Chapter III: Part I (2)

Among the heriots enumerated by Mr. Kemble[69], that of Beorhtric, about 962, includes a sword worth eighty mancuses of gold. And Duke Ælfheah was possessor of another of the same value. In the will of prince Æthelstan, dated 1015, is named "a silver-hilted sword which Woolfricke made." Guillaume de Jumièges and Dudon de S. Quentin tell us that Richard the First, duke of Normandy, rewarded the services of two knights by presenting to each a sword whose hilt of gold weighed four pounds, and a bracelet of gold of the same weight. In illuminated manuscripts of this period, the mountings of swords are generally coloured yellow, implying probably a surface of gold, whether from thin plates of that metal, or from gilding. In the Fausset Collection is the bronze pommel of a sword, which has been richly gilt. The mountings of another in the British Museum are inlaid with gold. In Mr. Rolfe's possession are examples both in gilded bronze and of silver. In Denmark, hilts have been found "partly of silver, or inlaid with silver, or with gold chains attached to them[70]." Other Danish swords were surrounded with chains of gold, or covered with plates of gold and silver; and swords with handles entirely of silver have also been discovered[71]. Coloured beads appear sometimes to have formed part of the decorations of the Anglo-Saxon sword. Mr. Neville remarks, in his description of the relics found at Wilbraham, that "an immense blue-and-white perforated Bead accompanied three out of the four swords, probably as an appendage to the hilt or some part of the scabbard." On Plate XXI. of his "Saxon Obsequies" he has figured two of these beads: one is an inch and three-quarters in diameter, the other an inch and a quarter. Occasionally, runic or Latin inscriptions appear upon these weapons. In "Beowulf" this usage is noticed:--

"So was on the surface
of the bright gold
with runic letters
rightly marked
set and said,
for whom that sword,
the costliest of irons,
was first made."--_Line_ 3373.

Mr. Rolfe had the good fortune to become the possessor of a sword-pommel thus "rightly marked." It is of silver, and was found at Ash-by-Sandwich. The runes occupy one side only of the pommel, the other having zigzag and triangular ornaments. This curious relic has been figured in the "Archæological Album," "Pagan Saxondom," and in Mr. Wright's "Celt, Roman, and Saxon." Professor Thomsen of Copenhagen informs the writer of these pages that, in Denmark, swords of the latest pagan period have been found, having runic inscriptions formed by letters of iron let into the iron blade. In the Tower collection may be seen a sword of somewhat later date, in which also is exhibited this curious practice, of inserting letters of iron into an iron blade. Among the swords found in Ireland, attributed to the Scandinavian settlers in that country, instances have occurred of inscriptions "in Latin letters[72]." In the Northern Sagas, frequent mention is made of the swords of their heroes being marked with runes; and the evidences we have adduced are of no small value in shewing the correctness of these writings as regards the ordinary usages of the time.

A further distinction was conferred on the swords of the great heroes of the North;--they were honoured with particular names. In the Wilkina Saga we read of "the sword called _Gramr_, which is the best of all swords," with which Sigurdr slays the cunning smith, Mimer; and again, of the weapon named _Naglhringr_, obtained for Dietrich of Bern, by the dwarf Alpris, (c. xvi.) Vermund the Wise armed his son Uffe with the brand _Skrep_, none other being proportioned to his strength. That of Rolf Krage was called _Skrofnung_. In "Beowulf" (canto xxi.), we have "the hilted knife named _Hrunting_,"--

"wæs þam hæft-mece
Hrunting nama;"

whose "edge was iron stained with poisonous twigs, hardened in gore." And in canto xxvi. of the same poem we learn that--

"_Nægling_, old sword and gray of hue,
False in the fray, in splinters flew."

King Hacon the Good, Snorro tells us, "girded round him his sword called _Kuernbit_" (millstone-biter). Thorolf, in Egil's Saga, "was armed with a sword named _Lang_, a mickle weapon and good." In Magnus Barfot's Saga (cap. xxvi.), the king wore "a most sharp sword called _Leggbitr_, the hilt of which was made of the tooth of the Rosmar (walrus), and ornamented with gold." The sword _Mimung_ was no whit inferior to any of these. It was forged by Weland, in a trial of skill with another celebrated weapon-smith, Amilias by name. Weland first made a sword with which he cut a thread of wool lying on the water. But not content with this, he re-forged the blade, which then cut through the whole ball of floating wool. Still dissatisfied, he again passed it through the fire, and at length produced so keen a weapon that it divided a whole bundle of wool floating in water. Amilias, on his part, forged a suit of armour so much to his own satisfaction that, sitting down on a stool, he bade Weland try his weapon upon him. Weland obeyed, and there being no apparent effect, asked Amilias if he felt any particular sensation. Amilias said he felt as though cold water had passed through his bowels. Weland then bade him shake himself. On doing so, the effect of the blow was apparent: he fell dead in two pieces[73].

