of the blade, Lthought "", II' cot .. -__ ,eV'.d:l>Uv.,.·, .. ,·.:_:··,_, .. ,-wd ~" 'B'"C;bf[j'T";' nam,e,. 80 '"I tri..detchins"1', the 'b'l'd""16, fiIrs writh lemo on , ',',.",' " """'. ,,_o,e,:, _", ,_e, '.' ,a __ 'st -,U,IJ, __ _,_,c' , e jui,~ewith, DO result" then with vinegar with equal lack of "",A' ','orces:ler"auce""= ani.d iLil,ename ll~l. '•• ... .LJ S', ....!.. 1 ""'0" E'LR' I'' I sucoess,,,S-- I'"mea 'W' .0 .. ~:" :__·.·,· fairly' leapt into view ~Now (as the photograph shows) after a A..I " .Le ',useum" tile ld 1~~a\Jie mo'r-e In. th" 'M' o:r '''~'' nam.'e hasuunmea d consl, 'iii __ d'" etably~ On the reverse was at fairlY' common sequence of k di ...1 'mafU"t- th upng'" h strokes. a diagonat 1: cross, r: '1] .... b .y tnree it 10 O'W~, '.~ . ~ mor-euprights ..This is also found upon the, reverse side Q,C tb~ INQ':ELRII' sword :from tile Thames in the British :~I"nseum(No~X',. 7 above), 'Th' swor " "tIl-" :"':' .. ".-'.:": log i..·.-'.~-~·.--·.: .", , J"<'.~.~ .. ....., d' W" e 1,">:'; ":::.'i·:J·::.~·:.:i·'· - Wl_ ':.: . .. : lS ~ yenoug 00' tea.'0'),e '.·.·.;·I,i .. In" th e.~,Y' 'ik.... _-'.- pe,n'"00' .. _." (O~iO:',:'.. '.' 'd '-.'d . c,." tr··· .,Ij ,'-' - tak 'e, 11.. .', 'f d.',.'ad -,' \i}'JJ~ IS ,a ~J:L 0' ,·ea; ".. enl-e'!i' gl,ve0[, .:" a couple 0 ,ecaes' either 'wa"'. and .. 'because.. of the form- 'of its long''" narrow cross 'J J, .. , . ., . , , -. - - .. - - ., ]B,anxcellent example of a sword of a kind: whichthe Vikings e caUed~GADDHJALT"I ,,~,Pl e... to; 'Hi] ~~,~<, ',-1_, I,: ' .''" - S .,~. ,~: '", Pub~ic.ations:Oakeshou, SA C'Plate 1. ~C~(This shows the sword wltmla'OTip'--, which I nut on lit 'which me Museum removed- and befD~etoe, Worcester Sauce treatment revealed, the inscrip ... G"": ,' ".'','=", " .n:HA·, . -, '-'." ".' :'A"',), ,":'. ' 1",/'" ... ' :,'.' ..' ~1"lTI~~ Scou J','~,= E·',;uropt!Wi, rm.san· "d'" ·-.rrnoura: at ae,vzngrove,;
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Find-place: Unknown Collection: Ex, Harold Petersen, .DO'W private Blade-length: 32~' (8.1 ems) Pommel ..type: J Cross ... style:· I (restored) Date: Blade pattern ... welded, perhaps Ci]OOO~ Hilt and inlays

·n· 'E· tx c a'v' a red Good e 0" rigin al p-" tina ~iO" n of a Goethite once cleaned off w,itb acid, gi:ving the blade a nasty leaden look, Since coming into, my' care, it has been rehabilitated, and looks. as an excavated, cleaned blade should, ,'C) aows UI,e swore-on Il,y b I d:C and pomme 1-.. as l,t was In .L d d .,. .. \~: Sh mac Harold. Peterson ~ collection, s (ii) shows .it as now 'with the crossvery well restored .. Publication: GUll Report, 1986; Oakeshott, MS Pt. VI]]. The engraved and. inlaid inscriptions on this sword are very interesting for several reasons, The blade is pauern-welded and so is unhkely to be of ,8, date later 'than c. 100() but the inlaid (in silver) patterns are very characteristic of a date in the second half of the 11 t11. century ,.as shown in (iii), The meaning of th' ' 1"S'~ m ark, no' 'th··' e 0'" bverse 0: f the b!la:d" ;,('1. 1~ " ob....['0:_D, s ly· . fairly .'_."v':t' :_. IU,ll.)·: _ ,_·v, intended as a.schema. for a church, or indeed TIle Church, for the arch at the end of the two parallel lines (the walls of the. church) is of exactly the same character as that ShO'WD,. for example, at (i v), a panel from. an Ivory reliquary ,of San Millan de, la Cogolla, c. l0150~ Arches. of this particcular form are shown. in, very many man uscri pt pictures dating between c~ 750 and 1100. The sun, or star, figures, are common Christian symbols; the meani '.g [of the pairs ·of upright rectangles. is obscure, as i.s the stran,g'e conjoined. pair of crosses (Crosses -i P0- te ·n·t)· at th· e p'-oint e nd 0" 'f'c' ·th' ~"v de sign Right up n'ear -the PO''I"nt" V ,'",., on,this side is a cross fleury, like, a .Bishop' s processional cross, On the obverse are,three circular motifs, a marigold (symbol of Christ) between two Greek crosses, 'This, form of Greek Cross, with the equal arms very much splay'ed out at the tips, is Ill.. -, e same period a··s··. e 'th-; L~ fo un- d very freq u~n'tI:,'-y~'in art a·c·t "_. __ .~ 'arches' mentioned, above, Le..between c."750-1l00.,, A. 'very
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good. example is on the, Ardagb Chalice, in Dublin (c,,850), But.[as a Cbristian symbol it, appears everywhere during these

(ear-s in this form. 'very similar inscribed andinlaid .. n-silverpattern 'was found i
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)y Dr ..Leppaaho in a late Viking grave in Finland. (V)M This is

in. style (particularly the Cross Potent) though not n content, tothe sword under discussion, that it must have mginated :in the same workshop, :if not actually done by the am ·.e. han'-" id , ": .•. \t the point on the obverse is a small hand, two :fingers raised n blessing .. This :is, parallelled again in art (i,e, The Bayeux Iapestry) ve.ry frequently in. the period ,c~ lQ()()-,1200" Ihe blade may have been an old one when these designs were nIaid in its surfaces, for pattern welding (as far as we, know' ;t present) ceased 'to be used after, let us say AD 1 ()(X)" but the iesigns were absolutely 'typical 0'( the later period of c. 1050U
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150-'"C'-:"""-" __ on~ ·:xc,av ._ dition: rated nO'ir very ,g" __ Thl-' 'e cu~ges,are consl_· ... ood '-" d'i ..on··_',..:vu, '_.-~ " ,d· erably perished, but th,e surfaces are not too bad except down, near the point; there 'may be about '2 ems of this point, missing, Once in 'm"v' n=w': ..'"~collectio ··n bo···uff'ht-·3,fr C risties ·'t- the"-D'A; c··le'-, -.... .. .. "· ' .. .J v· n, in .•.' " parted eith ~I[ . -'1 Ed' . war d ~ I>W.-e 1." ,'1960·-'--'" I' ''-cW' u:;y, W1.! l, w'- G'" ,1I--:-S'g'-',- , ,~, 1- '9- 64·~1 A" W·.' .".. !la~~ow1.0 very .•-~.., I'ight .', '.I ' ·.. -1'A;I'.• 0· _-'." -o--d ~s , mark on ',,~~c ueat ,,',j,_., . ", and.• ; w····,v I' balanced .....• :aw·(c.", There I;::' a ... ~,A, '.,-' ....' · L,:the 'blade which. corresponds interestingly with similar sym .. b 1- rormmg part- 0 '----1 anger mscnpnons on,l--e hi a}.es a.f. 0,''- , er '. ..' hjd th .-0., S t'.. ~ swords shown here, below, partie ularly in Appendix At.
"D- ',a,~: '? c'" ] '100';-: ."-. - 'il ,_ +,~ "" 13' .II.
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CoUecd.on: Ex E.J~ Pocock, E. Oakeshott, D~. Oliver, Now !I~·it\I.m'. M'" G,IUii.l't'-- W:~U~ ~('I'Aum Blade length: 2,6'" 1("66 ems) Pommel-type: 1 Cross~style: ] Condition!, Quite good on one side, but very perished on the reverse, Each side -inlaid with Ietters and pattea ns in gold, id nomn ~' Jl . ~[-OS8,fUl. pomme 1- (.. WJilC IS very, ,at,' liile-- . ,eaibtscui t)" 'in, g:'.:: ". .. . k", . I,SCUI<' • ood ._ ·'d··"ii,..; ..--.- .. ' ith . '.-,','. d.. - pitti ," ,. ·. "~p' 311,:., oon, .', uun WI, , some ..·ee~~' ng ~ .... ,'g pU~'l·'c:,g·t··',Ion'.~~ see,·A····,PI" ndi: 'S' ~- u ,~, " --"-., ,'. "','.~' . 'I'-'pe" ,ulX, 'R.,j(il little .""'; offered tor .........in Car isle I~n 119IAl6:·'··'· Ie Uho· ,v sword .. was~'""ll!:_ " having been found by the seller (unknown to me) hanging' in qf"~1'"ii'" ki ,ltchen in N'0' mhumberland . ....How '10,~'n,a'it' had-. be'. een lb'ere . ', m -..."_.. ,er ",_" ' .. v IS, aotreconded ~b.·ut, Its presence on mat wa 'll~ oes suggest ' th "'.. ,~ . td c •nar ,',t was" a. local .~ id Th'I IS d~~'" '0' or ,SU·' .-""l'I,t that '1"'[ il·S 0:1[ E '~"-, 1:' ,'R,g,Iish. L --"' ,(le'" " .~', ,lln.,~ , __ ,,_CJei:l ,g,geo:) Ul-, -(orBritish) origin which :it most certainly j,s not Though ::'.-_..-"! S vith io,' ~", .n . executed inilaid in scription ; s IL.OO__ ..' ,i~iu.., ... ' f!wo,f"d'WI " these~ bea 11,'tif-uUy'.,"_--:',iL,. ha 'I............ODn,,~,·,JJ ,over' ·E·' , . ." - 1, IS now th' ou.,g ,,,:0 be, mos_'t' ij:,e lLJCt.jn nd a)."ll, .. ,urope" ;it 'fo _' .' mehr ,.- ":-.:--', ,- ":'00''__ e, tha.,t ~ :ey were ma··,e. m,~,en.",aJ'" _ 'E'" -b'l' d" .-, 'C,-,,'. ,. '--tr' ib 'I' ," pro ·.,... . " ,.,,-·urope, pos~u,."y, ,m Jii"e, o,.'··f· __an cien t N·,·. oricum J' where _ most of +'1.. e w, ..-eaoons __ the - . .v ".. . IIJ-W. area wvu __ UI ,~ ... Lli v .y.-~ " usedby the Romans were made ~ and, indeed, those used by "Ia:lt'Q, of the La' •.... Tene period By analogy with U~ Iron age v~-._" ;_.,: ... rd ..0110:: In V'ik d i .·,_In,g gravies In 'FiO '1' d duri th' 'Ja" SWD· S f 10.1,8n. iunng tne tate 1940 s;1many' of whose blades bear these inscriptions and. ibed b ,," -- .' 11 be ted· " -- ,11, '.: LDiaY,S,t Ulese 'f'; --,,--.y lDScn.·:·_ .- -.~'I a'de': I--',S can a,·,·,) ,- da·'.~ -' ' . , 'fImn.l,Y 'to' c_lne, ...•... .:L- pen;. -,to' 5:" _, " -'··b'II -':,' !uC l,arr. ,~-, :Co lUiL-e ~~od' .. '5-,,-: ",- 112' :~ • I't' IS possl:il.e to, 'b..... " "I'"Y.PO,S.Iitiv a:, u~ L '" 0' , . v,e ibo t .. Iear· " 'lb' f m-" '~l 0:' f-- ,lb' . "'00 £-"nn~' _-'. S' 0"".f :-:-' ,.. i" J_., :8£.: 1-'o mi· 'bee'- ·s::-'u' a,a l't wnscri.ptlon and d.esign w'cre :mad,e by only a v'ery few trained . -J'Ni" - '-h;O;:i"'O h '. fi' Cit~1.gmp:~!&~~ wO·', se ' 'hand" w n"' ng' ""'~I 'lI....,........ d .t~ ed- and '. :,n. . - ~. n IVV'f."en.ll_!_1 ':.';) 100...
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a' betw th,e' 10' ' -'. an--"'~d *1J...e .. Ac" ij co r atin , UII 1-4.abbreviation mark for the word 'qae' (and): I sugges'l that. the ,~~- -~- ..-" ... ' h m,eanlng' mlg.L t be "B-"'E-ATI' '0''MN1PQ' '." .' .. '. TEN' ' S'~Q'"00-" AN~-'-G"EL- r' . 'C'" "HR]Sn" ... Blessed and omnnpotent (are the fiJll~. S" of ,":)'" <: ,A ngel ,C' "-00' . ist This art"I"' roll e' 1"tc re '. ted in A·"ppendi B·I 'L.......ow ... I~·.' ' Ji."pnn",_, ,,,,It'''v'llX
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as.hort·,bla.ded. sword, for :serious fighting, keeping: his 'beauti ..· luJ.~,family' ,sword, (a ri~-h b,eirloom) "Aeltartangi" for social
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b"'~a',d'e'~~""C 'v·e··'ry"-','-. cthort--, w"'as···" o··'-'n'c·'e-::-' C"o"'n' I -I flL",AI~~I""~'--, ~ : I"',,. -',r' ' 0', '·r C·,'-·u~-- t, d" 'o····'w·',·_.n·" b' ·U'· til'_--- '1S:' ' .:!! !lJ~.OO. to''.' "b~. 1,... ......... '8.-, u~it'I~ II. ._, d"~L'''''''''':D , 'b-:'_...o~,k,p,n'l ~ ~ , ~, M~im~ 'UnUkely~.' as'; the sword ,as it· ]S~is pe·,.···rfectly,_-b-- 'I nced-- and .'.' __ ,'a•'" '. nnrt'ii-u]," uD -ho'~' .' ~.."-d' very po;pu.ar ,'.'. '_---. "'" 1 LS, . ~,'Ii. one 0 a ,~. ~.C ar - 'L,.':, d"":0 'f S" rt' .sWOf., ',.", s~re'J.y ~. "f-:-' fromthe Migration 'period to the InduS-'trial Revolution" There, · 'h '. f d··thN [smuc, men'bon OJ'' su.eh'h" 'on S,WOf.S In -e !·~,orse·S·· ~s, ,'agas. .. tho~Je poot-~warriorOre'Uit the Stto'ng, fOf'instanc,e,. aI'ways p.referred
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veJYrare,~ Thisone was bcu,ght, :in, 1946 by a c:o.nector I 'knew well~ Mr;j J. Pocock; he '(pl.dme of -it in 194 7 and sent m,e a pho,tograph, bIt I Drev~ersa,\\! or handl:ed, :it until i.t W'SS offered- to me (I 00UI'h. I, it) in 1983 ~In 1985 I exchanged it with JvIr David ~'· ba ~ d' " M ~ .c, :,sgow" OLIver. W_..cO~, s Slnc,e' d-lepo.s]_te~1t ~.n 'u"ie·:,-:useu.m :[0 G ,:la lubas. been fully described in an article in the Catalogue of TheTmr!d .Park La.ne A.rms Fair, 'where 1: :poswla'led, a possible ~,'. , ,t!" ~.. . ." "'B -memunglor. -- •.1i..., en Igm a Uc· se·(les. .0 f; th' ~ letters ...: 0' '- A C"' Lne ., ".." '-.!e ...,....1 l.': ~ '"d c" 'Ule ~,a"", ~ k l&e .. . [~peBtw!';ouc' tJ.m.e,s:'IOn. cae h' -51 e· 0:' .. t.. h1 de The mar",. l~l ,
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-- ,3, X., ITvoe: X J-~'~ -', -F-'In d... 1 , p, 1iCtt Unkn,own ,"', _< " ,,' "~no, ecti '"'"~ W' '~",,'ll'lI-::b"·"::C '_ ,"",,' ' ' C'" ) "~_'- , ,-," ',,'-'" '" :Z'",'-- '~"" ·h'I., C'~,o, ec, on~ 'n..... ':'il~ ,czec",' ",'O,Jlloo on, Lan'd' ,egmuseum," ..,/'unc',;o,
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exam:- le of a. Tvoe X····,·.w~--'o''',-rd' ': p J.r~: . s .. - .',_ _ 'po u bI-" canon; H--'--0 ff'::meye,r I-I' ,P ate,,: 8,_',8,&', P,..:", '.N'.".Oii~'" IX C' n 1"')£ ...• ~ H _', s It, -"1 Oak ...... il'O..~" 5"!AC'-=~ p~, ;-_:'fi-~',,, '1.':", an'd .Plate '2: .. " 14' :0"', I,g"" 2·,"7' " A'·', ~!'SJ .-.b::c u -11:'::., WUW!'
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Pommel ..~,· A ',_," ,. . ~J ' stvl _c. ~Il..y C.r~~ ... e' '1' '1100" D. , ate: (:",,1. ,,'.', 'or ear l~ leI """ - me __ hCO[l-'_In,on:_;,-~,:_, on th'', e wno Ie: some areaso f'~putmg, b~u.t th' d~~ G- ood -d '1"" .. eagea L..... not tsuff ...... nor h;- s th'lae h"'1t, Th'" 1,8 a 'very .u.u:ge, nave, Sll_jQ:'oo,~, a t ., 1 .nere "ndstras ::·1'" -- ll" ,.'_._ "',mscnp ·· ' '." - . "' '. ofth an", s'u,,,gg,log 'ThfG:"··E-L'D'n:i'c·,--···,-- ..,'-,:U'..on" on .'one " St"d'- Ie0 Lilt€' bladee; . ~~_ , a·, unusually close up to the hilt This is an absolutely classic
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16203 B,I~d, .e-length; '-_.,~--41" .('·86> '~'" 1iI!..:.. '. tI1._·, . _,..",LllllI!I 3': ".'~
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'TyPe.:·X(short) Find."p'Iace: Unknown C~·,ecuon: E n-"A" -. ~:W,m.uS~ N~" ·0 n' ~... . ~<x_. ···ere "d' -_..:I. ·~owprivate B1a.de..]',cll,gth: 23,~~ 5 em s) (S8.~ Pommel-type: H c.ross",sty' Ie: 5 ~ Dace: e, 2:50 C,,·---·di· !'.';'-" ~;; E·'· ..:,-, .. ·it,......1 \¥ro~.y _Prl',_.uon .. xc·a.v,aJt.,CU In-' bablv s n.ve,r-. L d)c, Th" e b--_.~:',e IS ,8 '.-.' ~'fin' ..:.~ ..ilad -' ., [fit ". .... with . a . little. corrosion zood ..' _. under the patina, 'The pommel and cross are of copper" maybe once gilt; but 'when I handled it m 'iIInt:ll !t't anC' y.,. IJta,.""·V~~l ·-·C' ete is a" c... p' ....c ..... engra v i traces Th·' "v, oss .-. JI7Y.·[ I' co uld !n--"· g. nel .' 'd" e8C.u ' adlv - -011:· '. "d"- --c-·f In I~uet: .' '" o· •,e po,mme, ,.,an..· .-.c--.I... 'b.:-roa· llY"'S,pIB,ye 'd- .' en·· 0·· I,aces of :thecross guard is engraved with ,8 little grotesque figure, a lar,ge round head with little legs coming ftom under its chin, enclosed wi thin a. circle with tendri .8 going' back towards the . .. 1'. . ecesson, 'Th~ fi - ." so S,tro.' . I acm-. tc ",L c, B' 'aoewyns. " m ,IS ngure IS . - r ,' ngiy ....... " 0 Ole '- - be- ----,. ~. t7 'II" sh man te period 1230...3::·2' :!o· ...··· that it 1IS'" .'.~ 1 ,PI n··-·g··· '_- .'U' scripts of th ~'. ~.-;-, .'~t'n'bl' ,t ."~'.' ho ..',~., t' E" lIS ---::"-' lneVl1~ e. LIlla,·,one s· o u1id~ sug,gles, an.-n,g.. '1:· . h origin, "or ~L.lC IJJ "'II- Thf IIl-L e:,a~.,e tot Id '.. h;b,t!,· __ b-"1d may 0:'. COUISC,c a 'I" O._.J~~,r~ •ere IS In 'ute fuller on leach side an inscription of three 'minute Ieuers, 0 s ,- 'C---ompanson wnn othe - swor s .(". rxo,.. ' .1'1- he -):."h""'h--" o, 0.·" er swords u,e. N···:·· 'X'-"']' nere W tc ~·~\-: 12~·th·' ntui ~ da.•~ 0 ear~y --;-. have 'lQ'-: be. dated t-:-· '....." . -, ceo cury, p()In LA1! CIearl I~O a:.·'-· "W c.,ll2S..7,5 for the blade .. a good example of an old blade ~ ~~lted·:c~~/. :', :-pl'us' or~.ml·.u-8'".::,.'8'_ecaade or so'·'· 12:';1-:'0" '. -. in de ,,· '.-'_, .. fG-ul,.',
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Blade-length: 31 (78,,.18 ems) Pommel-type: 1. eros s-style; 2 'i'a~ n-"'·., IlN\S'-:'O'" ' _:a~~ CF ., !lJ.V""~" . . all '..' C0'1- _~lbon:_'erfect; oneortwo sma areas 0 f'puungunc der th _ 00·, '" P ne very black patina, This, is a particularly 'interesting and important sword, for its bla..'d,6 h as, d bl fw' '1 '. lvtoth '. ..I. ····e,some ,_' ,'OU "1&-,. ler-s,runrun,g nearly to ... epomtt(lik ' fine V,ikin,g swords) and has a very beautiful lettered inscriptio in 0"';0," one side running rigbt aer nss bo fu1,'1, ers - an, 'd:'- an:,' ' . bol th th mterestmg series 0:f' symeois on tne otner: on eacih- S.1:'6~,near . id the :.', in ,t' I'";-: a-. ',~l -- e ..'.-," .., .... --:t o sh . " ..', '18U! ' , po -.~, S '- l- :"ttl"· cres.cen_,-IBoon ,s-,-_ap ed 'fi-'~ " .-'-.eF',A','·11I,a, re- . In .); ,3],· . ".1 . ., , " id
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strikingly similar' character and form, which shows 'that iis : ,.,.. ~":·d·li .. · f· lue ".,'. da te ,'" a e .",-, ·'0····· ";. swor :"lS, 0... .11..,., samle_.~__ ,- I.e,. Ci'1]' 00·'... mSI.e8 d:' .'. 'f"'· 13'_,4',,~.,as~ o. Ie.. is labelled in the Museum and has always been so dated in f. _ countless publications in which it has appeared, The, form Of' ...... -. h'il"~:_,"" .00, IS exac_y . paral1'!e:c~euIn seve ··tl ~.. ' ·"1"11 ."d ,I:, of '. pp'auu:c ... IU,le t 1 0 Lene 1, '1...'0 ~ - ;-1 ." In,' ~ c__:R 11.. fa iOJu',:. Jll 'v ence,; :UJ ~r...... V"'ki'~',ng grav1e ..f d·'S,. :-] .•lIJ!leo ,alce 0, 'f c-' ch e' '·;id~:-.':' the v·;Ptry·'_ ,hll!\.! _ _.p.Jg -" _~O' ".u~i4 ~ da'f'; n.' can n' ,t ~ ~ -~siam! ed Publications; ,. , ...' Lak ~._"~!,,, V"','· 'I'·'Oakeshon. A 0.' ..' W' Plate 18 dng '0 .. ,'·1. , ,_'" _'.' __ (where it is 'wrongly dated, Dr, Leppaaho's work Dol having 'b,..•' ,'n ,'~ blish e. ,w'-~,en wrote lIue ,.':_: .• ee' - pu_ ,lIS: ·-d·'··,he I wro,. r :cA..
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.in yellow metal possibl y (because of tbe very high quality of the bl d )' th~IS IS go,ld _ . ,ere :18 a-,-~a~e:In 'H I '" ki'. 8111ong..f\. Th .' bl d') .. ,,681ft·.·· i "'_8 6, .' ,_,~ JA -. . 'V'i .. -- -, -.. . i ~,In:: . - - I.. '. ieuer ': m -: -. • ~ 'f',;i w Leppaa 'h'.0' S '-'.'.kj'-,._mg grave, fi-~ d .S WiUI a, I ..f.B -oed'._'~., scnpuon ·..:-t
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in Inscription from similar Finnish sword,