The skilful weaponer was always a person of high consideration in these days. This is curiously shewn in the law of Ethelbert which enacts that "if one man slay another, he is to pay his wergyld: but not so, if the slayer happen to be the king's weapon-smith or his messenger; in that case, he is to pay only a moderated wergyld of a hundred shillings[74]."

We have already noticed the curious custom of burying the spear-head in the same vase with the bones of the Anglo-Saxon warrior. An analogous practice has been observed in Denmark; where the sword of the hero, broken into several pieces, is placed over the mouth of the urn. An example of this kind of interment is engraved in Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," p. 98. Occasionally the iron sword, having been softened by the fire, was bent, and in this state deposited in the grave. The Abbé Cochet remarks:--"Cet usage des sabres ployés au feu et enterrés avec les morts est très-rare chez nous: il s'est rencontré en Allemagne, en Danemark, et en Suisse, ou M. de Bonstetton en a vu un grand nombre, en 1851, dans les sépultures de Tiefenau, près Berne. Ce savant ajoute que cette coutume, plus barbare que romaine, peu connue des Helvètes, était très-fréquente chez les peuples Scandinaves. Il existe, dit-il, au musée de Schwerin plusieurs glaives en fer que l'on croit provenir des Vendes, et qui ont été rougis dans le feu et ensuite ployés. Baehr signale le même fait dans les tombes d'Ascheraden et de Segevold[75]."

The Sheaths of the swords were commonly of wood covered with leather, as we learn from the graves; and they were sometimes mounted in bronze. Figure 2 of our fourth Plate shews an example from Wilbraham, in which the locket and chape are of bronze; and the Livonian sword, Plate V. fig. 10, has an ornamented bronze chape. In the British Museum is an Anglo-Saxon blade found in a grave at Battle Edge, Oxfordshire, which retains the bronze chape and locket of its scabbard. These fitments were sometimes gilt, or even of gold. Mr. Worsaae, in his "Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," page 50, has figured the gold locket of a sword-sheath, adorned with the winding pattern so characteristic of this period. Wood and leather were the ordinary materials used in the Danish scabbards. Of the sheaths formed of these substances, which have been partially preserved to our times, the most curious example is that figured by Mr. Bateman in vol. vii. of the Journal of the Archæological Association. It was found in a barrow in Derbyshire, and is constructed of thin wood overlaid with leather, the surface of the latter being covered with a pattern of alternate fillets and lozenges. A scabbard found at Strood, in Kent, was formed externally of a substance resembling shagreen. Dr. Bähr, in _Die Gräber der Liven_, Plate XV., has engraved a dagger-sheath, which is entirely of bronze, from Ascheraden; and in the _Abbildungen von Mainzer Altherthümern_ for 1852, is another bronze dagger-sheath, containing an iron dagger, which was found near Treves. Several are in the British Museum. Mr. Roach Smith has another, found in the Thames;--all of them probably belonging to the period under consideration. There is also a curious type of sword-scabbard, formed entirely of bronze, which further observation may probably shew to be of Northern make. The example here engraved was found on a moor near Flasby, in Yorkshire; it contains the blade of an iron sword. Several similar ones have been discovered. One dug up at Stanwick has been presented by the Duke of Northumberland to the British Museum. Another is engraved in Dr. Wilson's "Annals of Scotland," found near Edinburgh. A fourth, from the bed of the Isis, is figured in the Archæological Journal, vol. x. p. 259. The Earl of Londesborough has another, dredged from the Thames, which differs from the rest in having been ornamented with enamelled studs. This is engraved in vol. iii. of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. See also the Danish example, figured in Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," p. 66. All these bronze scabbards have contained iron blades.

The Sword-Belts appear to have been usually girt round the waist; the buckles and tongues of them having often been found in the graves. These fitments are generally of bronze, sometimes of copper; and the metal is not unfrequently gilt, or embossed, or enamelled. Some buckles in the Faussett collection, found in Kent, are set with garnets. The belt was occasionally worn across the body, suspended from the right shoulder; as in the fine figure in Cotton MS., Tiberius, C. vi. fol. 9. Our woodcut, No. 17, furnishes an example of the belt girt round the waist, from an illumination in Add. MS., No. 18,043.

The AXE, as we have seen, was a characteristic weapon of the Northern nations. It is not unfrequently found in the graves of these people on the Continent, but in Anglo-Saxon interments it is of the extremest rarity. In the Wilbraham excavations, a hundred graves yielded only two axes. In the Fairford researches, not one was found in a hundred and twenty graves; and in the many Kentish barrows examined by the Earl of Londesborough in 1841, not a single specimen was obtained. The axe appears to have been of three principal forms: the "taper axe," the broad axe, and the double-axe, or bipennis. The pole-axe and the adze-axe were varieties of these. The battle-axe was also called _francisca_, from the favour with which it was regarded by the Franks. Isidorus (lib. xviii. c. 8.) tells us of "Secures quas Hispani ab usu Francorum per derivationem _franciscas_ vocant."

PLATE VII.]