34

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-· ~.~ Type,..X d uace: ie ::'O<' ... ,-- - eat nno- '°"'1' : _"h-"'" R'.'·Iver'G'" rea:··O use CoUecti,on': The Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, -· - - C· eg'6,·C· - -- b rid . Do 'wnmg . 0'11 ..arn _.n'ge Blade-i!englh,:: 0~iI (77 ~5ems) 3 '1 ~J ~- .'.~. Pommer-type: A _ 'Cross-sty le: ]
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-b-'U;'-, ,on~-._ eshor t p_"<. . !.J,n-, I .2'"c C A-C," P 0.' ,ea.tio ,.Oal .... nAl. This is an excellent sword ,-'q' nile Hg· and_ well-balanced "..but" ._ "'ht __ _ ' _ -._ I "have,only held it very' gingerly because that great hole must have --_.... t......A the L:IIad 0''''·.n tho"1;... Iron lnLay on- 0 _ ;2t1.'de IS th e UVI~ weaseneu :'.. mace. .'. iror '1'- - on e ~'~ ~ .' ... ne
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Conditio,n:Excellent, except for a large hole just below the cross which must have been. caused by 8. piece of stone or j:..i\·me···Cf~ material in th,'··~ pea ty' m ud 0'- f- th-~ ~ive r -bed .'j ~.-' _-_ oraanic ..' vn whic'n allowed oxygen to '[each the blade, and corrode, it a·-·'I' .1. tliat spot, The iron inlays are Intact, and show up clearly,
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35

TypeXa

Characteristic of this type is a long fuller,like a X, only narrower - but not so narrow as an XI. This is a very fine distinction, and may seem unnecessary. In fact. in my original typology of 1960, I had not isolated it; I put all Xa's into Type XI. It was only when The Sword in the Age of Chivalry was reprinted in 1980 that I decided that there was a clear distinction, and so in a new preface to the book I added my new Type Xa. It may seem a silly distinction, depending only upon the breadth of the fuller, but I think it is better that such a distinction should be made. There is no real difference in dating X's and Xa's, for both types were in use together from c.l000 on. This is proven beyond any reasonable doubt by a series of swords found in the early 1950s by Dr Jorma Leppaaho, of Helsinki University, in a large group of late Viking graves in southern Finland. These are all clearly dateable to the second half of the 11th century, give or take a decade each way; and the information as to reliable dating, not by the form of blades and hilts but by the style and 'handwriting' of inlaid inscriptions, which subsequent x-ray photography of the blades provided, is absolutely crucial to the segregation of types of sword and sword-inscriptions, and their dating. Among these finds, the incidence of X types and Xa' s was about equal.

Xa J.. 2
'[.Type: Xa, E'~'n.: .-plac 'Ie-.,U' nknoI.. wn. r-il' ld:' ~.". , :,' '. '. .
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Collection: Wallace Collection" London (At459) (····'85 ". -. " RIa'd'" leng th: 3~3(~''Ii -. ,.,'7 em~ "~s) ?~ .< Pommel-type: J ·,-··· C_.ms,s"'"s··t· Y ··1··.., 2···· ,e~./. 'n' . - , '7' 11:00" ? I' 3':.00:-:' vim: '. . J. d ,. ~:'·.xca ted- 'M .' 'In. :'Ot . I' Con.: mon; ? E v atec ,~_a:y'. be a. river- f~ d ~ b COU Id be . out ~ "bi';f,; of s, tom b ['ts coned iuon IS as near per I ect as n lS .poSSii·: e 1,01 '.'~'. ., ~.. ,.1..1i... h' h sueLL,I 'w'eapon to' be.'~ Th ere is no pitting be .... ln~e.nard .~'. . .: .:·····nedJUl ,. I dt ~ I ue.... t hI bl ac,k purpus'" h panna, onry h' er-e ano there (p' ·artJcu Iat1y nearthe point) a slight roughness like groups of tiny pustules under the patina.
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2 Typ! 'X a Flnd,"piace.: S~,Finland, Collection: Helsinki University 'd- _en.gU[I' . ' ' -1.,.. .'..)... B!1~a, e-I'- - .,.iw. .. (B'.ro.A.len., Pommel-type; ] c.r.os,s- style: 2 D,ate:1050-1150 d ltlon: x' . ery o:_ ... . a' 'as' .,.;' .. ··. · ,Iu.,i.:...., -'D. C on. lu..' ; '., E"~' c a:-V"'a".a·d:b tVi' .: zoo ..·d , Th. b··I· d e w:~_· cere.. mon,... iRlly' broken before burial,
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This:magnificent weapon is, I believe, the, very finest, medieval sword :in existence at present If there is a finer' one, I don't
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titaJt ,8, better should. or could, 'be, found ..It is not Just its perfect I:.... d 'ii... hi ..·.:. · pres~rvatl0n ,- ·LUe·e'ges are as g,lllarp as a we.'""~'on ed carvl_ng i ~.. ,,!'.t: .bea Ul.uJl 1 nen Cia Iour ,..- us 'pauna'iub -- t.th S. ape ,,::.&, ' ,,~. "f' A.IUle or·.L.Le U. o. ~ '-,. . .. ".;: ,,,._~e. 'h'" ".of the blade and its perfect setting in the simple hilt whose . ...... dons, .... ., . , . -.--th·· .+~.. '11'i1 -~'. .. ... .'., .'1-' ':11. . propor'~"~..... are exact··t],y an'd aes_' ,e,uC81llY rtg htI.~ l't IS c ..e"atl.y 0' f" Type Xa, with its finely tapering edges and long, well-marked R [lier',; :u.t '.-.1(.). section OJ-'' th bl 3,; e IS very complex tho " f" ne / d ~ 1 an d l\O 1. b : -. .:,'- ls ;.. '. ed :-:- Jl .. , n, t sop h~· ..... te.d:-- lor eac·'h-. 'e, '.g,e0 'f::- th·]·e. C'·'D.•ler,'..;. -', a.' s.tr· ,.- ". n'd I.ge J:c.a.,·.:". t:: JLorms JI ong or rib, from, which the surface of the blade, sweeps down to d~ h eac cutnng enze 10 a strong concave, curve .. .'_ [D '..:_. '~S··sword y .... .... been e fo: ......:".:._... fo Thl_.~. .'." 'has';'alwa ",s····· "" da·.. d upo"n"·its 1,1 no; . alon e ,i r ",:.: ill· .b. .' ... to. fi 11 f14th,' I~uereS neunermar k- .nor mscnpuon, 'to •tnetirst. hiar f 0',·thie '_:. ' century,.'This may 'be so; but 'it, is of a, type which 'by analogy t··.. L.. ." eeen • .... 1.-.. seems no·t..0 nave .l...._..... . m'" use as. late as..•. ..... ' ,... more.par ucu 1'"any,. ate ' UIO\[,. . ,,' 'nt.~rr+1· . ,,11 theform ofboth hilt. and, blade are parallelled exactly by some ~U'or'dl,o:in those gr':' ' ~,a··y'j3.(1 cleared bv Dr Le'p,!n~ LO.c, The ~.·JI. LV . ..... photoVilI·.. "" ~v·: ."J '-,. -·.t'~1 graph of one ofthese, (Xa .. )~ shows how exactly similar one 2 of these hi.lts is; the facr that the 'blade is of 'such fine and. 11..' ,. kmansl ,. ." 4th sopuls:tJJcated workmanship 'is no argument at ,,,,,~'1 for a 1." '. &1] ,oon£ury-" .date fO'r',even as early' as the 'La Tene II riod bIn,Ae:"s~,au··' of equal or even 'superior ,quality Wl~rebeing' mad,e~
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~·d"'''''-~llo··'''n .an:"'d: th~',,~, cit":h·- o·•. 1"r·.·-lIy.7' l~nc.is·;f.a.'n~:c.··.,.e·'· o.·'f'C' a lU aJ ~ " ue ' d' · ~ . museum aut hon.·.. S". th- 1 I s,w'or·... Wl.l,111 contln.ue to be ~J_lS .Ilove Y ~'-'" '1'- b"· . 1.···: ., d· . d f U.1C ar-' y '" _ . t·· - ~ ,- ., .I.•el'lled" . , an_ ca' tal·,' =o;gue~ '" ,Wj 01. .,·L·C" 'e.'. _ ·1·." 14" th'~~Ice,n" my .' 'b.' U t. It ';,fln" npc· ..·e·.i.J.sar··_, ••· ily' s·,o A·.' ve'~ry-'- 'm·uc.··h· m"'ore= c.'lI"\ed···· l:·b·:I"e·.··· da··:,],.tA Ii .. 1;;;[" e.o"',r: '_ , '~.A --.' , 11 >.::...,: ....- d" J! ·WOlby. b~e 'II... .... ·t· W 'c'e'"' - yes~~ 1. O'. 5"10 an,' l' .'II .' 100 .. ~._:,.:JJ

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Collection: Private ..Once my OWDi 81lae '1'·",·- ··"·th· '"' 3:4·11J...lt \;' Fern,s,.. ): _ ·d·~1 ...eng" 'VA 1-8""7" 6" '.':: Pomm el type- - A Cross ... style: 1 Date: c ]IOC"5~'O" 111-00"'1'" Condi tion: Excavated, and properly (non-acid) cleaned. Some .:- '·'r ;CIt6~'n-'f'I' Hr.::" real plliuDg e" tcept_ on the .trOD 0.::cpo" "m'-'-m"-e' 11 anrd .ms ~t --"'0' '.. ".:'w ~.x[:~ ~.'-. __ .'.c· ..-..... " "f~- . ::.f e cross, Grip restored in 1.97-8 'by me. This swore IS 0'_ the same rorm as,·to-· I~ i. '. ";. e as, the preceomg ~.~ "",...1.:. is s ord of LUe·, '.' itsblad .-,example, and. is in very much the same excellent condition. I
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.. ,'.. '"d" -.' d bv S~ ' 't' 'C'ODSI.ere· ,yOUJC.y 'l.. 'b' . '., t· ·k....... . -.... m 194·'6:" I· suppose 1 8jtO ,~, genUine . '.:" , .' ~ause 'allwas . t.._..... ' .. th'e. bls. aide '.' - - c ean ed' that ·,'t '.' .'. _.was -;1" .. .... U.J4, ,1.·, was,., ,so casu_·,.y i '...', '.ignedc:. ·1tn thee, c,egory '.'C)I, a f;:....·L-.- E' e-- :~'f:'.-".1._ had be n .laA.!!o!l'! care .--. f ~~v,;.n ooI1SI._ .... w. 1 it .C~,::." . ··:'-·e· a:'&:....'t.. centunes an."' -.,-.- - 'd to say m '14'th century sty._e 11 was. twe.. ",.-,-'~.and more Wl.--"e -' • . -'. - :1. ."
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of'the mark:" Thus a superb IItil century [sword. was saved from .. Id tile rut"b[ l.. - 'h ncr b .:sh neap to W h'~'h expert ...opmicn wouu hiave ICOn.signed it

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I bought it, ,finally.,at Sotheby's in 1977 where it was eatalogued .. .. '~asword in ., as .,.. -'" 14th centurv s,ty-'--·Ie ., the~'blade Sudanese'. • _. . - _"'J " ' .... ~ . " ..,. Thus. I 'W~I~ able to get itt. to r the price of a. good·~.· . ._ Once ·· _ ...._, .. ~ ..au _. v _....• d mner,.. _.· _~. _.. I 'was able to examine it properly (I chanced .my arm, and my certainty that it was no more a Sudanese 'blade than I was a Fuzzy-Wuzzy, when. I got it) it. was. plain. that in 'that .fine 'S'C" ...1......,. . blad mere was a weu1-'1..maae inscnpnon 10_:1-. 10 ad" la'd" ·~:.UUW.lese,:··'AilUe ",it.. ., ._"" ·~~T'CDO······ lrun -, see lJ." o.PPOSlIte '0':,··;-· .. 0"b"ve·rs.e, ,+ ",'·N:O···· ....Y!lU~~~.·· '.s= J.e.~ ;I-.\,..c ··::RUle ·.-, l .MIINI + and [on the,reverse a large Cross Potent, [ was able to enhance and clarify this mscription by the. same homely .-' ··tlt'....•.. d' escn·~. d.. a ',ve:.' ,t'.., .--''' mY···:__f ··EL-RII-···--, .swor~ on.1'y th··, .IS ..··,"· ,... ord .- ' - ' ,,' '.--. me .--··oos .. " cribe sbo '. I'or ...... " IN.-····G_. : ... . th: " tte ;([8 '- _-..... -}-,. ' .:'. rh b_ '. - +i.. '.. vinegar e:_~· ".me t.ue - ..:'...,--..-'.- _.- h-,A...I I: . e I,e. -'., C"1- [eaJ',.y enoug, , ·"VU l, .'A'· r'-c.. th e h''il'HI"1 I!iI'-" 1"4 .:1.., C:·: [en ·t,uty S·"t·,·:lI' , ·th...... IS, ,ag31R., exac··tI··· ,S lor, ,,_ ,I.. . n .,-,UI ". .... -,- -. ~-,. J.e ~_IS ~" ' .. '..- -'~." i_y y matched by sever-al of the Finnish Viking swords, as for instance iii below'. Also the slight amount. of corrosion and. patination of Goethite which had not been cleaned off could never have been reproduced by a forger", It was certainly
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E~~dm'place: hiulesea Mere, Cambridgeshire W Collection: Private ..On. loan, '1;0 the Victoria &. Albert Museum Blade..length; .343/4 I, (88 ems) Pommel-type: I Cross/-style: :2 D1Ue~:'c.J 050 ..,1120 A dit ,,,,,,AI rf ci·X,CaV8'tw~ U" pper part 0f bl ..... aoes SU "ace, :C. • 11 tamy C011:000.::' E weUpreserved along with. much of the ? gold ? lanen inlaid, in!Cripti on PubIleation: N."" o rth A,,' nth ;..:\I,I!!,~>" E:: ,PI~···::y~·W·j .- , rds p--"~·'!1:"~:':i!"', uronean S,,-W()- .~l'L 6< 1C!Ul·:.'l ,~". ilU,I;~ :','IIt,· O,TI'y-c .... Q,ikes'hott., SA C Plate 6.B
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'has vanished all but for an occasional gleam of the yellow ~~IIlI'1 ow' very V V ·····_··v.111~ vOVJL. :._'._ "'.r-~~ ·'''·v. ~~" m~UlI11~ H~'ow'-ever the -w- ~~Ui preserved - upper nart ('i'h" -I DC] i ihe, d'. '"- .~ e stye 0 fCC .-lh e we H' . onn ed '1 .ear,Y _- isnnctn " letters W, h__llC.h__ .· . . 't-,. . ..- ,-d~ -~.-."can,ee seen to 1l....... 01. '. ie same c 1-"ear-- ,'u'.... wntmg- las ee ,t ·th··,-- . - .. . .rianc 'i of a- silver-inlaid __ ~.li)·.·. whicb is.....a photograph taken. bv ,y --~----1:'"----~. y xrav .. .. 1._1 d blad . mS1cn.puon m a SW'OIL-'w:c..!C :~"~.,',- a. grave ·(:'V···· uu.ng. .. in S',":rrom ,,',',-'.,: !'~..,.; - )" .: F~n]ind, dating c.l OSO..,1125~This seems to give' a, clear and 'UJm~!l'u:~,voca1 to the Whinlesea Sword,. which is labelled date, i+t.. f tne :.• 'letona:'&. .~~J],uert,:, . All... M useum as 0 f, .L 'iJ-y tne aumonnes ot th V'· " me ~;i)'r"l-u14th·,-,centurv clearly wrong by 'i:W,,:,·:O'. centuries Th ~ fo.·,:,' -.--,-;-', ~, J -l rm o.(thehilt of the Whittlesea Sword.Iike the one in the Wallace, t:l'i'Al-l~,t':ln'n' _~ l~'n L' 0'-"ndo '0 (N<IO'" Xa '1 :I ,LJ,d~, series Qj,. V'_' .IS '"-'11" abo -'e)::',"l!iw!v U.'u .I~l --,~ ~\t'i;'L..,.A - .- -l-·11' -- ~..n L ,c'f it - . . ... .. .. "I . y mJ~ui;Ue,X8C_Jl.y as- 'to..... - rorm.--or II S pomme J",aD, d" very erose 1-;~U,e ,,1.... 'I f~' b h ·1! r-' ., "'~,,,,,,,,, d f'c UJy' tne s:t,y"e0" tne eros s, Y tne :-lll 0', a &1mnar swore . rom, F:inlandfrom the same group' of graves, Note the facetted ~ i.,-. -I-'Ii.. .. 1- 0 a " .. __ ..- generany, preVIOUS, 1y" oru y at", "f;" rorm . - -'1"1 .- .__ -' ~ --11 --,WnOO.. ' pommei, -~'b'- ,- -'d' , ,--- th - -- ..- - ~ th/'-' ' "- -- :-1 , --. - _.' -' \!l-ute •.to t, e, I'. ate ]-. 4'..'_:.ear:.y ]-' 3'- m- cen tunes.u('" v ')•. , rubUcation,,~ (ti,i) & (iv) Leppaah 0", pl~2J3,.i~
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iii Inscription from similar Finnish sword.

IV Hill of Finnish sword.

39

_, ~a!l-•.....• X5
Type: Xa

, 00' Date: C 1].':," ',nd ", ;_._: .. ::-·f-' ,- ~; ::- oth,- (jiUl' ,,"~.::, c'-".,~~..',.",'E''--'' ue·d 0'--...1 S·~·· ' c'otrOSlon . '0,· , smoo _ ,~_. coon 'luOll;,x"cav,a::~, 'U\JUliome ,t::O' . 1.... ".,,;1l "d I' ·h lace m pate h ~,es,p,artJCUkU,lIJy on one, ~U' e.. d'ecipnera b'1 traces, _'O;; '"e .- '~,-. -'1...... ld ":,- .. - ~', ' 1"" 0,.'f' - trOn lnwl_, ,lnsc:n',puon,a ·n th·;· U1U1:Y ' ·"e ~ .1.;00, ,0-81.• .'. ~ty' I-"'Do ,P-''-''bl'- IC,au.oOIl 'D'"UJ,.!i ,....;, 'P"'~a~ !!'"1'b"" U. ..... , h leo" ,cr ..Ie' I' ::_. , 0_~esott,t ' Jil_ ."P"'late 4 "0',:'.
i

Find ... place: Near Newbury, B,erkshire illectio ,'"H' l .nourv '-[X~C 102""':7· >Yc;u.- .. C 0, l~'C on~,"',.y 'Me:,i' Ro ,,;.~Arm :':_'~.I' "TTO"'W-;SiC' '0' f'LondoanI~,~, ,_~' Blade-length: 3:3n (85cm,s) ''.'ommc:'1,-;_,~',~_":_' P" type 0-:-:Cross-style; 1.
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40

aue ~" '~-X'·' arr 1Id":~'Peterson) 1_"rrl.l\iAl. '_. ~ Blade-lengtb: 34f-!(81'.7 c,ms) P· .. ,~ 'I"'<,pe,. '8" _umme ty Otoss..styI.e: 1 :Date:C,~l050~ 112S ~~~ " - d '"ti"· ' :' , ' eu.vrooa, ' ,', ...,-£:--- - . C·OD1· on: E--:xcava ted 0"'00(1-" most 0'f' snrrace survrving wnn considerable pitting'. No 'visible trace of inlaid inscription,
~'._ ~ ..... _ •.

""D,'U- ection:

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· '"U-:-·- ,,,~;.-: .. ·· ... -;. :.. ,- .... ':"'," '. &.1. Art G: d-:-11·.· '.' . ' .. . 2' ':'g g C,-oecuO-DI" G~'I'·asgow M-'··~·useom....._ -_'. a ..ery 11~-:'" ...
. , _" . _' .':r-~rIl . ~-~__ . ._ -_ '~--['.
L.__ ' •••• ',.

Blade-length: 33mi' 8.5cms) ( Pommel-type: A squashed-up variety' of Type I vr ".: . C _ross-sty lie;: 1

Cond I' tia D... X.CI.R:a.l~ hea __ ,"'1· . .' itted ,I.,' _leu')"'"I"Y n to thC' 'e" E' ".ava '.0!11...11, .'. VI_Y uo part ," ar :'_ _,-Vitu. '.' ..' ". " .:..' point, some liT (2:'" "'~',",- approx, ..mI.·Sing, COIIUU . ,'. '. rzcms _ , ',' ". c.) ',... ssinz.corroded away, Publication: None
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Type: Xa

Find.. lace: Unknown (Continental) p CoUection: 1,'.M~Ro:yalArtnowy,~ 'Iowerof'Lcndon.Di, 1081 Blade-length: 32n (81~2 ems) Pommel -Type: B.]. Cros,s-Style: 1 Da~e:,e,.] 100--50 Conditicm Excavated. Good, but surface mostly corroded i,way,. No ace of inscriptions. The hilt is beuerpreserved than fire blade, which is very far gone near the point, Publication: Duf'ly, Pla,te· ic. The:re:'.8 a sword of similar form in. 'the B ernisc .~. Histori ' es aches Museum in Bern (No ..134 in the 1929 inventory), the ,pip of which is, minimally shorter; otherwise 'the, two ave i,dentical. The 'Bern one has remains of a silver-inlaid inseripl£on(see (ii) below), The Tower sword was in the D')Acre Edw,ards collection sold at Christies in 1960~ I bled 'to get ir, butSir James Mann for the Towler beat me, though Iran him upnicely, A very fine, well-balanced sword whose very thin, naL and flexible 'blade makes it handle well.

ii Inscription on Bern sword

43

Xa.9
Type- Xa ~ .~. "'~ ~
-'

Pommel-type: 'R Cress-style: A slender form of Style .5

, .-..','_- O" '-, D','ate~Cli.'I 0-"'-5~',',',"".]
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Glasgow ,._,useurn ,W M',,-' D-, U Bdward Barry) ,A.~6·5'33 Blade ..·length: 36:'" -(91cms)
V
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:' 'ollectio 'nili' C___:O ,,,,,,,,,,.11-£. :.::n...,

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I' '- --, ,..-,,;L ' ,- -, 'j; _' . 'fC ..;11,"'''""", ..... ..4 h- , ' )1 Iveorl~ea.conpJeO.'.~dUeseac~_way, 'Condition: Excavated, very good, 'The surface is lightly cor'!ii"'ii,Ai.....-..I ~ ;- __ _., ---," of rooea m-, a curious -, mo 'W' sA way; ._{)OlUng'11,:1"':7,-- some kind -"0 --~~ ,,- 1-" -c·li,..! -- UAe LUI. S
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nanern ... , ,- -- butsinee this mottling £II ' - over 10 the edzes, " weldine: ares - - ,- - -,C - 1"'it is most likely to be a, rather unusual corrosion pattern pro due ed by whatever organic stuff surrounded. it The remains, of the, iron-inlaid inscriptions. (the, inlaid, strips h " " '~ d '. h 'bl _.-_._.e· hencarpomrnei I is very . ~ .,~a.vegonet') IS, st ii'..l_oclp~_era.l_e~ Th s.p_. . ~ at small, which gives the sword an awkward, unbalanced look,
-~!II ' - --, - -------

44

"" .' X.. 10 a•.·

Type~.··a F:ind,~p]Jac',e: ithin a lomb W
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in a church in S., Germany or

-Austria ell'_0,.ecban '. P'" v.a teo ".f1 ll~ade-length: 37 (94 em s) Pommel-type: N C.~-os8style: t _,a very long, slender version
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Condition: Indoor nreeservatio..,~ n eithe r above o·:·r· in 3" tom bi r":"~"-'~' "~v.' Very good in the upper 'two-thirds. but considerably perished. near to the point, The hilt is in excellentcondition. There is
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around IIO() not, as. 'the Zurich publication (Schnetde, & Stuber" It. 24· no, 1'9) states, c, )200-1.275 ~ ill The F- ,. h V'~'l--= swored 18 1. ustrated,-".- lIS x-ray-re·In'DlSr vucng with .. -d · ~ , : """ Pl ,.,,:11<. d" vea 1ec m l ays In Le·ppa.unO·llate'>.28""2-' Tlne S-·, swiss swore IS· about the same size, 108 ems as compared 'with I] 1 of the one ··n·' .'. dh ~ .. 1 · us ·tr'a.te... ere.
.=

Is shorter and. is slightly arched toward the point, There are remains of marks in=aid in the blade, only the engraved. lines. of which remain; none of the ? gold? silver or Ianen inlay surviving, However, 'the style of the inlays matches some of T' ..... ., · .mnLS·,. .....JJuug ..•. !·_ · Dr.' ~.appaah 0' S F'···~· ish ·V·:1.... -. blad 'e'" so [ e, date mus be as., ". th ~e ':--. ···t .'..
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'lbese .hotographs show 'Very clearly the actual form of this '1' . .rat h,et unusual .. pO.mme~~If seen. on1,y &a.m. tile rront, it I OOS _ .. k f"; lt -~. sim "...l..'b,' 't sh ane ~lJ.v~'v is a- s-" ord ' O'. V"iii ' ~ 'i. 1, was a .::1.1 '.p.~eoaL-··~ I··:P ..~., W ... .. f; ;--~r-y similar profile and appearance in the Schweizerisches Mu. . s.eum In 'z:Ui.lC..: .·.nv~.N:' A:·_.:.'...'.-.: 6~'5').:'~Lr,once. h'··acd .a~["acIng 0·f·; ,.,'. 2.:. ich ·:.0..· 'G " 2"'4 '~'_:. a. ,.il d lth IS '} b very sun' ar SWOf::, Wl th" WI'··d··fl.at pommer.nroug h.t me .. .. e fmmRomania by an American diplomat, Unfortunately (this W,8S over thirty years ago) this drawing is lost, but] can it help i'·\k;i~.'~l~ng·h at" th·· 'I' e Is':lu~,v~~._ - sword . T-he p"re.. t :,' same ' .' .:., sent owner (Dec UJ]lJr& .... . 19[91) sent me a very", full set of Photograp hs, with the state. . l' IJ .ent that the. sword was found. in a knight's. tomb ..Unfortu, n~t.Qly what knight this was, or when he died, or where the 'tomb was, has not belen. revealed. 1. assume that :'t was in Au:strma or South Germany .. the one in Zuric h has a 'Dearly identical pommel, but the cross
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Find -pl'~""',~:~ known U·.. a l.I.J!i..lJv, . eenon: Pitzw il'11; -Museum C·· b ld ge· (R" ' eserve· C'·'. I ,.Darn .-. ·'_c·am!:rJ, ..... ..·,'.0,.""' : ·' C 0.''11 _OC 0, lection).... Blade ... --'CI -_. 33 (:83.8 ems) Jenzth: .. ._. . Pommel ... type:: B, st °1e' C.rV~(j-·:_y I Date: c 11100"":::" Condition:' Poor, The blade is very heavily pitted. on both side... butthe edges are not 'much wom away, It is a fine bold well-propo rtion '00. sword w·· rhose hilt._~~. ·'" exactly[', ,., __... matches a sword ._ _. ~'•. _.. ~u ..... .. .... ..... ~ _ IU. , . ~~ ~__ from a. Viking' g:r.aveat Tryvaa in Finland ...
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Find-p .,,y,,,,,:,, lace: gil.JjA,..:, El..ilL.Q;lLUI':ti' r ,11,··, auko U,,,""l*~'!"il Fin Ianad .... '.. '..' ··..····1 .. "I'·,,·v-.lL,· gUl" 'F'ragmen B 8- d e-le '0' .~' no" rn m ,AI_~1i B r·!:··.· -'Ir.;J'¥~" Cross-sty le: 1
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46

The next three swords to be shown, together with drawings of the blade-inlays of four others form a group all clearly designed and executed in the same workshop, perhaps by the same hand. The inlays are in silver or yellow metal, perhaps gold (as in many other cases) or maybe latten; and one is in copper. Fully to discuss the conjectural meanings of these assorted symbols is not possible here, but a good deal of attention has been given to them in at least three important publications. Only two of these blades were known when Rudolf Wegeli published his great doctoral thesis on blade-inscriptions in 1903 (Z/lWK III). Both are of Type X, and were found in Switzerland, one at Yverdon and the other in the Neuenburg Lake, shown here at Nos. Xa.14 and 15. The most significant of them comes out of one of Dr Leppaaho's late Viking graves in Finland. (shown here at No. Xa.16). There is another complete sword from this atelier in the Musee de I' Armee in Paris, another from the River Bann in Ireland, and three broken and hilt-less blades in Holland, one from the Waal near Nyjmegen, one from the lower Rhine at Rees and one from Lummada on the Island of Osel. This group of eight blades (with a ninth fragment from Finland) present the researcher with a series of problems as to the reason for adding these strange and seemingly meaningful symbols to sword-blades - even more baffling perhaps than the lettered inlays are. However, common-sense and perhaps a hard-headed approach can equate these symbols (particular-

ly those on the blade from Lummada) with the engraved and gilded decorations on the blades of 18th century small-swords and 19th century sabres, which are not only very similar in design and content but except in a few cases where specific events or persons are commemorated (or of course where arms or heraldic badges are present), seem to make about as much sense. Using this bleak unromantic (and most un-Christian) approach, one can say that here is the work of an individual, or a group of craftsmen, with ideas of their own, doodling on the blades they are given to decorate; or of course, putting on assorted symbols to the requirements of a probably princely customer. This heretical suggestion has perhaps as much validity as the rather earnest Christian approach to the problem as Wegeli's, or Eberle's or Ypey's, but what is uncompromisingly sure is that the dating of all of them (to the period 1150-1250) is too late, for the well preserved sword from Kokemaki in S. Finland gives a firm date by its fmd-context and the decoration of its perfectly-preserved silver plated hilt of at least a century earlier; and since the decoration of its blade with symbols of the same kind as all seven others, it seems that they, too, must be dated back at least to before 1100. Publications: Wegeli; Eberle, M. Ein Schwert mit Transchierte Klinge von Lummada auf Osel, Riga, 1914. Ferguson, G. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, New York, 1961; Ypey, Offa, 218, p1.3.3, 219-220.

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47

·Xa.13
(":8' . . rder -e:>1!0 e .. J ,t-"~'~ . [ .... ' T'Vl'\P· ... Xa ""," bo':' '.... 'llm";," ie", cas':..-,," l~t· ouldb ....·an·' -X' '-::-1"--);", Find.... place: In the River Aa" near St. Orner Collection: Ex. Victor Gay, Now Berlin" Museum fur Dent ... - ch _. scne uesc 'h~'hte rente me... ,_.:',i'~'·-,j1U B lad ,eng th"'3 731: 1-' (fit:: ems ) 1 Pommel-type: D
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Condition; .'. :11,1.: ... under th·'I.Q eatina A····· '.' silver-ml "li1id '0' ice .'.... _ u' _._,,. Perfect Yo'_; n .' 1'· scription +-. NRE' :. D' '. "ARE~, '.•': ': D::X··':· + on 0':ne side- ,'-" and' D +'N""-RCj" A':' D·:··N'·· R·· A·:c.· :··N····R'~ A-._-··'D-' N,::·· R;' A"· D'-,N" ·R·:· A'~' D'· R·:+ on the other ICIearly' matched 'by' ,8 similarly written one on ,8 sword . 11 "~I' ': ' "._ "".... s.r-m anc from a grave at' Kangasaia m S' F'" IdA' ~-" very SImi at, hil',t, ·f"' _. _ ide.. ' . v . ._~,~ ._ 0·' , _ ' ._,m e,···BI ~ .. W~: ith_. nly' : a fra·la. ", t o. ,8-." b I-ad· ' attac ibed ' to;~· it' t'f'i al ;"0·"" sh O:··W·:8 h '-'h' . -Iona,m - ,'. ' •. _1l..- .... ~ -· .... !1i 1 nere, Th' .IS,m '1 te N'"at~.....I.. useet' In C".opennagen, IS generwJ!Y .... " dat .... c, 12'::"5"-"b t th e blade e is a. paaern ... ld'ieo one w 'h,:.. I~' ..1 i- 'clt- ls atea .,'~ JlIit,.!'-·U' ~_ - <18: is --""itt-a' we .' d ' , unlikely to' be later than c~900, and 'may well be two or more, cenuo1fi,les leaf·'I'" -:-- ,_.an exce 1."eo·'1 eX.amp·" '0 a g'_ ..." anClenl t.. leI '...-. ',..-- """1' '" ·.. '. ,.,., ",'1 :.e ;c··f: -, .--:ood .. ted """..I ,.. , ~lng re-mounu .>:. and USw generations after i was ter It bIad16, 'L_~
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Tvne ~X·········~, -I ;V-'·ii ~. ~ Find. ..place: Yverdon, Switzerland •. a -- ..".- _u=~u .. n C('lU~.'~,o, : S'cJtwe-,i'7~risc': hes L-- n',d es m IU' seum .' (L--I. 'M 10116-::)-'" "'01, 'd- - '1 " 'th· ',"' '3-: 11 '1 Ai; .(. '0-" . ,- .... ')~'" ,D\ltil e, ,Jleng ,,_,",'.,J. ¥,~ '8' ,c-,ms- .. , ' 'D :-:- .,. "1' 'hl'n-P_~' A: , rO,mme","'tiJ y~'~ -Cles.s-style: 1. · ~ Dal~~C 1- \1\J"lJ"1"" dition: ':: . -:::... -,,: 0-',f ," "',o'" .._ J1 ~'__:" p - _.,". CO.:__W. -·u .• Good Th ere is io-···t' fatr'11'1-A~ ..... cerro"S~iO" n a'0'. over, 'but the important silver-inlaid series of picto grams is :ptrfectlypreserved on one side, though much damaged, on the 4'_:k ' :',1i OUI,er Tne ..-'-', , ',. ,are .,'1-" ,-··tr·,. ted hA'I"':P, L _,ese l.nlays " us - a, .''.',_-,~" 'Il iblieatio ,"~ r, '.. eli 'fj-:-'" ,cu, canon. W" ege I, .Ig... 1:2'" v -Il" V,-:, .A. - +-~ 'k fl" g ,6'·" " ..... 1, peY'i! nnd;e. _-" .,l,,~·, P ~ ..
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Yr."':.: .'.' .. T--'I'lP.. X ,8 -·· "d ma-prace: rne '" .,' lurg ~e,'Wl F"" dc' -1'-'- ,-.. T-"h . N"enen'b' ., T ",,",,1.., S'·"·_-''"tz'zerI'an, Colleetion: Schweizerisches Landesmuseum (In 1002) 'B'l" d I' eng th 3-1'1 ('8-'0- ems,' ) .,:a~ n: ',: .':'",' Pomm el type" .. A Cross st .:rle~ 1 ':~<'::..'-~:__:' . _', '.
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Condition': Good ..There is a. certain amount of deep overall pitting on the hilt, and patches of deep corrosion here and ther-e upon the otherwzise q' W,"'t'6': smoooth surfac",a,., of th :,.:blad e There .. ae _',., ' ..-,,,_ .Uilv,_" li.,."'~ :':'." ,_. .. '. __"_ ,,::-'11,:C,: ., mJ.: are-- sym'00',ll ..pile.t' ogram"'S '~I'n,·'iIi"i,1d 1'·'0 silver O' '0" each side of the . b 'I' d e 'I ustrated h' ......... A! I :ere,Wl,~'~ Tb ese are sum~'l' to, ano fro,m 'Ie 'th ..'d rt th a' ;"1' ar same atelier as" the sword, from, Finland shown here below at Xa,~16, and the sword 'in Zurich from Yverdon, shown here. above at Xa,~14" Publication! Wegeli, fig, 13
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X.·.~ Find-plaee: Kokemaki, S 'Finland nec,~ " u__ CO.. tion: 'He' I sinki U niversity B:lade..length: 34112 (~7~6 ems) Pommel-ty pe-" , , (no classified) late Vilcing'c stvle '. "J"~: C[';o8s~style: not classified) late Viking sty:i,e (
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in Suffolk, and the other once in the Harold Peterson Collec.'b" ies)· tion .•. N""0., X'" 10"'· mullS' senes. .. see " :_.',.". Publication: Lep 'p, :;utho pI 36
II ('