Examples of the Anglo-Saxon taper-axe, from the Ozingell Cemetery, are given in figures 1 and 2 of our Plate. Figures 3 and 4, found in Ireland, fig. 6, from Selzen in Germany, and fig. 9, from Livonia, closely resemble the Kentish ones. Fig. 8, from Livonia, differs chiefly in having a prolongation at the back. Specimens of the taper-axe found in France are given in Plates VII., IX., and XI. of _La Normandie Souterraine_; and Danish examples occur at pages 68 and 96 of Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum." Some of the axe-heads dug up in Denmark exhibit a very curious transitional construction; the blade being of copper edged with iron. Another axe in the Copenhagen Museum, "of the very earliest times of the iron period," is inscribed with runes. The axe found in the tomb of Childeric is of the "taper" form already described; it is represented in Plate II. of Daniel's _Milice Françoise_. We have already, by the passages from Sidonius and Procopius, seen how the sons of Odin commenced their attack by hurling their axes at the foe. A curious illustration of this practice of throwing the axe is afforded by a charter of Canute, granting to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, the port-dues of Sandwich, "from Pepernesse to Mearcesfleote, as far as a taper-axe can be thrown on the shore from a vessel afloat at high water[76]:" [Saxon: swā feorr swā mæȝ ān taper-æx beon ȝeworpen ūt of ðam scipe ūp on dæt land].

Figure 10 of our Plate, from Livonia, offers a variety from the axe already described, in having an angle in its under line. A similar contour is found in examples discovered in Normandy, and figured on Plate VII. of the Abbé Cochet's work. The broad-axe is seen in our figures 5 and 7; the first from Selzen, the other from Livonia. Compare the Frankish specimen engraved at page 233 of _La Normandie Souterraine_. Others have been found in England.

The single-axe used by the Anglo-Saxons in battle does not seem to have differed in form from those employed in woodcraft; as may be seen by referring to the Calendar contained in Cotton MS., Julius, A. vi., faithfully copied in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations." Indeed, it is probable that the blade which had felled an oak was often called upon to strike down an enemy. Manuscripts do not frequently give pictures of the battle-axe; but examples occur in Cott. MS., Cleop., C. viii., and in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of the Library of Rouen.

The double-axe is of still more rare occurrence in book-paintings. It appears in two places in Harleian MS., No. 603, but this is a work not earlier than the close of the eleventh century. In the graves, the bipennis has never been found at all; neither is it seen in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons in the Bayeux Tapestry. But if the bipennis of the true classical form, that is, having two vertical blades, has not hitherto been seen among the varied contents of the Northmen's graves, a very singular variety of this implement has been discovered among the tombs of the Valley of the Eaulne. It is a kind of adze-axe, the one blade being vertical, the other horizontal. It was found by the Abbé Cochet in the cemetery of Parfondeval, and has been engraved in his work, p. 306, and in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv., p. 229. The adze form of one of the blades would seem to indicate rather an artificer's tool than a warrior's weapon, and the Abbé tells us that the peasants have still such an implement, which they call their _bisaiguë_ (p. 307). We may remember, however, that an authority for the military use of the horizontal blade exists in the effigy at Malvern[77].

The Pole-axe is the almost universal form of this arm in the Bayeux tapestry. Not only the Saxon soldiery, but Harold, and even Duke William himself, are armed with this fearful weapon. Indeed, for a force of infantry, as the English were, contending against cavalry, no other kind of axe could have been of much service. Wace, whose minute descriptions, wearisome enough to the general reader, are invaluable to the archæologist, has not lost sight of the long-handled axes of the islanders. He has even given us the particular dimension of the head,--"ki fu d'acier:"--

"----un Engleiz vint acorant:
Hache noresche[78] out mult bele,
Plus de _plain pié_ out l'alemele[79].

* * * * *

---- la coignie
K'il aveit sus el col levée,
Ki mult esteit _lonc enhanstée_[80]."
_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 225.

And again, line 13536:--

"Un Engleiz od une coignie,
Ke il aveit, _lungue emmanchie_,
L'a si féru parmi li dos
Ke toz li fet croissir les os."

The same Master Wace has recorded his objection to the Northern axe; that, requiring both hands to wield it, the weapon cannot be used effectively with the shield:--

"Hoem ki od hache volt férir,
Od sez dous mainz l'estuet tenir[81].
Ne pot entendre à sei covrir,
S'il velt férir de grant aïr[82].
Bien férir è covrir ensemble,
Ne pot l'en faire, ço me semble."
_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 262.

The handle of the Axe was of wood, traces of which have been observed in the relics obtained from the graves. In a single instance, it has been found of iron. This example occurred at Lède, in Belgium, and has been described by M. Rigollot in the _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie_, vol. x.

The Guisarme is a weapon frequently mentioned by our early chroniclers and poets; but, though it is sometimes made to be identical with the pole-axe, at others it is distinguished from that arm. Wace tells us it was "sharp, long, and broad:"--

"E vos avez lances agües,
E granz gisarmes esmolues."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 12907.

"Dous Engleiz vit mult orguillos:

* * * * *

En lor cols aveient levées
Dui gisarmes lunges è lées[83]."--_Ib._, l. 13431.