. '~d -, -'d 'Han' d'~:'of 0·":'00-:-:"'" fi"-""'~- ~", on "th" _..,- -;-'tb'·er, I kn'.-. OJ only SI'e·' ana~ ,8 Q.,.",_, ngure ",' 'co -, ,-, ·..IOW of '-11 . two other swords (at, present) wnh similar marks near th,e, point, one ,in the. Moyses Hall Museum at Bury St. Edmunds
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'--:~'~."" .ont. ~h"'O'--,-,~,,-, th··-. ~'_'.~'au.vR _ P"""':C'D"wi' Y, g ood' 'C' on- , di·ti,- '.- ~ ,,~w,ln,g.:_e engrav-w..1 dec or-or:I,,;......' in tb-, e "'R in ,-:ga'rik'"" e' style tu::lUJjL .. 'lit elearl 'y:.. tLU .' " '9:'s-=-=-.;V- lOOO;-:"~,:-, it""",,, C' ::--n ....,'. "t dating The 'blade is particularly long- fOr a V'iLcing~ .. : sword. and 'neal' 'W .i-...... 'b~-- are oth'-·" . small sil ,-.'. inlaid" .~, ' nbo 11., .' ,,', , . .' ,.' - . - - .., U.IV . :,p~:,:... ,_,-ers~mm" I ver"'l __ ·_ sym,~~JL.S"8c,rOZler ,on one ~" ,
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,_:__3.:- '17-'-",,-Typ
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Find-place: Unknown Collection: Private Blade-length; :34'~n (87 i6 ems) Po m me,I type 1 --:-- '-·1', Cross-style: 9 Date: Blade C~,]100, hilt" c, 1430 Condition; Bxcellent, The, long 'blade, is hardly corroded, at all, tts surface being covered only with patches of shallow staining, few marks o~f'U'IClI'~:Q~ 0'11 +L,~, edges_,but_ not :U,I".., v _,,, """ __ _,_ significant, The hilt is.of lanen t, once gilded (a tiny trace only seems, to- survive on, lone side, of the elegantly modelled rivet .. block, The 'cell tra] 'boss of the pommel is longitudinally ridged, The original grip of '?lim,e-w'ood survives, 'with a narrow Turk 's head of brass wire (contemporary with the bi],t)below 'the pommel In the narrow fuller in, the 'blade, inlaid, in iron" ar-e the names +'JES,US + on,one:.sid,eand,1YIARIAon the-other. Following the second letter' A,in this name is. an inlaid symbol (also in iron) which though extremely bard to see may' perhaps 'be a rather naturalistie representation ofthe lily ... flow,er always as sociated 'with Our Lady A,tsome time, an over ..enthusiastic owner ef the sword tried, to enhance or to make more, visible, the letters of these Inscriptions and began to engrave round, ,. · .. _AI ' TEd f- te ' ~-:-- '._'1' 'the,ll" OU:tl' lneS,. H'Ie :rulnoo, tho, e i,- an, _ '0.0 th IE'S' U' 'S' liua,ys:t but. fortunately g;a:veUPj' and left the remainder alone ..Had, he , done all 'len letters, it would 'Dot have been, possible, to see that, the-y were in. fact inlaid, in iron" This sword was examined in the :~oya,__ 2'-7 A' -~l ',"-~' ,,' fith I_,_e,R: '- al Armc - i;,.,,_ ,on ~' '- ~,pn_, '19~-"8"'9~' h:en u.e ,meuu1" 0'-, t.,-,.,e :-_._,-oune.s w hiltwas defi.nitely- proved to be 15th century latten,
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1

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This fine sword, provides an absolutely classic example 0:( an -,'"'Id' 'bla-- d'-" 'i~, "_-m,gs'b-, ,m use,~or re-u'~" 't-l.!...... c-",'~ -' tu--- '~f~tt:i.Ii!" L~ "l-len' rl~ u. ~ ~t~ 0. ,e be-"' " -ltD~'" ,..,.:1......:,_ d ,t: h,j't mil&-U1g"an,','.moum ted., In a ..... d some, new, ras '-b" on a!'."e ,,~J ,,'• '. nan _.l 'The sword is also important by reason of the (so far as,:1knQw at present) uniquely used holy names, Inlaid in iron ..There Ire 'k~T'I:'DO"'-"'l~TT ,",, -h'' .;' - '·"i ,-,' ~" -:--1,"-' ~ there ,.,-,,[, ,INNO _ ~.,lVJLU ~J:r _ /,:' .1VLUl".L 1,0SlCn,p'I.J!O'ns ~ lU Iron; In p en_.y ~_ ," ", lS J one Viking blade inlaid on each side- with the word A1vlEN~ but 'this. is :m silver ~
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52

Type XI -XIa

This type is distinguished by having a slender blade, generally long in proportion to the hilt, with a very narrow fuller running to within a few inches of the point In classic examples there is very little taper to the edges, though in well-preserved examples the point is quite acute. However, since so many river-found and earth-found swords have much heavy corrosion at the point, in such survivors the point appears to be spatulate and rounded. In my Sword in the Age of Chivalry I mistakenly added a Type XIb, thinking erroneously that such corroded blades constituted a sub-type. There is, however, a positive sub-type in Xla, where the blade is broad, but the fuller remains very narrow. Examples of these are rare, one of the best being shown here at Xla.l. As with all of the other types, the form of pommel and style of cross varies a good deal within the limits of custom and availability during the period of usage - which in the case of Type XI seems to be between c.l100-1175. This statement, however, needs to be accepted only with caution. We don't know what hitherto unknown survivor may rise from earth or river or tomb with a reliable dating context to confound my typology. Or from somebody's collection, for that matter. So far as I know at present, Xl's have inscriptions either in iron (as in XU here) or in silver or latten or gold where the 'handwriting' matches Leppaaho's 11th and early 12th century Viking blades. The beautiful Xa, in the Wallace Collection (No. Xa.l in this series, above) is a perfect example where, having only the form of the sword (not its perfect preservation) to go by, it cannot be pin-pointed at all to any certain period between 1050 and 1350. All that can be said is that it is a classic Xa, whose hilt is matched exactly by (a) some of Leppaaho's Viking hilts and (b) hilts shown in monumental art between c.1250 and 1350. So it may be with Type XI, though at present (October 1990) I would not dateany XI beyond c.1125.

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Type: 'XI Find-place: Unknown.

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F~; .... _y - wynn~ M' '_." .' , . W.'.':il-'-ll~... .'. . L:.co:rgan ....... . OU,iOC_Ilon~ .', ,. ' ,_",.llams, C,>ll1 "U·',·..· ~Pric; va~ .... erma 1- R: 'T- 0""'" '-" .Blade 1';--ngth: ,,:..., (':"8':"'6.:,.,.:::. .. ..·.laUe- en.:_.U,I~, 3,':4" •.' ~' 4'_cms :
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.r1,~' ~ d e .sxcav a.rec,_ ; near ,perteet C onmuon: E l' -;'. ....:~, '. ",., . -~ 1ll1cauons,.: :X'T 1.. ri',e·-"l1cestorlO,_ 19"'0':3' .. V"•···Icto,na ·· ' P-'-'b' lie ,..~ ... '..... 1,:.An' ra..,uc:e .;,m""l"'L A' , , , and . ,:,' ........ , "M,"'-" T' '.. '''T''t..~ r. ,r~ q the A,' FlfWllr.er;;,,-, 1.9...5 3.,., X··,:·I·2" ... , ,.", . ' an Al uc;,rt· : useum, "e A'",,--:t, "rf"- ,e<' <_: _', -i' . Leppaa b p 15 _0,;
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and A;, . .,."k,J., '.' ~ in 19.:::.l:2···.., w., U , ".'. ... and it appeared, again in the catalogue of the sale at Christies m 1- ., . , lb" M"-'-"-'r'" W'··'11-1·'_aJT.lS I·~:: ..llecti 'fto~'_ m,.S'" "00' nat t's · '.,', ''.' 9"2",[ 0 f'__ _ 0, g~_, _'' '_ co __ cnon _ e t ,_.' __ ... a 1 hib ed 1:0 ~ he Yictoria anc Al.' d c:: bert ,-', '" C' .. ,It was 'ex.:-"-l~lt_~, i th V'· _asue, Museum m the. ~Art [If the Armourer' exhibition; however, for some reason. in none of these publications was any mention 'made of the nature, of 'the inscription, t ·0 -::-FE"I Th,· "'e' -e w","_w, OO··;f:Le·/ '8' ':c·....An: :.', -' -: ,·i1...·....,A '~'.<"-'-'S"::.·.··:'M'E'__:_:::c::_ '~-',=:C"':I- T,e one In "Ii_' 'UJL::r >,wO_",W) lDscnl(X;U M" ., the. Museum at Stade, the other in Helsinki .~ illustrated in 'Le b "lg~"":'i' .eppaano, F' 5"2 This is a perfect example of the 'type, with its kmg 'blade and narrow fuller."
_' . ,_, __ ~ __ !OI;

',:.~:'- ..' ,;,!,,~: .., b- ·i ..h d: "d·' .··I-' .'-' A '':_''TIl' lS b, eauwu 1:'-,.:'.- rd . hai b.Q;_,· ',PU_ls,_,_.e,an . ,.'1- '1' .. ' "~.~ '" ' swor "as ~n ,L.1USuat.!VU, several_ times: .,~~ firstII. I,: .k1?IO,'~~7 of' W~,I iu .a verv select an id v,_. ~.u.v .lL_ n.W . was _ -I -·1st,-,-'. " 'ati '··c -. ; -19' ...,--=:,~lngreamrea anstocranc magazine, ~t.ne,A-'"ncestor, ,'m ',:-··0..··3; 'Lak""'''' '., .1:, '. t"''!Ii-.a;d ,-, ..... - ...',
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it, in his Record. v,

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54

XI., 3
Type: XI Find,. lace: Unknown, 'but in, Denmark .p C·-n -,-'uon; '" Nationalmuseet -, Conenhaaen _ Oll6C h:- ",i,,: ,~v ':-,f.r~' ,~JlI4'b"""'~,1 DI- '8'd'-•.~ Jleng- ·th- - "]'7'" (.°4'- ems,:)" ' 'Ii ~-::: (7'~;. .. . . Pommel ..type: A
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wh,"0", le ';':)" ·"_u(' -'';I~)-'•..'-· the hil',_ -t ,. ~ sword: _','

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excell v,· . em
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.,....d G-. utiu..,ORle areas 0 f' ,e,e,p: pnnng, d.' .. _on ~_U.1.0n: E. -:xca'va'LW,~'~'__ ..i 'SC d-'. · " .esurface one near to 'd16. pointi edgeseorroded away there too, Hill in excellent condi tion, vC:1)' 'little pitting or ern ptions,
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condition. of it; (iii) shows the, letters of the, inscriptions ~ enlerged, ons IV&IU'I!! ... '. "p,r-~c..p:~S_' p'~.,'1:.:.. T-- - 'R··,N··.. Ui.. ,,13 ~A ~' .:_ ,... ... <:" Th 130, inscrip 'b~ ........~ 0 .b· ~~ "R'.everse: + S-·,'E'.N': "E' 'D'- "J.' C'- A 'T 'N-,'T N' S'~'E" T" M' A T~ '+i . .'. <: , Note: the second 'letter' on the, obverse is a mark of abbrevi ... ~ ~_ _ ('AN- -C--anon. £or 'S:,_~<i:ru,'_ -)S-~
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tbe sty··'leof' the Iettering is very similar- though because the content of the inscriptions are quite different, the same letters itn '00":'a 3:· num ber of S 7S"~ in both U.u 010.,1' O,--'C:-'-C"·_'ur'~ th ~ The excep do8 .:.. tro u__ _" iil!W'" ord the th'. sort.. ·f·· "La s·····'~ 'Jl..:.l·~ g.'--.- do.:_: ':n--'[.,.- ':'0'·-" hisee ms '~~y' lly' :1~n, ._... ..... I;'C [ ..... '...... '._~O '., ,~, '(r'-- equen "'0'- ,',-- blade~~e-lnSC.rlpons -·"'f-·t...,:~ pen 0 .' "e,~g," occur -- -.-' y in .',,a _. 0 ' uIIS, -.' riod a very fine Type XI sword found" fairly r-ecently in, the R~ Scheldt, now' in a, private collection, where the silver-inlaid '"eu~r8~ ,t':e ''''-'1', WI·· e y spreaa - :., id .'-"'~"f'".' 0,."f them.. :-[- .al '1'- e:.t· i't-,t;. ~ rair Y '.'id .'}-, ,-,,.'-.',.' '._'. ano OOIY-'nve '- :''-, ·d·..... ....-. -snai rerer h bJthis, style, of inscription later under Type, XVI) are S, D, S, th -' :s- :;.S 1- ying baa-Ii. al!,an ','..angJ,e '0,f-~''-;,~. ,egrees. to 'lb- _~e ~ges ,,~ -, cll. " 4',' S' d' . ,'" -'. cW,~ ,,_,_e, _ C'11,,..+, . .....- e edze '. . .f"th" - .. ' . --~--.' '.'1'1 . , - -.' '1-..,' .'. O. ~:enarrow ,- fi-u.1.1er.. U""Fh 0 '11un.ate' y ,a,'l- th e.. bOO me 0,f' oe ,-, - -- ":,.' I , - ,r:.- ._ ~,- -I" . wnll.lng udS' h '" f'~'thi . ~ ill do not kn OW wnat IS 0-0 tth e reverse or ,:_IS' bl~adie,
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,55

XI. 4
Find-place: l'
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IC'~"'O''-U''''aJ''''''':IO' ''-'"' , ",""","",Uc'n."l,enna;1

Blade-length: 37ltl" (95.3 ems) om ~,~VI~lr&A:J'.~' P--- un'Q;1I ~··B -'. Cross-style 1, long and, slender
._ . :.1,

v~·"-- --".':', W""euj_jc_,e~'__ a,~umel "', ,h"l'~""h' '-' Scha ....... ',' · t..n~

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pr-eserva,bon!! In:'''"oor ICaO'ilu..o'DS'1 . d' - -.' --. d ~t";;, ' p,robably since it was, first made, in the 11'tb century ..The iron. hil~.lt,I~>.gold -p,,, ,,'~ '·'-1 an'" I,,' ..'e 0',,-: d' pl .... IS ,engra,v ed ,gee n,.' :>'," is ,." ola ted th a0:11 ,:mUo..i. e , ... , ,--, ,,' ,~:, (/ .' notes) t.a The e~~ is pr: -obabI yr' "modem i e it is,not, medieval, thong h grip -_. there is no earthly reason why it, should not be, since the ti ,....c~,"··t g' ,"_ _,_e, sw . pel.l~CI!i ~iw,eve,rt. 'be' .1"_:.. the PA~.I '",~ __I'_:_ no, f' th," ',' , rd I~ '),.' C", " --, 'u}'··· S-:::· " 'rd"'.,,0,f th H-' :-;,1 'R·'· . ,," E-," '.' .',..,-, it ,."possnue,. uoronanon owo " . -, "'IOY ~··omanempire, I IS ',.',·'bl' ie (Wbyl?) that, like the Charlemagne sword in 'the Louvre in Paris (which. was "improved' for Napoleon's Coronation); j,t has been done up at some time, The gilding was perhaps added, 'to the 'iron hill later than the date of the sword's making" ab 'd" of lvel""W, ~~,' '" ~ the . ntury ,. ' Th,e ,SC8_ : __ ·IS 0' 0,1~, .', 000: rna d",e, ID-__i e I ther cen '" 'to the l ..... . ". ai .',WI" ---",' .." . ""I'd' nee..I.' ---an exact --'t' ,lo:r:Ul'· buaae, over. I" ':~d' -- -ith pane 'Is-" 0 'f: giO. d .. l (. orated 'W·l·:th'· .I~'7USSC '6," "'. '''' 0f-:- ,&.Ul,gS","T"h ese are, 0""f' 'a' d fini '-,-,J: 'L-~ " .', , 'e Im,-, o _l,gur--es style '".' '" ... l~i'e:'.'l'·"',,''1Ul ceo loury 8.~, e, b,UII..·00-·t· ween" _.' ach pair ....- paneis... IS a, uve Y 1· "1... ..' eacr ,.'.~" 0r -::-'.,. -11. ;1, ' b d· O~. ename I" d "~ ed d mue "ee'OO •. f none tn tmy squar-es 0'f :[1.:~:, W hi anc bl -iOO .. d' Th" ,-~ '3th set In a.··iaper pattem~, II" lese are as dlsUnc" vely of t.be I"~; . . cen,,,~;, as 'th-· . ,c.~g'- -e",s sr' ..-, .sy.llISuIC'al' ]'I-!~-: f',' ,th,·~ 1'1- 'th' ",e ,1ll"UIi:_,:.:.,: ,.,e .- t ,,'1 ", f~ :, ,yo, e ','.' 'D.'IIbli ,ca,tJ·o;·" , ~ng" - 'ons~ 1"' ....:t.....:,-] vo ~·t .. ~S"OIU.!i'~A.-,.,; s.~'AC' p' Ia- .',- .J,,"B= an,'. 1;; '0" .,'1),_. h' d ,,··::te C' pp~32,-3; Seitz, p~140i 141, B:lau" Claude EAA 1962,t.:No,.18
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scabbard was, clearly identified, as being' of the lear ier date~ Because the nanels are a, Y'~' nerfect (and unaltered) fit for De olive-wood slats of the scabbard, and the slats are a perfect fit ~" thIeee'b'-,ldee, ·,t 'h,' t··,· ,"'" .,t. .. ed mat t ae.bla ,',.,.' IS as lear1ylS de,--' ,' ..-:-' . . ..-, 11", tort '. ,a~ I " as 0 mrerrer .'..... th the sca~" .:",~W.. ich (.." all :mvulev,a ). sca' cat"S 'was s',-a~ ...1.. bb ds) h nmI _ bbard h - :like " .... , . , 'f" , ed ro ..~d .' ,', ':-,,'. ... ,','"'I' .... ,', __. idri .I.E .• ',': 'U, an d' ,lonn,e,~. roun~. th e blad e,i', SI.D,g ,II. as a,,man, ,-';'1 B''',,.:'ec·':a use UII share and proportions ofth e hil t are SO" closely fill ....:n 't:n, QeVf,ll,1Mi1 , ',r-I.U!AI'. \l-UU ~ IL., ,,..., tum 0_ er sUTVIVln,g ;sworrdIS, C ear."I:y,'" da t bh rtn ... - 1]'.1 'lb,,cenl-~J . ··,1····. .'" UJfU,le ' _ (e.g, the one in 'the preceding note, XI~3 in, Copenhagen) it-has ..... th· t _~ 'I" "- - _ -. ed .. to betas.surn_,:~ ,',_ a', the, h 1" t ts 0:_ th e .s3m,e da . . as ii,.... blad·e ,lUlu :',,: ' .:..... " U1C, ~,~:, .~ te the scabbard. It is possible, that the gold plating was put 'OD rather later; it is certain that 'the engraved decoration was put th' e On ~o','·'r-· benefit of Otto IV' perhap 'S··· when it was 'to be wed at his coronation in 1198. There is (and was) nothing easier,. and nothing' more often done, than to add the embellishmeu .. ,,', ... ' .,,'~ges ",-, st a' s" I"I.." 0,'f'· arms~ ba ds ,.--.- or IDsc,n,p_:b~ " . , ·to'· eXlS ting 'h'·1"'1.',~ ODS ..: ,', ,. _,'ilW,,]U'," done 'very skilfully by the 20th century faker.
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This ,sw'ord,; dlOU,gb in form and balance it is a p,lain fighting swor-d,,- was none,..th.e ... ,ess pmba'bly nevler used, .for anything J but, the function it perfonned until the diss.oiution of the Aus.'~Hungarian Empire, in ·'9]8,. as a. ceremonial sward ' .........3 ~,,' "'f mpe,rors;o l·,t Ln, 31""" ......... USvu, 10 th"-';' co ;ro""'·--·u'~·'· ",e ,,'RaJ. ODS 0 E')' ''','';,,',' .'.' ,,'._,uaS ,:_:w,ays,'1... ~n ;, -," 1mown as Th' e. ~'~ O:" 0_f ',. M aunce 'no;_ t- be--' con f'-use'd'-'. lul ... . , S' w "'rd-" - S,·"t '. . --".'... . 't' ~O W ":",'1.. ,anomer 11th c.enLury sw'ord of tbe same, spurious provenance in T'urin~ The :fi,gures in repousse on the ,gold panels. o,f the scabbard are placed so that. they are rig'ht way 'up if the sword is held point u.pwards., .. an, indication that as early as 'the time of tille, scabbard's making - second half of 'Ihe, 11th century, .' •.. ak"·' 0 Wh h b lRl,ere.nce IS th' al 0:;f·1... m:. ~'~lng r'" tile SW'o, rd '. If':~ 'lC: ~,y I:' .Urlle , ,Itse .. : it had only I, ceremonial func'rion, The gold, plating UJlOD cross ,and ,po'mme,),is en,graved; arms
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d ~ 'were use:-. as the A u· h , .'~,i.,,'·D_·p··on to' .L. C" "oronatwn iJj,t6·! ~ tb "'11' ."" _. 'ed" mUI,O"Ir. an,Jem 'L' ,- d'"", R' ,- '.:,.-"" as we asa'war-cryusc,~ - ,,"' .• ,i... Th"'· d' -,:8u::es,'egloe,'

o'oe side of th,e pommel ar--eth1e ,Arms of the Empire, on the· other 'the personal arms ,ofOtto, ,V (l198~12]8),a ,de'mi-eagle Q', Ute .-," -.. .' Ule --', lm,pmmg uucc I"" ,eopW! •."',",·.,n '..... C,IO,8S are '~'hl'" WQ1,US In "~'O_ tlt",· "Ie miniscules: 4iC"1IJ'DiI"S~'TUS'"':.:_,'_,~, '..:-. ,'.:!'C-:::"'HR""~'IS''''T'f''fS'' ''"~~. A····TI· C'-·HR·'IS"'TU'" 'S" V'''-IN'-''-C':''IT" " : . Alr...:. .n ,', u~· R---,·'·E]N;·' .. INPERAT~t (S,iiC)
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56

A Note on the CICEUN Swords

The technique of iron inlay is too crude and uncertain to be able to say that 'handwriting' can be identified; there are obvious similarities in the inscriptions in the blades from this workshop, but these are more because of the nature of the technique than any individual character. The question, anyway, is irrelevant since all of them bear the same name, followed lest there be any doubt about the matter, by the words ME FECIT. A few swords bearing this legend have been identified; doubtless there are others covered in black patination whose inscriptions are still invisible; and very probably there are others still resting in earth or river-bed. The few which had been identified at the beginning of this century have been published in the Zeitsc hrift far Historisc he Waffen-und Kostiimkunde, VII, part 8, and in Hoffmeyer, plate XII, h and i, and on p.21. One of these, which used to be in Hamburg, has a plain disc pommel, but the others - two in Berlin (formerly) and one in Helsinki (see XI.6 in this series) have 'profiled' or 'wheel' pommels of a form which was once believed - still is, by some - to have come into being only in the mid 13thcentury, instead of the mid-l l tho The one in Hamburg and one of those in Berlin have straight, quite long crosses of Style 3,but the second Berlin one has a 'bow-tie' cross in Style 5 - the earliest example I know of, so far. The Shaftesbury one, as you can see by the illustration, has a decorated style 4, cross (also a very early example) and the Helsinki one another unusually early example of a style associated more with the 14th-15th century than the 11th-12th (Style 7).

57

s Type: XI
.

Find-place: Unkn"0" wn \.1. '\ ," . '. by,~~a' m,.od (Found .... dern collector' , in . . '. ,~ __ llOOkshop in Shaftesbury in Dorset) '" .. n.-. CoU ecnon; Private
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6.TypeXI C";' " :-., -." '.6 rik '.'.--. '.-:-.- In, .. . rln·d' ,P.." 'e,;, R··, ,"' lac .. ' ov,anu:m~" JV14l1._~ovaara, F','"'1'an d Colle c·':n·~on·'" if; I"sinki.. ' University Oce: ec 'c,';' H~ .51. .',' , .' '. !Uade~lleng"dl: 32 (83 ~ ems) 1
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"ommel-'lYpe:' 'I iCrrOss-,style:7 ._ a. very early exam ple - Dateable

~ of this style

Date': c.l 050- ] 100 Condition: Vr:ry good, Hardly any corrosion on the pommel .an,d cross, and only a little on the blade ..

,J,1.

lllis is an absolutely magnificent sword, in perfect condition .. f[i, ..''.:' ,ee ..... · 'ell kn ...~-: ,-was bo."'. ht by'.a co II· '.)t· "or: ~~0'0 e.' ,0f'" th' . v.ery w_ -. own . Jlg_. .. .. ,,,J' ."'-.: collectors, of th.e 19308 te, the 1.9&)8 wh.o :had. better :not be
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ceived, When the paint had been taken off, the sword. was bro ug hi'" to mne to ,~~ if th·: ere '.t.l,.iL1 an inscriptio ... ]' could see:·· .. J.. ..." I'" n I,., ... . •·........tho '1 ". .. mat tnere. was" an iron ... 'w"d . Th in .......one, .~ _, -·.,eowner I it In, my care tett for several months, during which time I gently rubbed away at. the blade - not. 'with abrasives, 'but cloth, newspaper (which cleans well, apart from leaving' ink) and my thumb, IIbecome ··,1, cJ.ear- ·,.,·I......·t··· .-.....one side were, the wor"-d''c:.:S, INN" ····O·-·"LKrh,:1"I:'·DO·~"JlTh.TT' uw_ on 81,·; "..'-- '.,..e '.,. ' .. :.·,··c·1VJ.ll"C:·-lv.:uL1."U, and on the other OICELIN1v.IEFECIT,t This was subsequently .~ -, -... ra····p' .. ...-'-' 'h raxen m ···---···--. . pro" ,_A ... proven by 00'"vmg an X'-.',Y I,"hot tograpn tak .,:" - me R esearcn .'.. "... .....h' Laboratory of 'what was 'then (in the. 19501) du~~ Ministry of W''orks, .•..... _..,.._ were unm Is tak There ". ceable marks .__::JL ear···· usa g··:-e an..d . :":'&' '&'" ofw .,k . _." - . d on- t' .he e.g(es ~[a fe mcxs, aJ}::d.. unevenness, maue b·YORIng, e d ..- . . .ew --. - g .. ;.. b ·.. and the point. was quite, thinned and rounded by wear and sharpening, There were enough small traces of gold plating on the iron of 'the pomme] to show that. it had indeed been 'plated; but there was none on. the cross, This, is not unusual, for in. nearly every case of swords of the Middle Ages shown in art, where colour has survived pommels are shown gilded Orr coloured r, but very, V'PrV' seldo··m·~I: crosses which ~.rt"'A show.. J ~ ..I... . . . .' v .-_. ". '. n _, "1C··''·· I" A to be gt,ey or SLVeri ::,UI10ns lv.wh 'ere pommeis were s ii'._ ............... ~ ee Y W... verea crosses were also- This suggests a reasonable assumption that· crosses like gn."p.8 and scabbards q uite often broke or were ..: en · 'c sw '0, rd e o·.r w~: replacced, beca use an v. ·t·'_ up by op posing n ..... .~. . ,...., ',,: ' '.: ide not mateh an or... .., n'.... ~! 1 11._11... . ':':". igi.. :ttl ow.-. ·,~ want .c;u. ,,, cha n'g':~ anid"'. 8:,0···· d:.......,., pom m el' d . ~ ~n TIt e cross or-· f uns SW-otF. terminates L[) lIt·" e beasts heads ~ " ~:
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-,,' . ~t'h II.~ Q'[ __ .1.. " ,,·:w~_· I.lmum Th·e'IC'IA 'ar 'm--ode ·'n a' 'rna' ·s·,,ar·'i'Y' way,~ WI '. th'!'e.....m~n·"· .--'
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wood.en dummy; bot the Eye of the· Collector 'was not de-

[ sh·ould,add that this beauti.ful sword is li,ght. and flexible and " .'. a, d . -Ie i IS,- " ad lS b]a 'nce_, lile·· a f-i. h' In,g'.... r-,:~.~

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Blade-leng th,' ;;; 3:"21'1 ("'g' 4 ems) I P omm e'I-~~y_~ I Cross-style: 2 D a!~,.C~.I"" ' . '1100'" Irion: Bxeava ted P ':'r" A' zreat d eal 0" f' corrosion an",'''''d''' :",,' C-'0, '0-' 'W' dee -- pining ,;',',, :u,~ hl....Ie" an" the" ,Je h-,"'lit', ,w' ... Th e 'cr'0'88 b'as, "'n'~""e '.:: d!:' ," and ," -'_.11, as zell ,'" ,', ',Co, ,',eep ,', " I ~ 1d one arm nearly taken off by a very deep, 'piece of corrosion.
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Type! XI Find-place: Unknown, Probably in Germany ICO11 cti0:: Ex. D"Acre 'Edwards, 'then Ewart Oakeshon, Now e Glasgow Museum
Cross.. le: 1 -sty Date:: c~900-9'50 Oondition: Excavared. Poor, The blade is considerably cor ... roded especially 0'0 'the, edges, However the sword is of the utmost importance and rarity, for upon, the tang are incised run'J"c' hara cters ':'c a nd in the fuller of the bla de '-n' one side is a': ll_I.~\l, " short lattice pattern inlaid in s lver, and on the, other an inscription. in runic, characters ..The form of the pommel, and 'dlelength and slenderness ofthe blade, is exactly matched by II drawing in an Anglo-Saxon :MS~of c~950~lOOO~(BL~ MS Ne'roCJV) (see XIL 10 below) 'TItle characters on the tang are three in number, the middle one i:1IO"W" JI~.JIL: illegible bur the leading an-I ,d trailing on are O~':· 0 and .... ·1-,-·, '. 'Ul._, These, runes ar,e of' a distinctly Anglo ... axon character, and S cannotdate later than, c,.,950. The proportions of this sword are 1t]mostexactly the same as those of the "Sword of St..Maurice' inVienna (See No, X:14, in this series), Publication: Oakeshott, SAle Plate, 4a land p,,32.
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Blade-length: :36"1 ,(91. 4 em s) ~ Pommel-type: 1 Cross-sty le: 2 Da :ho,'" C:': 11100' '__ ~LY~,.. 1 on... . .'. .', d .' '"., a ,,"0_ .. f . '~ '''u·' ".' ith C on"d·~ti:'··· '.;, N:·0·t··· very gooa.. Th···ere- IS .' 1 - t o'O..d eep pl- mg, w] ~ only a few patches of clean black surface ~.enough ~however, to show 'the,silver -inlaid letters ofthe blade. inscription, to show up clearly Since this p'hotograph was 'taken about 40'.' y ears ...... ·.-.-·cJl:~· '. -. "'.' ... ago",the blade has got broken into two pieces, The lettering of .,~ ':JJ, h ('.' -)'). .... . f t he i e mscnptron C' hown nere ,a:t.Ill,~ IS mate h d tor 'h d' ,. .. ~'"e_. nandwnting' by an inscription ,on a Viking Age blade from Finland iv) -h ich does seem d a: fa.. th e S~"W'"'0:' rd sq ulIJi'it"e·.,ly:' Ulv early , '''0' _"""I 1.'~': 12th, century if not the late LIth. TIl-ere was a 'battle fought
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square:.:m·iles···) near Porn h'· am" l~nl}-1' '7: 1 I~' ',' always been assumed that this sword is a survivor of tb battle, 'but since there are two villages called Pornham next each o..·th···~·e"'Can> 'd/ th e ·lr· o··,··f'· find ...lac the p o..·f·-' th'· e sw ord ("1·'" .... found, over a century ago) is as unknown as.the precise site_ '-. .,::'1, .' auie, :·.·ne u:tL!~.. 1.,- ,."":'_ w:li.d· _'~j",,,,~, .. :'(1 too"t ba ttle 0 Cal;, 't'. take it as' a certaint,'-Y th at here is' , Fornham Sword' with la, terminuspost quem, of ]]7],. Tha ~ ~. Id b . j·lt been m .' IS, h owever, no reason 'W'hy u Sh ouic not . na ve str '1... :~ .. . boo 70 '-, .. - aftLet ,"t-'"was. ma.e; - ,an.', ,"t may ~,a ".' rene o'~ -. .. de . d 1.: ,l.._ ···-·'li"'·· '. t"iIi,1. 8'U, : .. years _:_' 1,
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battle; but, one should not sa.y 'that it is, SOi This sword also hm .'lg UII!.if a, II. 't· ('H:' and 0" f- 0·.. · '00'" .. ". in ,(!IiI" 'V"· e r- near tho _. e 'p:O···..in t'Publication: Laking; Hoffmeyer, II,.Plate Xd and p.l 2~No.~ Davidso "n'". p.,~,p~,49~' 120' 1'·' Oakeshott ..AO···· ··W·'····P1ate 6·': d and ·.U"~L·, _...
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except for the last 10n ( 25 ems) ·or so near 'lite point, where it is very 'heavily corroded, The pommel and cross are well ""' ..... .. '" od .. ". .' ".. · preserved. T.'hte grl.p is modern, Th ere :IS a uny mscnpnon In . the blade on one side, the letters, S 0 S, It has been suggested ~'h'"-, thi~ unlil -..,':i·y··_l'oo'-.ki e o m·bin arion of letters 1"'1CIi in fa c.'.' th-:- e" . .' ing I, . au __.~ _:J LlJ:A··e' _' ),."',..' '____;.,-':_.' ... a l~ t· iaitial leners~ [ofthe words S'" 'AN···:-CT···.~- "A~ 0"·'_. ·S·'·"A~".~TC[<T[A· . .. Ir~ . . . " ," " _'. . . . . .. '_ " '.' U'~ .' ,. Publication: DuCty-, Plate 2c
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Type XII

This is one of the most difficult sword-types to identify, because so many swords which might seem (perhaps by the forms of their hilts) to be of the type are in fact Xs, or even XVIs. In isolating the type, I laid down two totally arbitrary criteria: (1) that the blade should have noticeable taper, and an acute point, and the grip should be quite short, never of hand-and-a-half length, and (2) that the fuller should not extend beyond two-thirds of the length of the blade. This is all very well where these features are obvious; identification is easy enough as the illustrations below will show, but there are so many examples where the fuller is nearly (or quite) three-quarter length, making it nearly an X, or where there is none, as in No. XII. 16 below, or where the hilt is of a clearly early form, as in XII.2 below, or where the taper is very slight and the point rounded, or when the grip is longer than the 'standard' 4" to 41;2" single-hand length. So many swords have one or other, or even all, of these difficult characteristics that one has difficulty in pinning them down to any of the types. I mentioned the 'early form' of the hilt of XII.2. I must reiterate my firm belief that you cannot date a sword by its type, for most of the types - not all, as you will see - can span the whole of the medieval period. Nor can you use the forms of cross and pommel to date a sword - hardly ever. There are a few, mostly in use in the 15th century, which are dateable to a few decades, and can be identified with a region; but most of the pommel-types and cross-styles span the whole period; besides, within those types and styles there must be an infinity of variation - personal, regicnal and in some cases plain careless on the part of the cutler who made them. A sword's cross is a most difficult object to make by forging, and distortion is difficult to avoid.

XII.l
Type: xn: Find-place:' Unknown" but I believe, in England " "'0' , .. '~ Prii' e ar as, .... C"'oU-,--,oc ,OD.., rrva .. .as fa .. , ]' kn'ow: Blad e ...length ~3: ·2" (.'8": 2': c ms) '. 1 .'. _- ."'~... hm ..... P· omme,_' -'1"j"!t.'6,.,' H"":. Cross-style; ] ,'~ E 11 C .' in tme e,... .. rown ConditioniBxcellem.Covere ed i a fj purp 1- bro panna, , . a' ,f_,. pns near th,6 pomt t' an,·.,one or two ",.:,~,.."', the eages, I tew __ ,.,"', .'. - d , .,WO nlCJLS m 1_, e :.d'~''." saw this sword when it came up for sale at Christie's in the 1'9708;I believe in. 1972 ~It is an absolutely classic, or standard, X' " '., 'd ""' " 'IU ,--,,,'.:-:.."." .... , ...... " ... ' ...1 .. Typ e'. x,I' I SWOf_"j: bea1 U tl··I.If.·nY' proport"b'" oneo an d very f'" .",'1'1 meiy 'be..a.!'," ancec no·,t· very h',eavy.jts welg,ll.I_0'" coun 0.'f- .'course-:- OD._y ,'... ,.'. ....-~.~ 'I + L'1 could . ," . .-. ',. 1 estimate this, but I think pretty accurately) is around 2. lbs I could see no marks, but there may have been something under the p-~atina, I understood from Christie's that it was a, very .' fi d .. '. recent nver ...ana, Thre b oronze pommel I retains muc h orf" Its
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2~,Type,: 'XII ' Find-place: Unknown Coil ecti on: Schweizerisches LM.l5 672 -: ... I .. _:_: '.' . 7 .• 1 _ .. Bla_"d ·c'' ·...-'I e', '0''" Ig·~th-:: '3'O" :(.,,6,......c .,., ·S·:-)"
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Collection: Helsinki. University Blade..length: Blade ritually- broken, probably about 30n (76
ems)

Pomm el-tvoe: B. 1 ,I. ~IJ'r-""";t! Cross-style: Unclassi:fied~ Viking (P:etersen's Type >Q Date: c,~950-1000 Condition: Excavated, but very good, the iron inlays 'being' complete and, the, surface good, Publication: Schneider; Oakeshou, SAle; Leppaaho,
!fI