The Statute of Arms of King William of Scotland (1165-1214) enacts: "Et qui minus habet quam XL. solidos, habeat Gysarm, quod dicitur Hand-axe[84]." From another Scottish ordinance we learn that the hand-axe was a long-handled weapon. The Provost of Edinburgh in 1552 directs: "Because of the greit slauchteris done in tyme bygane within the burgh, and apperendlie to be done, gif na remeid be provydit thairto; that ilk manner of persone, occupyaris of buthis or chalmeris in the hie-gait, that they have lang valpynnis[85] thairin, sic as handex, Jedburgh staif, hawart jawalyng[86], and siclyk lang valpynnis, with knaipschawis[87] and jakkis; and that they cum thairwith to the hie-gait incontinent efter the commoun bell rynging[88]."

Knives of various sizes are constantly found in the Northern graves. The smaller were evidently for domestic purposes, for they are discovered in female interments as well as in those of the other sex. But the larger kind appear to have been used as daggers. They have been more frequently observed in the continental tombs than in those of our island; and, as they very rarely appear in the pictures of the Anglo-Saxons, we may conclude that they formed no necessary part of the equipment of these warriors. A fine example of this weapon is given on our ninth Plate (fig. 1,) from the Ozingell Cemetery. It is sixteen inches in length, of iron, and is provided with a cross-piece. In the following group from the Anglo-Saxon and Latin Psalter of the Duc de Berri, in the Paris Library, the spearman's adversary appears to be employing exactly such an instrument as the example from the Kentish grave[89]. Figure 2 in our Plate is a two-edged dagger of iron from the Faussett collection. It was found near Ash-by-Sandwich, and measures ten inches in the blade. Figures 3 and 4 are Ancient Irish. The first is the ordinary type of this weapon, of which many have been found. The second is remarkable from the retention of its handle, which is of wood, and ornamented with carving. Both these are from Mr. Wakeman's paper on Irish Antiquities in vol. iii. of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. Figures 5 and 6 are German examples, from the Selzen graves. The first is very remarkable from the ring at the extremity of the tang. In Denmark, daggers have been found of a transitional period, the bulk of the blade being of bronze, edged on both sides with iron. Other Danish examples are given in Mr. Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum," pages 66 and 97. In Dr. Bähr's explorations in Livonia, a dagger of iron was discovered with its bronze sheath. (See _Die Gräber der Liven_, Plate XV.) Gregory of Tours, in the sixth century, mentions in several places that the Frankish soldiers carried large knives at their belts; and there seems no reason to doubt that the examples from the graves are the very "cultri validi" of the historian. Of these Frankish war-knives, several specimens are figured in the _Normandie Souterraine_. They closely resemble those found in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and England. The handles appear to have been of wood. One of the Frankish examples still had portions of the wooden haft remaining[90]. Other specimens of the Northern _cultelli_ will be found collected on Plate LVIII. of the second volume of the _Collectanea Antiqua_. Some of these weapons appear to have been inlaid with copper or other metal; for which purpose one or more incised lines are formed near the back of the blade. An Anglo-Saxon knife found in excavations in the city of London, and engraved (fig. 3.) in the Plate of the _Collectanea Antiqua_ already noticed, still retains the bronze inlaying in the channels of its blade.

PLATE IX.]

A curious variety of the war-knife is in the collection of Mr. Roach Smith, of which the single edge is straight, or nearly so, and the point formed by a diagonal cut at the back of the blade. It is believed, in its perfect state, to have measured upwards of thirty inches; is of steel; and has on both sides a double line of the channelling already noticed[91]. A weapon of similar form appears among the Livonian antiquities now in the British Museum, and is represented on Plate XIX. of Dr. Bähr's _Gräber der Liven_.