This, by the shape of its blade, is definile'),y a Type X'D; but by !III. 'Lit ~ f' fini e: me same to 'k·· its II. :t 'is 0:;: as de-·':;),lnlte· a, V iking term .~. ten, ',I: . 'S·:I -,.' ,.', -.- ~" ... , P- -fa -.' ,- T-~' '-,X ~,lnce th- .ere IS ,no 'va..)-.ue ,",.. using. th t .'. = etersen s ype In. . . ,'. . tne I.ype as,a dating criterion, we 'must assume that here is a late. 'Viking :-···rd-···· and mere aretwo others sxtre "1" .,.,;:-;",. ··~l-'····,.r'WO :.. , an ",L -,,' ar-e, wo OU,I:'~ rs, extre me y smu ar, .-.',.,. ". "'D:"r' among .~.',~ 'If eppaah o's finds all dating _~. be":',"" twe ..nn" ", 9'·:'5-·"0':-,'1-}- TIl"1 iere I~S' c 00>: H . _I" "II-r. ~ • Z ~ ', ·,:IL... id acai anomer one m ",II... museum 10 .c unc h'-' too" wun an ic en ti al tne hllr ,.L ough th ..ere.. ' .j '. only a rag':g. d fragment _.." the••bIade 'be' ..elow e I:,. U"i..__: .::. .' . ", ~. _", ,a~ ~~. of ' j,'.... .'.' 1:' ~ II'L. R'h"' tnecross surviving, Tk·' was rouncd m 'UI.e"', nne at s· 1,'ldS stem- S k..... sac ~ '. ul;g'e,n" A,arga.1Ll ~ :,' -Th" ...W"' e_~ pre .... ved'i' V·'···· ';'ng-A' '.0', s_'W_ ·'0.',,' (:'x''~.. 2: 'h-" ere) 1. p''roo;:fi -Is ~·II I ,·serv ,.', .. , ik~··· ze I ' rd" . n: is " ,,/," " ,_1 j;I,.'a't'~ .. _ form.~ can ' '00 ua ._'.-'.: th-_[ . ie IIlIJ_1 .' bla des of T~ r/t-"·V·· Xll's distinctive .:_.',.' . -. I., _. .' '"; -_:._ '.' ;In,-led''' to _ 10m century and not confined as they have been hitherto to, tile later 13th and the 14tb~ The group of Type XII swords which follows demonstrates this early usage of the short-fullered blade even. better,
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XII. 4
Type: XII Find-Place: Palermo Cathedral, to Saragossa Cathedral in 1399 Collection: Paris, Musee de I' Armee. Ex Pauilhac, ex Estruch collections. Blade-Length: I can find no record. At a guess, 30" Pommel-Type: Indefinable. A cross between a flattened spherical R, and an I Cross-Style: 1 Date: Probably c.1170 Condition: Interesting. See notes. Publication: J. de Blaneas. Coronaciones de los Serenissirnas Reyes de Aragon. Saragossa, 1641; Zurita, Annales X chap. LXIX; Riquer, Marti de, L' Arnes del Cavaller, Barcelona 1968. The sword - or a sword in this one's context - is also mentioned in 'Annales' in 1135, 1154 and 1217. This is one of those rare swords whose history can be traced back to its origins, or nearly so. Well attested legend has it that it was given by San Olegario to Count Raymon Berengar III of Barcelona, by order of Pope Calixtus III. In a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries on April 7th 1932, Sir James Mann said that the gift was by order of Pope Calixtus II; but since that pope reigned between 1119 and 1123, and Ramon Berengar III was Count of Barcelona in the 116Os, clearly something is wrong. Maybe an uncorrected typing error. It must have been Calixtus III, who was on St Peter's throne in Ramon Berengar Ill's time. This Count on his death gave his horse and arms to the order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, and the sword was deposited in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Palermo. It was taken out two centuries later to be sent to Saragossa for the coronation of Marti I of Aragon, which took place on 13th April 1399. By that time a myth had grown around it that it was the sword of Constantine. Sir James cast doubt upon the validity of its history before 1399 on the sole grounds that 'the form of the hilt is of the 13th rather than the 12th century'. This is not so, though in 1932 the evidence was not available to prove that its form is entirely compatible with a 12th century date. The photographs (v) and (vi) show the hilts of two swords from those Viking graves cleared in 1950 by Dr Jorma Leppaaho. In (v), you can see a sword of c.l10Q with precisely the same form of cross as this one, while (vi), shows an identical pommel, and a hilt of the same proportions. Here then is proof - proof, dear critic, not just evidence - that this form of hilt was actually in use in the late 11th century, let alone the 12th. I must add, of course, that similar hilts were popular in the 15th century, too, all of which goes to show yet again how risky it is to attempt to date a medieval sword by its form alone, without the supporting evidence of a find-context, or identifiable (or at least dateable) marks. The sword was given new scabbard-mounts, presumably for that coronation, the upper locket (the only surviving mount) showing a figure of St Martin of Tours. Upon this rather flimsy evidence the sword has become known, since the 15th century, as the sword of St Martin. (i) It was kept in the treasury of the Cathedral of Saragossa until 1888 when somehow it got into the vast arms collection of Josef Estruch, which in turn was acquired in 1899 by M. Georges Pauilhac. That superb collection passed to the Musee de l'Armee in Paris in the 1950s, where this sword now rests. The photographs of the sword reproduced here are instructive. (iv) shows it as it is now in the Musee de I' Armee, with its scabbard-locket; (iii) taken in 1896 when it was stiJI in the Estruch collection, shows what might almost be a different sword. Most of the scabbard is present (it is here viewed from the back, so only the plain back of the StMartin locket of 1399 shows), the cross is bent, but the blade is clean and bright and except for about 2cms of the point being broken away, seems to be in very good condition. What a contrast to the 1960s photograph! In those seventy-odd years, the blade has deteriorated badly. It is heavily pitted allover, even more of the point is quite corroded away, and in the fuller half-way down there is a slit where it has worn right through. The hilt has been cared for - the cross straightened and the surviving cord and leather covering of the grip tidied up and preserved. So why has the blade become so bad? Not, I am sure, for lack of care. If, during its time in Saragossa and the Estruch and Pauilhac collections it had been kept in dry conditions in the scabbard, one of two things would have happened. One is that because of some amount of damp air having got in, the blade would have become heavily rusted, even immoveably bonded by corrosion to the fabric of the scabbard; or, as the 1896 photograph suggests, it would have remained bright. This, of course, it obviously did, but maybe when it was taken permanently out of the protection afforded by the scabbard latent oxidation got to work on it and produced the state it is in now - or as we hope it is. This photograph is now over two decades old, and a lot may happen to a sword in a museum in that time - witness the dreadful destruction of Can Grande della Scala's sword. (XII.5 below) Two things are plainly shown. One, that a medieval blade, sheathed in dry conditions survives the centuries and two, that though it cannot possibly be the Sword of Constantine, or of Martin of Tours, it very probably is the sword of Ramon Berengar III, Count of Barcelona. It has been published many times, mostly in Spain; but in England there has at least been one very brief (and not very accurate) publication in James Mann's paper in Archaeolo gia, LXXXIII, 1932, 'Some Notes on the Armour Worn in Spain from the 11th to the 15th Centuries'. There is much more (rather inconclusive too, with no mention of its condition or probable origin), in L' Arnes del Cavaller by Marti de Riquer, 1968, Barcelona.

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Type: ?:XII Find-Place: Convent of Las Huelgas, Burgos 'C~)o.''''ll' tion .• in ec· Blade..leng····th~nknown Approximately 32:1~~' U ·Y·I4.· (·825 ems) "'_"':".'~' .",., .-,} Pommel- Type,: 1 Cross ... Style:' 2 Date: Before 1.270 Con ·d· 1, 0 __Th' "~e "S,WOIl,!", was '~O' id in the e CO.cc,-"'"'l n o··f.'iL 'J'__ Ii'..: 'le'" b"" ::"'n~ .' ··:iF\d· .:.. ,.' ~I:.unc' In , -. ,···f-:-f"' u.Jle nfan;":" Fernau do de Ia Cerda, son of King Altonso el Sabio of ."11 b" """,..i d 'b w -18 ~_', Casnte.uponms mummr iw, .,>.:.y W hien hi tomt... as open ed '. s; . e: m 1'943': he CO'ft.' 1.-10n 0,'f' 'II~I-,;. swo.ru•..J U~ unce rta.,,~",lor Ule Jl '.. ,c:e -. idi tion -- LUe - , I.. In, .. •. - d '..•. lad ., ,~,.~. ~-. el .._ d' .... or " - ..e f , . .. sea 'bbar·e sd b "a,·.:0 may- be severe. y corro~ ,ed" "''-'.. may be:1n..lne, ',~ -.- idition, As 1.81as I' kr - 1.1 h - never- b - - taxen- 0'0 t·0..f' ;;' me A ... . oeen l ... -· ICOn.·_l .~ r xnow, ~tnas a"··lUlLll'·:: .• p: 'erh ~ -....11..-'1" russted.':imm ,'. :e' .a· b·l1, . 10 ~ '1ha " :-- been t '0: Id b .. .... _- ,naps rd I, __.','-, mav.,. 'JlY " .? _._.ve ~ · ii'J.. • .. bb d.i me ~ nut tnat It has 'bee seen outo f' th e scanoarc.m fl' con'd'ition, b oeen .. -[ .-.,. .. - rf li" . can !II,t be ,c.erl!41n,.,. ne pommei 0',f' 'b'oronze .' IS per ec"t.,IY ne .. 'in ',,,- T"t.· -- - ..' .... "1 . · ,.....
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~ b' thei -- hi \;. preserved,- Wl "th' a,bIue-green panna.but tne iron cross, 'W_lC~ill r. .e . - .''b' ", . 1'1 :' ... ....I.;\'lIi.... d .... n.A SInce, 'lb"" I' nan.::te t. 8'000','ial 1111,..2":'70:',~' ·}ray UD,UQ thie pnnce S '_.WU r__ f' ~,e _ ·c· " ~ .. · d" -.' d' . . 'd' """rl , I:·owever t.: e ~.. with ,h_an~"IS ,greal~~y corro~,w ..H"'" - ", '~'h grip WI . 1I.~. b" AI,;,. . ·.1nwng$ --·.. , 111' , "lk'· f .. ·' -: ,., .., cross. ',', nnu n.g of rec "'l'k .di 01 YC1I'O'W '~sux, WIth·,.. a criss ... ' .'.,-' over 'b-"~'- "'.-. 0 red: su _Cord with the remains, of a circular tassel of red silk al the top ~ tbe " .ed d th b d '. ,. al -t:. .- A\~ Iower one rotted unuer [,ie oanc -lS- In ••.most. penect conmtion, as is the scabbard, of wood covered 'with leather; with the belt-fittings of buckskin, 'The belt. itself, the long belt to the right of the (pictured) scabbard and the short tab "to' the len~ for some reason werecut off at the 'time (1) of burial. (Compare the drawing of the 'belt and scabbard of Dietrich. von Brehna, one ,o···f·· ..· figu res o·-··,f b enefa.li.c:t·'oC'.'·rs'· -io·:m.-·-·'{b- ~ W··,···':e:~t·,C.·:bO·..·ill'· of ft···.. ..· .."*" _ C'" A .... al)' 1! 2''60" .<:~awn .b .··urg '···,a·,,·,t-Ui-,··.' •." C~i-·-.:·: •. at u, · N·. 1,. : ·O··ik .shou ~y,.C":' 'G'- ... '_., .. {"IA-' ,.. U .: icauon: c,~es .., '. Olnez,;o' P"b-·l'"·· '. -. 0"-: ,...... h. ott,' A"O-"W":" ;._8.::es" 0 Moreno, Manuel." El Panteon Real de lias Huelgas de Burgos,
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Find-Place: The tomb' of Can Grande della Scala, in Ve,rona, n .··. .• v .. Co- eciion~ V eron '3:: . C'.8· stelvecchio Blade.. ength: 30i~ L approximately (76~1Icms) Pom m e. ·1,' -Type: ]_ . Cross-Style: '2 Date: Before ] 329 Condition: 'Terrible. The photograp ..b here w'8S taken 'm 1921&:.., .-;"N·,···:._" neve.r 'h-" "~"". 'b"..,i!'!Io.- , ." _'." .. '. -1-" ..... _.\O'W, ... :-:-,' ,. aVlng ~n. pr-o'pe:r.y ~~, .Io.r" Il.O b1 .... d'·:- an d ,'W· ,e ,cabbard .. 4Il. ,.. ot entirelv a .','.' "'f'. ",1:,.. :s.tau.w.u, h,·av.ee-. lmo _() .e I: ..... .1; roo ated aWill<Y T-'h,_,_:C .,,mouD.L:S, 0.__UJ.'C' .t.VU. '.' ,'.".'. ."~' _ ····' "', ,. bb d- upper .- ower 1-'" '1'.., ·,t· le,_, . ,ani, belt "'C,..asps,~ .scau·:ar,,_ ~ ,'-,--'. - . an·d _ 1'1OC~le,..,.' h ape~ ., 'd vt;,li -'I' 'being of silver have survived, and the hilt with its grips of .. lth wo 00"00-unc WI'JI'~ :C·O,rne Sl"1ver wire WI·.~_,all. over b .. m"" n.g 0 f-green. '..... d' 'Om' " mnc silkcord is still much as it was; but asCan Grande ;'8 dead hand, lav up on it,.'.,',.from 13,2'9 until i9;21. ,v.""silk -"c 0- 'rd,·has moe- tly s UJ"; '. ... '--' .. ,.~-~. perished, 'The pommel and cross look as. ir they were, covered ~ . f·-·'· 'b' -", L - " - .". _. - .+'1.. . m a •... br - ,.. · nc, .·.ut IWLdSIS some son 0'·f'" organic growm .f'"rom. ...... me d . ne .':''.' keni ld '. ... lie, mummi.f d I..tano, Th th,ickemng atth e mtc -pomt 0-C' ut.. cross .i,e···" ,I ,f';' ,Lu '~'.' chappe'._ or rain-gu iar: -d'. The sc a> ·euuU. fabric a:..:" " .._::.' Ib·-b···"!lIT'\A l'~ the rem ains .. is of 'wood, covered, in red velvet, 'J..' i · O··...L AO'" "I,. C···- .nn, r,O~ :/~ ~ P UI~'1icanonc Oakesrh'·ott £1,/>_; W p'._117.r;B-- air.C, E'IA.Ai N "2"'Ai
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These photographs were takenin 1946, when the tomb was opened." Upon 'the king's body 'were also [a crown [and.a did ~ '"'11' ..bronze pnci '" k spurs, as we.'11as aI-Il hi sp Ien': 1'·. pan 0 f gl,JJlb '·c· us ····1.. _ - '(as' .--'.... ·th~'e" ":-'ase" .WI ' b-' ~,,: b,ro_... :- 'F'··· - '.. ndo d',.e ·rh . iC[0thees,:': was '..' C~,,:_ vith ,[IS, ~.:-e·r" ·emaIl.· , " Cerda, 'who died In '1'270i)~ he crown 'belonged to Sancho's T ·th· ab,", -. -d .. f'· -.. Auonso . er:S·~· '10" ano' 1_IS 1...."""1-"'- . ed th···· t i. e sworn, t·00, atner A 1~· ... .. 1 a.! - .' d lt ~.00 _ICV::<. a.. tho . ',-onge~_ tba monarc b so It may date overzu years ear I" d lo,t:·::t .wi.,.. be"1 a, ~ rer ,... _ .;.... U"m·A of Sane he's d[~Q"~~ ."]-2···:9·:·8·~ han U.!Lv ._~ i_n ~._. ," ILII_, :~U,I The scabbard is of wood, covered with. rose-coloured leather 'with a chape of ~'iver The, belt ic 0- (gr,.....een g' aloon W' vith borders l lk decora te d.. Wl· .' .IU,I ,_: ~ ab J1e'c, p-·o,t'· te- IT" tiD S"-: 1'_,.',~ecure d +.f·b a r» ....,. I, ;...: 1 s,. s - .. ~- LU .U!."_',.. rn 0- I re d the .s.c:a'bbard'by being sewn on to bands, o:f'black le·ather" with a.sin\gie diagonal s,ttip to prev'e.nt tllen, from sliding a.part~The .·.· :' ..I _: s '. b..'ued:..e' i!":Iiif"il,·d· ·"..ap·..·... ' ·d .. av: -"..e'" n co ,t o~...:.:l~.c::re tot., b' una;;..W~·h;·- y, ."enl, h-,'-:-" ·.-ebe-" . '. '-, ..··ff····· -~Q"" Ule.' ': "1 t·· 'e a·ne· w'o',' 'n' .d"A'~ A····]Ofts·,"t· 'Ill-' oo·:····)"·t (.'11-0':- W" woun"d 'ro' "un-'d' ·1..'e ~rwab .<., IUJ_ h,ar-d) is left" unlik,6. Fernando 1Is~ ~,!I...:~ ~.' -':-"8 .' ..-. 100'" ('S~' of.'!! '. IudS.. .DOt":-, '.w·-a·;fIl.wn 't+,_· e ~ - _..~ .'en,,,I. 'e' 'arm" O,';~..' ~SC'" :h ave. I:··,e.n. .... ',' .~, "rial~. ., ..:....~:,. .. .. h .. th "U'" ,). :restored to..thI'e grip, as IS s.~own In..,\e cover l. ustta.llon ..·
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Type: XII Find-Place; River Great Ouse, Stretham, Nc E.Iy
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Type: XII Fmd-Place: Unknown C'oll ection; Pri .u;t. .. Bx.~l·.··.vu,:.. u-o-n'" rold Peterson rivate -_ .Collec.. i Blade ..Length: 34fl (86 .. ems) 3 Pommel-Type; G Cross ... Style; ] Date An"'tr ,,,ere "",' w> _-'_ 'lO' '."-"-"'i ', 'a.~~.';,-' .1W he ---, OO-'-'t·, ee"n c ~'.-~"5"'O~'-''1200---:"""' .-'diti - d~r-oor~,'ery consuderat e pitnng 'V' ,' ~ hi ~ -;, !~-:x,ca'Vate' 10 __ C ondmom "S-' P iblic -' "u'-on~ '0:-:' akesh 0' __ S'] ,Ae" pl ,&.""" ---:-tt'-- ., ::.:\L'1.,c ,n ".' a. " ,,' ~ ,~S, J _.'''~
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e 1-' +'l., ,---IS ecuon ~6_ taro .• ',:.., ,.,-' Th' was tormeny m me co'11- -,. 0 f~lVU- Har ld S~' p-~eterson af Arlington" Virginia, TbA 'b. .. __."_.. has, aricasso -an early examp... This shows to some le ~ _ w Jad,e;, .. vextent in the photograph 'but. }dt Peterson told me (I have not ~u __ u!lv sword myself) that it" is a definite ricasso "TIl"-,-,~ ~ , , v tang IS" very w·'_·-,'........ iI... lm '--,0' ,('I't broken (by no.W':_ it 'h--'as probably IlJ '-_ ~""" ,c: , .•.. _" _ _·__:·g.::Y 'b Ire 0 __" 0,[,>_-0 sensI,' 1y repatre_./:,OW 'bee '.b d) bel th e pomm,e 1 1~.Io-<·n ff _ aoryi!il;t, u]u.~ :. ," ,~. " m'' ' an""" -y- 1La.111· ·.ill W,V ,.'L'1 n' IQ,- d 'w' ,_,;,. v-:, ',.. ~:_ _ tongU.I,ll" Q'n .~. .- .~ ,,,.~ .' ....~; pointI...,. not - only '0' -'n ~-.,: . ~"",1.·.·.·· >.._'. . , ' ." - ted - '.' ..,~ '" vhi ch '" -1- - '" ,, - t ,f,; .. . til· " " - t.... .... ,-- f d e,X,Ca,V8\u.;·: s.wo.r~, W,' 1_, ,. won .·.1' aCCQun, 1,'0r- I, eo .n.wnucfS 0 'b- lad .--;---',".. OUIL, pommeisI,' W hi h . SUTVI.Ve" some 'D- mes wi .r tne -U ,. ·Ie " ',' - , '." " -, - '- "~ , -' ith..'.,"'ur nes Wh4I,b
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outstandins impo rtance not-- only. to the dating of a oommel., -, , - - ,-- - -;C;!' '. " . .: --. --." '. " " ., -'., .", ._., --' - - .t-".."., , , _.,

type and, an unusual cross-style, but as:being a. true arehaeological pr-oof of 'what seems to have, been a not un.commQ]1 practise in the Migration Period, and, the V':iking Ag,e, ,even ~ ,.'b A' f 'uryl'ng' SWOI~U.S~ ~i. IntO'UI:6' hi' 'h 'Mi' . ,., dd'l-eo~' "19', ,~'_, "ges,,= 0,_, burvinzsword armour or t, .... uUUI, in stone 'boxes on. chests _, called for archaeological convenience 'cists'. This is often mentioned. in the Norse :lirer,ablte~ 'but I believe at, present this: is the only actual. example, re· .. -d"d' coroec, Ithas previously been stated (mostly by me, in my Archaeo .. logy of Weapons and, again in The SWD'rd in the A,ge f)f f' ..' ~ Ct. 1 )....L' kA ,dva"ry' mat, oecanse (1-' ns pomme 1 lL,ittv,:nO t one 0"['C'iii,rkoOl; uni , 'u.-ue, 'V' wD,g.:«l~o.nnS,i. "1_ th'- 18 swornd must-it, be..o ...", e. iI'" ""' :; .'. :;....: s) 'lb' 'a, u ~ rx - th ,w:u.;r . ,';U:i century, This, is 'because, some ve,ry eminentamiquarian scholars of' 'the mid ... 0th, century ,state.d firmly (on no, reall y so'U~d 2 _. ,. d' that tho ~. reeveropeouorm r of- the 1- OL,a,~:__V··',\~",,:,'I-:~rt':i!~' ... grounusj s) ma i, us 'd"" 0 u e - 'b' "tad" ·,l.IUJ,wg pommel 'must of necessity 'be of Iate date, (a) because it WDS developed and (D) because they had. never seen one like It in
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a Viking context (having not noticed this particular sword at all) and (c) because there are many effigies and grave-slabs and manuscript pictures, all of a date c.1270-1320, where various forms of lobated pommel are shown. Certainly, the old Viking form did persist. I believe this was partly because old and treasured swords continued in use, as they always had in previous ages and indeed as they did even into the 19th century, and partly because probably for purely un-scholarly sentimental reasons, an old (perhaps ancestral) Viking pommel was adapted some three or four centuries after it was actually made. Why, then, can this sword from Korsoygaden be dated, firmly and uncontrovertably, to the late Viking Age? The fact of its burial in a cist, significant though it is, is not proof, since it is known that such burials were made after the Viking age. However, proof is supplied by the runes inscribed upon the bronze collars which once held the grip at top and bottom features which in the Norse literature are called respectively Vettrim (for the upper one?) and Valbost (for the lower?). These runic characters, rather roughly incised in a rather 'home-made' style, have been positively dated as being no later than 1150 and unlikely to be much earlier than 1100. These datings have been made by two extremly eminent Runologists, Eric Moltke and O. Rygh, each independently corroborating the other's finding. On stylistic grounds and on the circumstances of its burial, Jan Petersen dated the sword to c.1050, as also has Dr Ada Bruhn Hoffmeyer. Therefore this proof of date is sound, and (as you will see) causes a most interesting re-dating of the next sword to be shown in this series, which obviously came from the same workshop. Corroboration of the date can be found, too, in at least two pictorial representations, one dating from c.9501000 and the other a couple of decades later. The first (iii), a drawing from an Anglo-Saxon manuscript. (BM MS Cotton Nero C.IV) shows a sword very like a Type XI, such as No. XI.8 above; but its unusually long, arched cross is remarkably similar to both of these actual hilts, this Korsoygaden one and theone over the page. The other artefact is a late Viking Age (c.1100) grave-slab which used to be in the churchyard at Ebberston in Northumberland (iv). Here the pommel is of the sameform; so indeed, as far as form goes - arched shape, and clubbed ends - except that it is short, is the cross. So, to add to the evidence of the runes which is proof enough in itself, wehave sound contemporary pictorial evidence as well. Therunes read: Asmundr gerosi mik, Asleikr a mik - Asmund mademe; Asleik owns me. That's interesting in its own right, too. Ionly wish we could know the sword's name as well. Thereis, most unusually for this period (but not for the later IronAge which preceded it) a stamped maker's mark (or what seems to be one) on one side of the tang just below the pommel, which is hidden unless (as in photograph i) the Vettrim has slipped down to show it. This seems to be just a plain hexagonal shape. Ithas been published now several times, but I will only give the most accessible publications here: Hoffmeyer, I, p.33, and for the Ebberston slab, II, plate III; Davidson;p.63, fig.89, p.80

Oakeshott, AOW; Oakeshott, SAC; herein is false and outdated information, which must be rejected. Oakeshott, E. The Third Park Lane Arms Fair, Catalogue 1986. A very full discussion of the sword and its congener, reprinted here as Appendix B.

iii

iv

77

XII. 11-14

The following group of eight swords, four of which are described in full, all with pommels of the same lobed late Viking style, are of extreme importance in the dating of swords and blade-inscriptions. Two of them (one firmly dateable to c.l 050) are twins; two others have blade-inscriptions of the same character (though of different content) clearly by the same hand, one of which is identifiable and, within half-a-century or so, is dateable to c.1050 the other four, from different find-places but all within a Viking context (one from a dateable 11th century grave), are by their forms of hilt closely akin, and one, which is one of the finest surviving swords of this period, has long and complete silver-inlaid inscriptions on its blade. This sword, with four of the others, is always dated by authorities as being of a period c.1300-20. Its clear and unmistakeable relationship (both sword-form and inscription) to the seven others of this group makes this dating absurd. All eight must now be placed firmly within a date-band of c.lOOO-1120. They may not all be by definition Viking swords, but all are within the Viking period. The matter of some of these inscriptions is more fully dealt with in Appendix B.

78

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had it on loan to the Armoeries at the 'Tower of London: then in. the late 1950s 'i.t came up' for sale at Sotheby's ~I tried bard. £.0 get it; but was outbid by its present owner (who must remain -,-- .-:_--, ---, s) ._ ,~s,-_-, --,-:',- -,- :- itstand Ing "- , ... -he"~".~ - ,-~ --, .-:~:-- , ~. ,anonymous_-:-;, -I-:t'·' a, weapon.,- 0,'f:-.. ou.~'WU,Jl' -- Imp()ruu.JJce, not- . ml ,-;,r.. - its COn.-I' on -U ,c_ "ts-: -, -,--, ---- ': ose s__ . LY to ..,on Y ,lor 1 .....cond ~.~~ b-- ·t .0£-,- 1._,-' - so very C'1,- ,,-,,~ ...- ilar"t··- ,__- its ,. rm b_ro,tb:-- er --:- -ord -(N-'", ,'--:', X,--_,'lllO--',,,cre_-.rom.o,rsoyga.en ,-', swor,c:_,,_o,.: re) -[-1':------:-1 K'--',-,.,' ovnade .. -It h as ... ~ , ,_ " ': been so' authoritatively dated to the 'late '13th ~ early 14th century by many eminent scholars following 'whom, I also ,InSIS-'.,.,.....:1 th a ,'it-'- "m.USI~. ~ ..... that.-~-~~, •. ,--" .. ..~ of -;·"',a th- a,1.h. m,a.y now~+ .-- .. '-':'-"00-,---:---~--' , at 111. stb , 0 . _3 da very - bl f nd tnd _:u.-, 10 Ibd::t'f'leu I..t to estaousr h i me mm dSO,· arms, anc armour stu ents that" in fact, it must date two full centuries earlier ~ (S ee ~ B ee ) 1' ~ d ' so Appendix - bel OW_~ '1ll18.....,.· you mu.st a: rmt ...... exacttly like JL .. ~-, the .. :: ···--],y,·:,-.··,,~'-~., sword that It can't in a-----ltl'h-'-o'-na-s"ty' 00-----it-W,o,_ ..-_, Korsoygaden :_".,:, ,...1.. '-00 ,-: if' -iP... :·un :'le-'.. lIS f, Ih dr d years ,;,aler',~I ,.~rom 'Ulle sa,m"e w,or~·,..~:'p,.. not - 'fio:m
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Thi1S, swor.d was f.OUD.:. lear 1-; ,~.nlbi'llS cenury In th e, rl.v,cr 0-" d I . .~_ · ... .y ..... use near Cawood Castle, south of York" For many years its. owner
,-, -- - , ..'-, ,--, .,.-. . - ,~---, --I - . , - ..-. -" ,-'," ---' -,

e S w..l~· .. UI..... - river be ":0 0',-:-:r silve - affec·ted,-b-'y~::-' c'h' mtical',-· 11'0" th-, e, m'.D' d' O'~ the--, 'The crosses are virmally the same,~ circular section" clabbed -~"l' ,en, .. sm ' " cusnarmid , __;pom , ,.- 'd: :,,'.--.,'~-. ann bentm Oire strong -1-" ' small CU"P·· mli ,-:-- an., one -"- - .-..'0. _.m -----'--', - y than ·the other, If it wasn ~t that, the cross of dIle Ciawood sword is a Iiule long er than that of the Korsoy :'g- aden one .j t would beh neces~rv at .,L '/ are- .,,-, ennea - -.: A. '_",.,,--,U ,~- -~il,ey· ,-, I"d - ,- --"cal .· Y' O:--' can--:-''.,'~ ",,,-, :.'.--, '~'J - say!-" th- ',,' . .. -.--,-,: ' ,o-c-f these sword 'S" ero',~:~at'l ar e .,ka sam e Ili._ \ " an:" o('I.y~le: 8"S-,'.. tho_.:.'_'.~ form _ d J!. : _," --se> ."::' Ult_ ~" ;Ulv. shown in the Bbberston grave-slab and the drawing' in BL 'MS. Cotton Nero C!JIV It is thus no longer possible to attribute a, 13thJ14th century date to these swords, Their date must be, C 10-8O:"- .. 11i2O----'-!This sword, was exhibited. ,in 'London in The Ase of Chivalry '" ex hib onion at Bur I~ i ',. '. ' -:. mgton 'H -louse In 19'-8- - " -,:7 labelled with the wro -ng·-·da a:.~. ,'IS",O' in the ca "~10"g- ue o,"'-f---iat exhioirion -' lt1.I .. : _~".' :-,: .:_ '.-:-.-.. rv __
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Pommel-type: Viking, In the same group as Nos, XIl.9 and,

XII"lO Cros S,'" style: not classified

,1Ii.L .. '.' V'U aw ~.. . ".d:' '. . - .JiM e do'" n "U.I e-·p:-..'oint is orrod-...... . s'y' ~ an·· there ]'·'5:' much' t;;J:UJ.&.O'C·->.. . .... '. pitting ..This extends to the elements. of the hilt, though. it in no way obscures the shape or quality of the sword, nor has it greatly damaged" iike Io ng inse "~P't"I'"O" ~ .inlai id in ;:'Iver W'l~r' s hich ,',>', U~!~.> ,'~. ' ..I ..•.11[': •...... . ," are of 'the very greatest importance .. 'Thi.sinscrmtion consists of I, repetinve series of letters, A N
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Date: c~1050-1]00 Condnion: Not very good The blade is broken half-way
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TAN ANT' A, N.~~which extend for gu (20.3 ems) along the rather narrow .uller, Unusually" they are the right way up th d is '.- lid tho .e d tth , W 'h :. en tl e sworn i hieJJ:: in [",. ng h. hanc wtt :': tho Ii e .'blade :.,t painlin,g across to 'the lett, instead of vice versa, as is the general rulewith such Inscriptions. However, tile most significant thing abou t this inscription 'is that in the Knnstge wer ... ' bermuseum in Dusseldorf there is,a sword whose blade bears a long, literate inscription in Latin on both sides, clearly made by the, same hand, 'T he letters run similarly from point to hilt, and their form, and t...eir very small size, is identical .. (This!sword in Dusseldorf is featured. in full below at Xll.13).
i, i,

The hilt of XII" 12 :isof t ie same type as those shown here at No, 'X'I],,]4,~from Russia and.Finland, and as the swords from Korsoygaden in Norway (No~XII..lO) and from Cawood . (N'omXII..I ])~ 'In the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is a fine Western European hanger, dating' 'c~.l600~whose short back-edged blade is engraved with the 'letters .A N TAN, not. repeated, There must be some deflnite significance in. this as an aeronym,

A similarhilt-form

grave in. S~Finland, c~ 10.50 .

on a sword from a

81

·Xll.13,
Type.: 'XII Fiad-place: Unknown, probably in Germany Collection:' Dusseldorf, Kunstgewebermuseum Blade-length: 30\1'~ f77M4· ems) Pommel-type: G Cross-sty I.e:. 1. Date: After 1028, probably e.. 040-60 l Condition: Quite good, but a considerable amount of overall pittin.g·~ which does not obscure the extremely well ... made, literate, lettered latin inscription, inlaidin silver" on. each side of 'the blade. These inscriptions consist of two rhyming moralising precepts, one on each ,side: ....QUI FALSITA'IE VIV]T., .ANI~ MAM OCCIDIT~ FALSU'S :INORE, C~T'HONORB +on one side and, + QUI EST H1LAR1S 'DA.TOR,. :HUN,C AMA T SAL VATOR., OlY1NIS AV.ARUS., NULLI EST CAR.U·S +~ 'Who tives in.falsehood slays his soul.whose speech is false, h ·'I"'S,'::-_",' _'':_', and "The S-":a'V'-:l~'O"-:UI-'--:· hr. onour' a·.· a cheerfu 1 give r a-m iser's . " ...... , .., .... 1- oves ....:._ dear to no,..one ..;' These are taken from. a long series of moral precepts written in .1,027 or 1028 by Wipe. of'Burgnndy, aroyal chaplain, for the edification of the ten year-old. son. of the Emperor Konrad. II (10,24,... 9) 'who became the Emperor Hein3 rich In in l039~ Therefore the date of the blade cannot be before, 1027', and is unlikely to be much later than, say, l060~ It is [clearfrom the shape, ofthe tiny letters - the (l1and:writing - that this inscription was made by the same calligrapherwho made the ANTANANT.AN inscription upon the Canwick Common swo rd. in the British Museum (N·o~·XII.~12 dlis in series.above.) Tbatsword, by comparisonofits hilt-Conn with. a sword of late Viking style and positive date from one of Dr Leppaahc's graves, and. an almost identical one from Russia, can be dated to the mid-eleventh century' ..'The hilt form (disc pommel and long straight cross) Is also parallelled exactly by others among' those 1.1 century grave-finds (ii below). th Publication: Hoffme yet, .II, p~ 3~, o.25 an d. Plate X "re IN ZHWK VIII, p~132,-3;, .fi.,g~4; rben, Wt. 'Schwertleite und E Ritterschlag': ZHWK III, p .. 94; figt4' Wegeli, op.cit, 2
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XII. 14
Find,-place: Unknown
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ross- . ,e:··. C·- sty I' 2Date: c. 10 ,50-1120 Ccndition: Verv ~'.:..:._", -: for an ',~ '':_'_' _ ,'_.. ',., '_'. '.: ,.,,' ~' ".~',,~. ~[I eood ".', ',"', excavated (n'ver-found?)" sword ue ." ...b i te beautr V Th·ere are areas orf consuid era bl p-~.itttng< ut th he tit" u11.ed •._ ·d~ '· execute Cal'Ii'r grap hic i nc msenpnons, m._IDa in si1"ver, survive bl 11' • '.: ('I I.). Th ,I remark 8: y well. as is sh _IOWn. h aere at un, .rr e qu at"lty o f' eacrh' of these inscriptions, which. are of quite different styles, shows beyond do ubting that. here is the work of ,8 master, 'Each is a f art in i · WOEk 0.. an m Its own rlg! hr, This sword . has been dated at e, 1250 but there can be little doubt that this is about a century too late, This dating has been a ..... as. mas _y~ .--:-. '-" .' "it' _ te 0 ud' •.. rip·tt· ". ". '. _...' b· sed .'.. ' stlv upon th··..e-',. ,sLY' .'"f; ~,'b.· Jnscn ,.·.on, givmg th··: : e t)rplca. y ...il ~.", S",J' 0'" pomm.,'.~., a' '..a~ SurvIVe , OWe-Vel,; ·····:·;··11V' lung tvle " .. ' el 8,'1 H:'-" . ~,t1'~m d irect paralle I with;'' __the pomm els ofthe Korso :y. gaden .. · ~W.l." '._ ' '_ and.Cawood SWOJ,ds, and the, Ebberston grave-slab, and the Canwick Common sword, 'SO, Ithink. one can place it into the'; first half of the 12th century ~ There i a SWO't d in i-oianc, lOUD d at G:oc..lJ.IOWO~·,Uf· 0.0 r enmte ~ . ,11..... .; i" ") f d f-" .' rnerers •.•. '[')...... d C· .. ... 11 'm'X' date with "II ,. ~:,'century e ate WI,'· an extremely sim ilar hil1 i4 '00·1.... cross an.d ,. .• ';u:. pommel being like this one, and. another with an Ultberbt blade wi.th a similar pommel from Finland, (iv), These two swords, are published; _0. ~'. A"· adr ,,-." ~.uul.tJ. ad uzb. "11--' ~... .. nolski» ·w·· X'" , 'X-I . SIU;m r." :. ...':. N" a,d'- als ki,-·n.· zeJ, S····tH.4~' ..'k.~-· IlZ .'.roJe me ,m.' po ~ and X'.... Wieku ~:.::..·5·4· Lodz TQ'b'·,· III' ,/~.o;,,p:'.' ",.~."I"'.~ II' ... .. 2··· 2'~'2-' .. I...... ·9· .~''''. .. l ::,'....:_'..-:., dol ki A' drz · ' .. I kab . US.~·-".. N.a;.',1l5L~1",'; n.:.';'..'eJ~,P-- 'O,SW·'.ron:t 19'84 I~'II 5 - I" -, ~ ... .~;-:' I' ..oUI:[· .. lu.•- -- .b . "ad' "V~· ·.·__ ." - .... !here IS no, d--. b .. , :~t "IL. ese Io,:alV~.llng"k' ~.,- ,. Styl 0 pom:m.e. I"So appear in an up to the late 13th. century, but I think this. does ' .' ..... '., u . no' .. neeessan ii" __ ii, -'d'!' ..... Ui8u.JJey -were . .t..."",. . macde new ar tho,,8'I ym ~ icate ,t.. ·t !M+..... '. - - . oemg .... rime, We know thatsuch things had. very long Jives in. medieval times .- as. indeed 'they often still do, I stil! smoke. a pipe. . .~. . _... . . -. - td ". w.h' ic'h'•... uncre, W h·'0'. was a war corresponr en £ ,.smo-'ked: '. 10 thoe. my ' .' 11. __ .... "'. - ..• trenches in Flanders in ]916,*There is a. fine bronze pommel . - ,' ..'1• '<.' .~. US· UI..·"" '.' .... :.,;I~,. '1- tn.!~~~·. '11', y 0 • l' n the Brltish M-~'sei m very similar.- '18'" share ........ -~. ose 0"0" ' th·· e Korsoyga d. en and Trent s'words which of course 'is labelled CJ . , ':' as of the 13th, century, though it need not necessarily be SOi
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Find ... place: Convent of San Vicenre, or Logrono, Spain .. "n'~ w_ .'"_ ',_''_.'.' co···n·ec······~·u"·o· M·::adri rid nstitu to 00..··1- C·.·.'o·n--c-d· e de V' ...alencia de "'0
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Pommel-type: G Cross-Style: 6 D'ale!: e. 200-50 Condition; Preserved indoors, with care, therefore extr-emely good, Publications; BJair,t Claude, EM:; Oakeshoa, AOW~ Oakeshott, SAle, ,pL19c@Hoffmeyer, II~ pl.Itb ,&. P'~14,7@ When i" was preserved in the convent of San Vicente, this sword was known as "The Sword of Santa Casilda' .. I don't know why, nor do I know anyone who, does, The, colours of 'the enamelled. shield of arms in the pommel have faded to pale grey and dark grey, so they can't be iden.tified.- all we have is a, Barry 'Wavy of Bight, The legend in. Lombardic capitals engraved round ... ed ges o'""f" he .'":.. omm is 11'0 Latin; IA····VE:·'-· iel _, D~[!Iidl" . Ul-: .MARIA PLENA [GRA11A ~ while that on the cross is in Spanish 'DIOS ES VINCENTOR EN' TOO" and "0 DIOS·ES V1NCENTOR,EN TOOO A (God is the conqueror of all. The fina1.A perhaps. stands for the word ANIEN The pommel and
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Blade-length: 30t! approximately (76,.'2. [ems)

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"', .... " '.. . .~._. '.' l~ln.g ..,.' ' ,~,· "·il" ...... .', ..'. ...1 ,. d - J&lI cross. are" ,.reeo'rdOO''".'.'. as 'L....... ma d' e-. 0:-f·- ,11 d QU, .IIO.D an·_,g'ill..~ bronze respectively (see Hoffmeyer)" The fact that the inscription on. the ICf1JSS is in Spanish is D, vet] strong piece of evidence that the hilt was, made in Spain .... ·Ot. at least for a. Spanish custerner, The grip [0.( wood is.cove .~~' with red (now pink) leather, 'with a criss-cross overbindin.g,of narrow leather strips secured by gilt pins ..Laking says, that it is D, 19th century 'replacement, but when I examined the swold ", I..:" ':_.I. Ie .----.. IUla ·'·t - .- .'-, . ~naI:." \ m -194'"9' I &. I't-sure ;1;-'' ' t·..l, was ongll" .~_ It is a. supreme example of a Type X]] sword - ,indeed.I suprem e speccimeno fa kII·"· J~g:. 0\- QIl". val <CW-· Itis as swee htl"y" ~AI~e· O",~ .. ~ .,.1!UiIi and well-balanced in the hand, as ·i,t is beautiful y proportioned too, I shan never forget the feel of it, nor 'the privilege of h avmg ,I.t in my' own II.. d'&' rt.y years ago, __ .. ... naac , 10 bli ~ .. LIS 1- 0'th er pun ..canons (nota bl Laki n _. ""y t, :-"ng an d H ff meyer )[ '. · -0:,'
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of decorauon 'it must be nearlv a century earlier than that ..