The LONG-BOW was another weapon of this era. Agathias, indeed, has told us that the Franks used neither bow nor sling. But arrows are expressly mentioned in the Salic Law; and, to reconcile these conflicting testimonies, it has been suggested that the archery of the Salic Law is that of the chase alone. _Poisoned_ arrows, however, are here named, and the hunter does not ply his art with poisoned shafts. "Si quis alterum de sagitta toxicata percutere voluerit[92]," &c. Further on, a fine is fixed for him who shall deprive another of his "second finger, with which he directs his arrow:"--secundum digitum, quo sagittatur. At a later period, the bow is especially commanded as a part of the soldier's equipment. One of the capitularies of Charlemagne directs--"that the Count be careful to have his contingent fully furnished for the field; that they have lance, shield, a bow with two strings and twelve arrows," &c. According to the testimony of Henry of Huntingdon, William the Conqueror reproached the English with their want of this weapon. The Bayeux tapestry, however, seems to authorize the belief that they were not entirely without it. (See the first group of Anglo-Saxons in Stothard's XIV^{th}. plate.) The probability seems to be that, while the Normans employed archers in large bodies, the English merely interspersed them in small numbers among their men-at-arms. The bow, at all events, was in use among the Anglo-Saxons: it is frequently represented in manuscript illuminations, and arrow-heads have been found in the graves. Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 in our Plate are from Kentish interments. The first two form part of the Fausset collection; the others, figured in the _Nenia Britannica_, were found on Chatham Lines. The whole are of iron. Pictorial examples of the Anglo-Saxon bow, arrows, and quiver may be seen in Cotton MSS., Cleop., C. viii., Claudius, B. iv., Tiberius, C. vi., and in the fine _Prudentius_ of the Tenison Library. See also Strutt's _Horda_, vol. i. plate XVII. Arrow-heads of iron have also been found in France, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Livonia. Figures 5 and 6 of our Plate are examples from the cemetery at Selzen in Rhenish Hesse; figs. 7 and 8 from Livonian graves. With the latter was also found part of a quiver. The Abbé Cochet[93] has engraved and described specimens found in France, and M. Troyon notices Swiss examples in his paper in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv., and Plate XVII. Compare also Archæological Journal, vol. iii. pp. 119, 120. In the Suabian graves at Oberflacht, bows also were found. See _Archæologia_, vol. xxxvi. Among the figures of the ivory carving forming the cover of the "Prayer-book of Charles the Bald" are two archers, each holding a leash of barbed arrows; the arrows very clearly represented. This curious sculpture, illustrating the lvii^{th}. Psalm, (a favourite subject with the middle-age artists,) has been carefully engraved in the sixth volume of the _Revue Archéologique_. The original is in the Imperial Library at Paris.

PLATE X.]

These were the usual weapons of the Northern nations: these are seen in their pictures, are named in their laws, are described in their Sagas, are found in their graves. But other arms appear to have been of occasional employment: the mace, the pike, the sling, the stone-hammer, the "morning-star," the fork, and the bill. The Mace is seen in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons (as well as of the Normans) in the Bayeux tapestry; and it seems not unlikely that those dentated hoops of bronze[94] which have been found both in England and on the Continent were the heads of similar weapons; for it must not be forgotten that, even in the "Iron Period," objects of bronze continued in use. From the inexhaustible Wace we learn that the "vilains des viles" who joined Harold's army,--

"Tels armes portent com ils trovent:
Machues portent è granz pels[95],
Forches ferrées[96] è tinels[97]."--_Line_ 12840.

It will be remembered that the mace is a weapon of the most remote antiquity, and is found, almost identical in form with those of the Northern nations, among the monuments of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.

The Stone-Hammer appears to have been employed by the troops of Harold. William of Poictiers says: "Jactant cuspides ac diversorum generum tela, sævissimas quasque secures, et _lignis imposita saxa_[98]." Of the Bill, an example occurs in the fine Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of Rouen: it closely resembles the common long-handled hedging-bill of our own day. The Morning-star, an instrument formed of a ball of metal (sometimes spiked) attached by a chain to a short staff, after the manner of a whip, is believed to have been another of the arms of this period. Dr. Bähr found the head of one of these in his Livonian researches; a complete one, of bronze, (here engraved) was discovered at Mitau. Professor Thomsen mentions also a bronze specimen, in his account of the Copenhagen Museum. The Sling, according to the opinion of the Père Daniel, was employed by the Franks in intrenched positions and beleaguered towns[99]. This ancient instrument, which is found in Egyptian[100] and Assyrian[101] monuments, was certainly in use among the Anglo-Saxons, whether for warfare or the chase alone, it is not easy to determine. The figure here engraved is that of David, from the Anglo-Saxon and Latin Psalter of Boulogne. See also the slinger in Strutt's _Horda_, Plate XVII., from Cotton MS., Claudius, B. iv., and Plate III. of Stothard's Bayeux Tapestry. In the Copenhagen Museum are sling-stones, "either with a groove cut round the middle, or with two grooves cut cross-wise; having, in the latter case, the shape of a ball somewhat flattened." It does not appear that the Northern nations used leaden pellets; as the Greeks and Romans did, inscribing them with a thunderbolt, or some quaint sentence, as "Take this."

It will have been observed, from several passages already cited, that the use of poisoned weapons is imputed to the Northern tribes of this period. In "Beowulf," and elsewhere, we read of poisoned swords, poisoned arrows, and poisoned daggers; and, however rare may have been the employment of such terrible ministers, it does not seem permitted us to deny altogether their existence. The famous sword of Beowulf,

"Hrunting nama,"

had its edge "stained with poisonous twigs." This, indeed, is the evidence of a poet: but the Salic Law, as we have seen, speaks of "sagittæ toxicatæ[102]." And Gregory of Tours tells us, of Fredegonda: "Fredegundis duos cultros ferreos fieri præcipit, quos etiam caraxari profundiùs et veneno infici jusserat, scilicet si mortalis adsultus vitales non dissolveret fibras vel ipsa veneni infectio vitam possit velociùs extorquere[103]." And again, the same writer speaks of these poisoned daggers, or _scramasaxi_: "Cum cultris validis quos vulgò scramasaxos vocant, infectis veneno, utraque latera ei feriunt[104]."

Let us now examine, as far as we are enabled to do so, what was the Teutonic warrior's defensive equipment. The structure of the Body-armour can only be inferred from indirect evidences; for the vague terms of the writers, such as _lorica_ and _byrnie_, and the rudely conventional forms of the painters, who indicated a tree by a cluster of three or four leaves, and a coat-of-fence by a few circles penned on the parchment or punched on the bronze, afford us little help in determining with exactness how the armour-smith achieved his task. It is curious that the best testimony we obtain is that of the poets. A simile or an epithet lets in more light than all the limners and all the historians. It seems clear that in the earlier days of Northern rule, none but leaders wore body-armour; but, as years rolled on, and prosperity increased, the subaltern ranks affected this distinction. As we have already shewn (page 38), the Ceorl vied with the Eorl in the richness and completeness of his equipment; and at length, under the rule of Charlemagne, the troops of the Count, as we have seen, are _all_ required to have defensive armour: "Omnis homo de duodecim mansis, bruniam habeat." Those who had not this amount of land, clubbed together and furnished amongst them the panoply in which one of their number went forth to the host. Was this _byrnie_ of interlinked chain-mail? The Anglo-Saxon poem of "Beowulf" may throw some light on the question:--

"The war-byrnie shone, hard (and) hand-locked (_heard
hond-locen_); the bright ring-iron sang in their trappings when
they proceeded to go forward to the hall, in their terrible
armour."--_Canto_ i. _line_ 640.

"Beowulf prepared himself, the warrior in his weeds, he cared
not for life: the war-byrnie, twisted with hands (_hondum
ge-broden_), wide and variegated with colours, was now to try the
deep," &c.

_Canto_ xxi. _line_ 2882.

In Canto xxii. we have,--"the war-dress, the locked battle-shirt." ... "On his shoulder lay the twisted breast-net (_breost-net broden_) which protected his life against point and edge." ... "his war-byrnie, his hard battle-net (_here-net hearde_)."

If there is meaning in words, surely "the _twisted_ breast-_net_," the "hard battle-_net_," the "_locked_ battle-shirt," the "byrnie _twisted_ with hands," the "war-byrnie, hard and _hand-locked_," can mean nothing but the hauberk of interlinked chain-mail; that garment which, we have so often been told, came to us at some unknown time, from some unknown people, dwelling in some unknown region of the East. If this fabric, which, for brevity, we will call chain-mail, came from the East, where are the eastern monuments that exhibit it? It is not seen in Egyptian, Assyrian, nor Indian sculptures or paintings; and the triumph-scenes of these nations represent in great diversity the numerous tribes of Asia. The same origin has been given to Cannon; but every one who has made any research in this direction knows that the Oriental derivation of this engine has not the smallest foundation in fact[105]. In the Volsunga Saga, a work of the eleventh century, we read that "Sigurd's sides so swelled with rage that the rings of his byrnie were burst asunder;" which could scarcely have happened (adds Von Leber, who notices this passage,) with a garment made of rings sewn contiguously[106]. The well-known enigma of Bishop Aldhelm, written in the eleventh century, so curiously illustrates our inquiry, that we shall be pardoned for reprinting it. It is headed "De Lorica:"--

"Roscida me genuit gelido de viscere tellus:
Non sum setigero lanarum vellere facta:
Licia nulla trahunt, nec garrula fila resultant:
Nec croceâ seres texunt lanugine vermes:
Nec radiis carpor, duro nec pectine pulsor:
Et tamen, en, vestis vulgi sermone vocabor.
Spicula non vereor longis exempta pharetris."
_Roy. MS._, 15, A. xvi.

A _lorica_ formed of metal, without the aid of any texture of wool or of silk, could scarcely be anything else than a coat of chain-mail. We may further refer to the Bayeux tapestry (Stothard, Plate XVI.), where the _pillards_ are appropriating the armour of the slain. The last figure in the second border of that plate is stripping the hauberk over the head of a fallen warrior; and, in thus turning it inside out, discloses the interior of the garment, which exhibits the ring-work exactly in the same manner as it is seen on the outside of others. At a later period, a similar evidence is afforded by the sculptured monumental effigies; the overlapping folds of the hauberk shewing the ring-work on the inside as well as on the outside. Figures of the thirteenth century in the Temple Church and in St. Saviour's Church, London, offer illustrations of this fact. Further instances may be found at Stowe-Nine-Churches in Northamptonshire, and at Aston, Warwickshire; and probably no English county is without similar examples. Compare also the curious fragment of chain-mail found at Stanwick, Yorkshire, and now deposited in the British Museum.

The defence made of iron rings, of which Varro attributes the invention to the Gauls, appears to be no other than the hauberk of chain-mail:--"Lorica a loris, quod de corio crudo pectoralia faciebant, postea succuderunt Galli e ferro sub id vocabulum, ex annulis, ferream tunicam." Whoever may have been the inventors of this armour, the probability seems to be that it came into use gradually: from its costliness and rarity, leaders only could at first obtain it; that, as handicraft improved, and the efficiency of the defence became acknowledged, its adoption was extended, and its costliness diminished. The notion, that in the thirteenth century the hauberk of chain-mail came suddenly and generally into use, is against all known precedent, and contrary to the natural course of human inventions.