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'XII. :1,6
Find-place; A town, 'in Nil taly ~V-~~+A U·.·S~'A'·, C- ollection; r,lIi, I .' 'B·1I .... d "1 til 2'~9-1vlt '.'J C ems:) '7 ,,,,w~,e-en.,g.:, ' Porn', m el-t v'il"iiP_.. J -I,',J' r'¥'~_,' I'C:'':ross s r.y: ~:....: - ,:··~··:-:-:c_,s ·:'ie·· 5'~' variant of l~t': "0''>"~li,te: c.~,:::_, ,__:, :";' .. '. : . :2: ,5''".. '13::''.. "_ '0"" - ,'0: .' 0::"""" O' ood ",:1:19 ~th··· ' ..;I,n I"'on'tlon,:_-:--c~_,, Th" • was ,e rounr d- wun two 0tb swords In a. ner C eli"" house being demolished in, an Italian, town, 'The swords were hidden between 'two walls ',. 80 had been preserved in dry r ." '_,:' po:mamel 'an,·d" cro "':S' 'So have ..... .. . een ,iUte j ':'It', C"O' 'Il;' ditilons The gu -'b'; severely cleaned but are in verv good ' condition " the. iron J " .. ",', :_, md ,'. un _er ,Ie gt~lA~. '.., no, h'Iav ~n,gco rrod'00"""-''-art ·a· 'n Th' ae blade an'_ 'd_, "wng ·······t . ,·, .. ..'-':-.,m ~~ .·. ,~A in -. ....l,. _,. lck . town '.... _M ' th·' zh w !Al'JJg are ICOVClC'1;iY I a r au,I,VJ,. u,dC: ". b''':'... " ' ,pa'u~':' ,"'"'" oog. tn. .'_ call it. a patina, when it, is more in the,nature of the thick brown deposit is. perhapstoo polite to it 'Beneath this crust, however" th ..: b ·1i""'d~'."'.seem....'t'n ~ 'n.@jr-&'~p.tl:·y,.'· pro,-,,,,",,~ .c;u .. "J~e.·w.::.:e ~',,'a,.u ~" ~ I"'_,-"l~ ... ·-:P'~.Arv-,-;:I. .. Publications; NOine ,Ie, is ctifficult 'to categorise 1!his sword. with, certainty, for there is no, clearly defined fuller in, title 'blade, and its grip, is rather lo .:-- I:or ,8 IT'. .....ype; 'X';'U·.';.thew .,016 ud.n,lj bein10' m, th ,'.... . I '. ,"~r&" ,~ ..': ' --,0" ',:;.., , JJJlg , ,__ zh ,:-'11-:-_ ,e :..,1 .e proporuuns of ,8 Type Xlll, Compare it, for instance with 'No,XUt 1 in, '0'0:-:' v .'_' . ,.. .' ,It"'---' •.... ,.1!.. ~ blad··v an'a,'..ih ,"'"g'ee:- ,--, 0"· UiI!v .1· ..... ,.. d -' '~' ute ,... ~ U.I 'vl-,"",,,,,~.n 'W'. e·' e <,"r- th'e',',tater ness of' l' ~ po... ..t ';i~ m '0'- ··r-Ain the n3-:-":1111re of a XII' so I.' h a..ve nu-t'_I~'t··, . 'm"' iy hat fu1l'\A It_ __,UJ:i y "_' _ .":_;:"'---'." , u"-n...:l....,'r't-:~ '~J,l!'"'!#.~._" is a g. ood examnle of one of_ those ."many.. '" .," · d ~Jes, w_here It seems qune impossi'bl'•e to put certain SWOT·.$. .. · into a typological straight-iacket.
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Type: XII ,: 10 ""pll....." ~ '::_:''.',own " P·" 'd.. ""ldce,~'U"nkn '-e' .' , . ell '" ', -ecnon: U,::- kn, , .. 'p'" b ,a~Jly "-"~""" ~ormer c0."0' ,-..'~ - ".D c r own.Pro 'b·1I private, Fe',·· .". I'~Y·. 'W.•OO',' ,'iw!e.~ Collection Blade.-.Length:: 3,0'"approximately (76~2 ems) Po' :_, ~,_V;!!! J:~ •..J'' --- . mmel Cross-Style; 6
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,...11... ·')"11 ed a S· _mce tms swond was 1:.JJ.usttat~<_n d d uescn :':l b y . ,'.".'mg ~ Laki ~ ... .n,. _: ,_ - ,1 '.. dou b:IS, h,8ve .~ncast upon .llS ,age; thJe '..h~I"t. ba vmg bee on the·!_lg. be ,,',au th' ionty,. con·d''e·mned as a'19,.~'_'.... ' . fa t,. ,[,t ... th' century ~:Me.. " -__ h est ." ... ' ,- ~ , ~ I I
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came up fa" sale ,at S otheby's in 1951 where I had a chance to .. '. Th" '."11.."...1_ .. examine it myser'llf' ;; _'.',e 'b''moo IS anquesnona 'b'l genuine, a. ',.y very fine 'xn 'with inlaid ..in..ilver desigr.s suggesting' a date s (:for 'the 'blade) of c ~ 1150 ..·1200 (ef designs in. fig ..12 of Appen'' IX .•.', beaun ,.. I" . .. '·IC·,-' is _' d'· B)' T'h~e ""...... f' ;'ur hil t '0.f ' gilt. copper (·W h·' h i th e part eondem ...ned',)"" ' ,t"""""d'" perfectly" good,,_.: . me but Ulnb'~'1a-.1.furth·,e'·:[ , .. .... ' , ,"""" .'. , '::",':.,. .~ r-I'v,..., .. ~..:~to ' ." ,,' _ exam inatio n and preferably'_. C",.. e nb··~fl,c;c' sting can mad e .....:I:v _. ", I. the doubts cast,upo it 'by-"" Sir James Mann, Russell Robinson ~ .':0 Charles Beard etc. in the 19'50s must. carry considerable weight When I examined it, and believed it to be good, Ihad only then acquired the first 20 years of 'the.55 years" experien ""." ,'. ·f"'-·m-'·"'edi,,·',"',Av,,:,al::-··· ':rds,"I,:,rh I~C' h I hav e now SW"'-O: I hope.m y' opinio '0" w" ce 0" would still be the same, The hilt is decorated on the cross with, a chiselled foliate ~ deeSlgn. .' a" the ... UJ lle griP ,IS 00;-',UO_ WI.- ~l fi~'" .' .' .. '. . '''It'' WIre. ·t' .;. . -," eo ups, I. >. .. d"': , ~t·,;,· tOC COpper-gl .. .., ,.t -. b ... ... IW, '., ., un ~ ian·. th cross, I.JCW;...!fok ' ...' _, il,lIe WI_. h ._t""woro aad co'11 s~ Th", ese :COU,W......... d ._e ,'. ,._ ............ inscription in Gothic characters: ~:=: I" ': _'~'_:_' JJ.vw E""G'" S' . , ('MUM)' .'. ... Le,,' ,1'. CO" LL-]G'-E" P' 'ER'- 'I..dI"I::- 'R;:' ":~., E :,-UM"'; <',>< ... I ME' '010'''' "R"E'-.:; "E-:PUNG':E PER lMUM
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The pommel, decorated wlth the,same conventional fotiagems the cross ,., has inset on one sid,e a shield of arms '- cheeky!!,' Or .. -, d A ....·· the arms ·f·"1i-.. 'Co'" .. ts , f' Lireux, me -'.- "-,'- -'II~Ij'j, 811: Azure.jne am '0 mecounts or: D> " , Th' ename ~rl a Ire ...,V." ", "" he __: ::",___.~ r ~ fa irly 0" ften 11.. i"i.nl"\P.:O· tiiU.,. has b"-y,,-. ml u S', WJ!j..', re'" ersed lUll 0-:-: d' eC"'r' f .u.u. . n.41"".t"'_'-- .... A the metal and ·'the tincture, On the reverse, a relic (a knuck~ lebo .'De' ).. 1IS"" inset beh:·1"'0' a' ,A'::.i'il'i 0": f'-c·O"'ry··:S;-:·~11I . '_··.WLI!I! 'This {amily' became extinct. in. the 'male line on the death qf Co am. ·,t, P•..•. v",d .' Dre 'UX\:· 1'"'0'-,' l' 3:,4' : th~erefo re this hilt, is:''00.,'[" likelI\f ]~~~, e :5· to have been made after that. date. The shape. of the escutcheon containing the arms suggests 'the last quarter of the 131h century ..The blade may well be a century earlier, but this does , not. by any means indicate that blade and, hilt must 'be a, 19;1l1 century association, since it is 'by' 'no means improbable that ai good ]2th century blade should, in the 14th century be ... ' ted ~ new i; .:." ,'. ,'.' ror pe ee ,;--.-.·1,... ',' · X"":'A> l' mOURw,, In",a .. , 'hi"~l'tS' ee, .1::, ','a ,'::- erfe t examp .0, N' o. ',',--',.,i.1,'~ -e above,
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XII. 18
Type: XII
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ollection ,~, arion .... U· seer Copenhagen N':· lm :...y_ Ullv" C-v, d '1' .,.l.., '".,' \. 2c:" - _.", ~' _. . B'I-13·.: e...engtn:- 3''2::-,n'S'] .zcms,) approximate . I Y Pomm tel-type.. J Cross ... style: 2 "D':ate:_. c,.- '2"'5'-' 7"5; 12' .. ' , t .. d·'i ery eood.,'. ·..,(,-U;G .. '. -"t'+~'-."on~' _ - :'lver I C· . w·-'··b"'·,on:.Riv '. ·f"oun~: ·V·"··, g,.:.' L,'"t+.·1i sen'" 0 us'p~,u.ng;;T"h'" e 'L)' 3..e ,S, "OWS ,a '::lSuuC . t' ~n_, ID._ '!e ,'-,1 .'. o.·f·::.th-.," e. blade to·Waf!d':"S id "_,. p ane ·..· '. .., &uu;..· . u d she..··.-,.- d t.~T"Ii : Iieleft (in the photograph) ~This. is a. fairly common condition .. in such flat.".' blades caused not 'by":an···· C"'' O', aditio 'D'Q of b urlaI, b ·u't .y .. ,i,iL .v". ~..:: __ '-:'-:' ' ... in the forging of the blade, Publications: None
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Type: 'XII

, 'ind-place: Th.e Collegiate Church of St George, Cologne --- C-, logne , 0' ,~~:.n: Th··· ' :e·< . nU.gen. M"use um~.oJ.,:~~ e C ··U·I,a.r;.hO -" .. Schr ""t"-' d" - 1- . I)JI,:I" ~.. :_) ¥l,. ,.'-':." 3'· - " B'l-, a:c ,c,_eng -..b .. 3' ' 3' 1 .A'iII' ("8"'5-'...".' ,em s)":. n.~" " -'",. ..[:.:./' J' '1 '1 ' ,r-:omm 6--'ty- ,.....~'..';; Cross-style:' 2 Date: c~,13'20-50 ndi ~ ''''E . 1 y .' ad' Kn own as""·T-c·h· swore I 0.,:.St . _. C 0.0', inon: ex " erne... go" .ne ·S--:··. -d- f George' this has been kept since 1929 in the. Schnutgen Museum, before. which. from time immemorial it has 'been in T "'S> "_" th v C':'"h"1I1 I!'it":'h' o'f'~ S' [",.G': :,00'--',r"8/31- he cove ring 0":'( the grip ha been restored, in '(he ..Sth century, with morocco leather (perhaps .- ... bi t· rtu " telv uba.. k '. -_e wrong '.,', b·' .- bo. ·"·~'In·_er,-,):, id nn.Lor_ _na~=y PUL ~,aG on th...-. -'.' way _y a :::0"1._. td'.-. ..an,. . 'U'IP': -W"''"I"'th the W" dd er end under th' _. 1""-enomrn el instead ofabove 'the v= cross, Also there has been a. 'Iittle round. tang-button, as on a small-sword, ,adde·d The scabbard has been similarly restored WI"II,t.., the same red morocco leather but the 'be' eaurif 'ul" 'arrchi _. c:UJI v VU.'··· _; Ii. '. I. tectural Gothic' chape and locket, in silver gilt, survive ..The central recesses In the pommel are, filled with designs in trans' ucent enamels" One would expect more or less convenli-k - alll h eral dr-Y" 0'r tt ref 1 .' _. g' de ce ou. ' .. _;\;,_.':' srd' _'> lid-On. .'"... e ;-: __: " .-' ']I_OUs.:_~Y fl"ice, 1.. l'_on th~ 0' ne' "'" "te 'W her e _ _. " e\ all the enamel survivesis a butterfly, its wings spread across [be disc, This is in. the unusual. co' ours of white, purple and yellow enamel, allan a dark 'blue ground, the whole sur'.y-:.' b ' ctural IJ . '".• ~.....:' IO'nn' - ded I b· a",' "0" '. rd er-' of'".t. ul e c U S'-pe d 'ar ch~'1"ie__.WaI. fea. . res: Ide 'as " . irntilar oorcer.nu mas. of ." e .-.-:'-,,1 . Th-;- omer SL. e he a smu 00'"d'l.-'..- b t m '.t 0 the ename ,.0'f~ e the device has come away, In the well ..marked fuller of 'the blade is ,8 mark made with a punch - another early example of such a punched mark, ('1..~)' shows_ only the back..:..of th e scab bard where the.. ch ape tu.· ,· and __:' '_;_. . .'.~ ~. U.I_ ._~ '"'~'''''.''' L.,U· , locket are simply plain sil ver -gilt, The two suspension -rings may be compared with those on the scabbard ... mounts of the swords of Juan. 'eI de Tarifa ~(1:317), Can Grande, della Scala (13[29) and the Westminster Bridge sword in 'the Museum of
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Type Xlla

The swords illustrated below I once put into Type XIIIa, but this was a mistake; they have to go into a new sub-type of XIIa, because the blades taper too strongly for a XIIIa style, and are too acutely pointed. When I worked out my typology in 1958, I did not know of the first of these (XIIa.l), and because I had then come across no others which would be made into a 'Great Sword' subtype of XII, I forced it into Type XIIIa. Thirty years and many publications later, it may seem strange to admit a careless mistake and to correct it; but it's never too late to improve one's work and I believe absolutely essential to admit, and correct, one's own errors. So here, thirty years on, I present Sub- Type XIIa.

XIIa.l
[Type: xna Fin 'd',::[~p, lace U'nkn"0' '.w-'.',n~'' Collection: The Burrell Collection, Glasgow
, ' "_', '::-"!io -,'ilo ',:, '-: _:: ,', ,

Blade ..length: "36" (91,4 ems) Porn " ·. 1, '-J J £'-! .'. :. me.:!'i,_~Ft"V .... ~ ]" z C ross-styiec 2" Da ? c rsoo ,501 Condition: Excavated. [Good..Some, scattered deep pitting,
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Type:' XI]a Find-pl U·. Inknown

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Collection: Private Blade-length: 35 (88,,9 ems)

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. ,. b '1...."".... ed pnstme, 'I't nas O,V10US 1YLl;;}6n preserved with 'm ,gn armourv for "'·be···:ra, n. corrosio n anad 0' nly 1""0: UJL little. stain in',if:!!~' .. --' - the. ·D....... of 'wood-- 'bound with cord and, and . - :DTi n . - -'- -' -' , -' ," I""· coveted with leather, survives intact, There is a. Iittle latten.. ",.",11 .Cd A..... h race th mar l~iu.m,·., dagger mark on eacn ,~ 0"f me bl de a. ,~ InCII}es. r rew ~ ~ below the cross, 'The form and size and, 'drawing of this mark ."bn ..~ :.' _:....:_ sely w ' dm ni,g;~g' er m arks on (1)-the "re':'... at ma'.~_,,:::hes preci .~Jl._:. .... i th. s· -".
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Sword ofEdward III in St, 'George's Chapel, Windsor and the d tsee very 1- war-swom (.. N o, Xl']J a.~;_ bel' '-)'" til M useum iarge : I 2' ierow lD ie . :- . ..:I ....... ",'. -.. :'. o··f -L- onaon:-, , 'w'h--~ . b ..:- -".- roannd In. ·t:h- .'6 TL.,c .. '.' , 0PPOS1Le_. ·th'"- -'e icr was e. ',.. " mames ..... t...... ,. ····1·- .' '.' .:_:.:e empl.e --.~_n",Qn,., ··,,,ese uu.. -b'<l-' d· es "areo b ·.VIOUS y fOrom.... tho"~ .... ee ... a. "_.'- .. .. . T··· ..... 1'· ll.n -Lo' -,'·d· same workshop, The present. owner bought this outstanding b ;. '. La d swor d__t. 5' a sotnebys im.onaon In. "194:- dO. " '-;.6 'Bntz 'W.hien _'~.'.'•..:" nmng the' B '." , with bombs falling all around sales were held in the basement, ··t'_ A.A' ,_ .''f~' -0:-" UJ_~ me t...-.u,e·_o, it lu £: va H', tol d-,,- ... g.... 1 for .~',1 ~10':' ··~,VU. l.uv· P.ilUI l·.-al_en:t 0'= £. : -I' '5" -- - '1·' ,. · v B' I.. Publication: C' '.OMOI.,sseur Je(J)1"')OOK",".~ 195' 1 ... ,,,:L. . h t S~' -· - 49':" - t.--,,,..,A . - - . -. -1- cescnoeo ·~k.o!'li.A o 0 aces __.!,l",,; A.'C-,,--, ,p,,,-:<,, no, fl-- ustrateo, anid' -wrongry- - d1c·
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Find-place: Alexandria, the Arsenal, -tJ·""""··'-'··'" H' "',;; " lower "' ·:n, " . ~'" val ' .. . . ' C_o~ecnon: T'h- ,e -R',.e,Y.: Arm'.lourres,,' _.M"--: T":""---', ' 0f::'Lo"'---d'-~..on '~ IX,..915
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Condition: ~ Almost perfect,-, except th 3'' ' '[-' the arip is lacking UL .. .. · . r~l,l~~ ._' Iil~, ':_ 'There is an Arabic inscription incised in 'the fuller just below the hi1.t~ whi,lch has 'been translated as 'Inalienable property of .. ~J - ,_._ ~_~_wm;. .,-. ,-~-. the"nea S-11'i"V ot the marsh province of Alexan....:1-:"", rna·'y··: it be ... d" .. n PI·'O···I'~,t."!II-· QJ Ther-e:'~S:'" 8"" sm ith ,~ m-'ark 0''-'-0' the tan'g' .. 'I-d' .. , "9'60"",,,· uAcre eowarns n'I"II:1.· -Ai Th~ iswas soi In:··>lD.·. th e D-c·.tA··.-..- E',,!I ird - sare a t' 'hri b"· es, ,. --h'-.. . tried . ';:' wnere ]' mec lor '''t - .. ' , 1!f" and__an S···· J' . ····e·',-' Man'n upa,g·. '.' l"mysel.I'~ r "ITeam·.s '_, , . ,'. '. ,,', "'-00<1.'
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length: 3",·5' \.;'[90:"''-': .' ems, ,)"I ~.J;.;H (' ,,,,,,,,,I.:, UJ.. -¥~ "~ -P-··'·'" '11 ... ' '. A--" V .' "~" ·-:t·' of .. ype, K:' _omme,jl,- 't-ype~,'~. [anall, 0, Tvne ,',' ' Date: c~,.l.350~ 400 1
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deal, but ofcoursehe beat me, ..'.. ·-... ',' '· ' . .ate . P n,bI,Ica,ho.n.~D"'U f''-ty,. P'l' -.4'd Oakeshott SAIC" Plate 29; where it is erroneously classified as
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Find-place; UnmOWJl Blad,e.-iengtb: 4-3ViI,r (110 ems)

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Cross-style: t 2-5' '"- ' ' ; D--".- - .. c__ate~: c'~ .s: _:'0,."',J11L -',3"J:0''. ~--,.4? I_IV". d ?C,·- .-.---.' ',. "'d" -'. ' I·'' on,_luon,",-x.cavaKiU,~ R':""" 'e' 'r fo -un' .. '-_,~:" '-.O'MI_em 'b_,e..pi,:"'lU''.- g on !1',,~ n C---" d ~,~+,:;- 'E'--.-...-, .... £: 'bel ." ~ r lv ,", b .' 1 ~_ ',:s '"1'1 sur,l:aces,~be ow th'e patmanon, c~,e :Olce~:rassmai, '.'0. mar k_on ie b:1-'a> on_,~,'_. sid~ ju s-ct· be:10' '-'W--'~ +1I..,~~ cross a liule heart; A.!i ..... .... V.'.' ",' ,_. ···uv .- one Ulv. . 'Uv ... beloi - th an S·:_! 'ithin a circle 'an'- d belo ,.---w~ ,.b .:. .!LaU~era: ~'d-'l-y '1..; ·b· OO,,:.c_W I ·I'~ .... : '.' W1.LW a U,I,m., ... _--. .-,', e:xecu ;f'''''''_~''' c,r-O!-'~ r'lI.!tA:i ..'.,- 'U c,~ell':' :-. n the 0, er-.-.:..41 ...... --8\o>f::_ ~ ',a~·t--<e ~ ·S~; n~l,j;{""'l';'n" a' c·~,~-'~ . 0' ._e orh--.- - --O.f'l,Dpo _11;;>, ,s,lw;; (which. looks like an. e-qual... armed cross) within a, circle with an S within a circle 'below' it, The pommel is interesting, for the decoration. Is unusual, aseries of stamped rosettes on the
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