Other kinds of body-armour were worn at this time. Charlemagne, as we have seen, was defended by a kind of jazerant-work. Ingulphus tells us that Harold, finding the heavy armour of his troops an incumbrance in their mountain warfare with the Welsh, clothed them in a defence of leather only. Something similar is seen in this figure from Cotton MS., Cleop., C. viii.

The coat here seems to be of hide, with the fur left upon it; a dress still in use among some of the Cossack soldiers of Russia. Wace appears to describe this garment, where, recounting the death of Duke Guillaume Longue-Espée by the traitorous Fauces, he says:--

"Fauces leva l'espée ke soz sez _peaux_ porta,
Tel l'en dona en chief ke tot l'escervela."--_Rou_, i. 138.

Armour of padded-work, a defence of a very high antiquity, and of a very wide adoption, was also probably in vogue; and also coats covered with scale-work; but these are difficult to be identified in the monuments of the time. The hauberks of the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings are remarked to have been both short and small:--

"Corz haubers orent è petis,
E helmes de sor lor vestis."--_Wace._

In Anglo-Saxon illuminations, a very large majority of the fighting men appear to have no defensive armour at all but the helmet and shield; as in this example from a MS. of _Prudentius_, of the eleventh century, in the Tenison Library. The leg-bands seen on these figures, and on many others of the same period, were in common use among the soldiery. It is a fashion of which we find an early example in the _calceus patricius_ of the Romans, and a remnant in the chequered hose of the Scottish Highlanders. Those of the Anglo-Saxons were generally wound round the leg, and then turned down and fastened below the knee. Sometimes they were tied in front; as may be seen in the Ethelwold Benedictional; and compare Stothard's Bayeux Tapestry, Plate IV. Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote in the beginning of the twelfth century, gives us incidentally the full arming of a warrior of the eleventh[107]. When Sigeward, duke of Northumberland, found death approaching him, not on the field of battle, but in the peaceful chamber, he exclaimed: "Quantus pudor me tot in bellis mori non potuisse, ut vaccarum morti cum dedecore reservarer. Induite me saltem lorica mea impenetrabili, præcingite gladio, sublimate galea: scutum in læva, securim auratam mihi ponite in dextra, ut militum fortissimus modo militis moriar. Dixerat: et ut dixerat, armatus honorifice exhalavit."

In an age when missiles were much in use; javelins, arrows, and the stones of the mangona and of the slinger; the soldier would naturally employ his first care to the arming of his head. Consequently we find in the monuments of this period that, even when the body appears to have no defensive covering, the head is carefully protected by the helmet.

In the beginning, even the helmet was rare among the Teutonic tribes. Tacitus tells us, of the ancient Germans: "Paucis loricæ, vix uni alterive cassis aut galea." And Agathias in the seventh century mentions that few of the Franks had helmets. Leaders, however, wore them. Dagobert, in a contest with the Saxons, received a blow which, dividing his casque, carried away a part of his hair[108]. And when his father, Clotaire II., came to his relief, this latter prince placed himself on the bank of the Veser, announcing his arrival to the Saxon leader by taking off his helmet and displaying his long locks[109]. In the time of Charlemagne, as we have seen from his capitularies, the count is required to furnish troops who are provided with helmets. The fashion of these headpieces we learn from various vellum-paintings of a little later date. We find them to have been hemispherical, conical, of the Phrygian form, combed, and crested: sometimes of a complicated make, with a sort of crocketed ridge[110]; sometimes terminating in a kind of fleur-de-lis[111]. The figure here given from Add. MS., 18,043, a Psalter of the tenth century, affords a good example of the combed helmet. The personage represented is Goliath; and it may be necessary to add, in order to understand the girding of the sword, that the warrior presents his back to us. In lieu of the combed crest, the figure of a boar, sacred to the god Freya, was often placed on the helmets of the pagan Teutons; a practice which at length became so general, that the word _eofor_ (boar) was poetically used for the casque itself. Thus, in "Beowulf:" "He commanded them to bring in the boar, an ornament to the head, the helm lofty in war:"--

"eofor heáfod-segn
heaþo-steápne helm," &c.--_Line_ 4299.

Again: "The white helm covered the hood of mail, ... surrounded with lordly chains, even as in days of yore the weapon-smith had wrought it, had wondrously furnished it, had set it round with the shapes of swine, that never after brand nor war-knife might have power to bite it." (l. 2895.)

Here we see the particular object of this device: it was to act as a holy charm. In Canto 15, the boar seems also to be implied; and in this instance it is "fastened to the helm with wires." "About the crest of the helm, the defence of the head, it held an amulet fastened without with wires, that the sword, hardened with scouring, might not violently injure him when the shield-bearing warrior should go against his foes." Tacitus, in the _Germania_, has a passage curiously illustrating this superstition. The Æstii, he says, "Matrem Deum venerantur: insigne superstitionis, formas aprorum gestant. Id pro armis omnique tutelâ, securum Deæ cultorem etiam inter hostes præstat." Mr. Bateman, in opening a barrow in Derbyshire, was fortunate enough to meet with one of these Northern helms surmounted with the boar crest. The casque is made of iron and horn, with silver-headed rivets. The hog is of iron, having eyes of bronze. See Mr. Bateman's "Antiquities of Derbyshire" for a more full account of this curious relic[112]. The practice of adorning the helmet with a crest is of a very high antiquity, and is first observed among the Asiatics. The Shairetana, first enemies, then allies, of the Egyptian Pharaohs, "wore a helmet ornamented with horns, and frequently surmounted by a crest, consisting of a ball raised upon a small shaft, which is remarkable from being the _earliest instance of a crest_[113]." In the Assyrian monuments, the crested helmet is of frequent occurrence; the form of the crest being generally that of a fan, or of a curved horn, or a kind of crescent, with its cusps turned downwards. See Layard's "Nineveh and its Remains," for examples of all these.

In addition to the "white" (or polished) helmet named in a former extract from "Beowulf," we have, at line 5,226, a "brown-coloured" one, (_brun-fagne helm_). This may have been of leather, of iron bearing the stain of years, or even of bronze. On several occasions, relics of bronze have been disinterred which have every appearance of being the framework of helmets. These metal frames--for they occur of iron as well as of bronze--are presumed to have been fixed over a cap of leather. The example here engraved was found in 1844, on the skull of a skeleton exhumed on Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham. The material is bronze, but worked very thin. At the summit is a ring, and on one side appears a portion of the chain which seems to have fastened it beneath the chin. The ring may have served to attach a tufted ornament, or a grelot. A Livonian headpiece, engraved on Plate V. of Dr. Bähr's work, has a boss at the summit exactly similar to this, but with the addition of a grelot fixed to the ring. The bronze fragments found by Sir Henry Dryden in a grave at Souldern, Oxfordshire, appear to have formed part of a helmet like that before us[114]. The example of iron, already noticed, discovered by Mr. Bateman, is also of framework, though somewhat differing in pattern from the Leckhampton relic. Another iron framework helmet, of the thirteenth century, was found in an old fort in the Isle of Negropont, and is figured by Hefner in Plate LXIII. of his _Trachten_. Compare also Plate XXXIV., Part ii., of the same book[115]. The secretum engraved in vol. vii. of the Archæological Journal, page 305, is of analogous character: as are also the so-called Spider Helmets, and the "skulls for hats;" examples of which may be seen in the Tower Armories. But the most curious illustration of the purpose of the bronze relic represented in our woodcut, is the helmet proposed for the Royal Artillery in 1854. The metal framing of this was identical in arrangement with the ancient defence; consisting of a hoop encircling the head and two semicircular bands, crossing each other at the crown, and surmounted by a metal knob. The metal in this case was brass, and it did not greatly differ in substance from the ancient bronze. The cap beneath was of felt. In Anglo-Saxon illuminations, it is not unusual to see headpieces in which bands of gold-colour traverse a ground of different hue; and it seems not improbable that these examples may represent the kind of helmet under consideration. Similar banded casques occur in the Bayeux tapestry, in the pictures of the Painted Chamber at Westminster, and in other monuments. See also Archæol. Journ., vol. xii. p. 9.

The bronze helmet has also been discovered in Scotland. Dr. Wilson tells us that "part of a rudely-adorned helmet of bronze was found in Argyleshire[116]." Another bronze headpiece is preserved in the Copenhagen Museum, and Professor Thomsen mentions similar ones, "overlaid with gold." (Manual.)

A helmet of wood is mentioned by Wace as being worn by one of the Anglo-Saxon combatants at the battle of Hastings:--

"Un helme aveit tot fait de _fust_,
Ke colp[117] el chief ne recéust.
A sez dras[118] l'aveit atachié,
Et envirun son col lacié."

A Norman knight attacked him:--

"Sor li helme l'Engleiz féri,
De suz les oils[119] li abati,
Sor li viare[120] li pendi,
E li Engleiz sa main tendi,
Li helme voleit[121] suz lever,
E son viaire delivrer;
E cil li a un colp doné,
E sa hache à terre chaï[122]."

In book-illuminations of this period the helmet is frequently coloured yellow, which may either signify bronze or gilding. A crown is sometimes added, not in the case of kings alone, but of distinguished personages generally. One of the crowned figures in our woodcut, No. 13, represents the patriarch Abraham. The nasal appears to have been given to the helmet about the end of the tenth century: of which an early example is furnished in the figure of a warrior in Cotton MS., Tiberius, C. vi. fol. 9, a work of this period. By the middle of the next century, its adoption has become general, and in the Bayeux Tapestry it is worn equally by Norman and Saxon.

PLATE XIX.]

To a soldiery with whom body-armour appears to have been a secondary consideration, the SHIELD would be of the first consequence. We find, therefore, the Northern warrior seldom unaccompanied by this useful defence. Leader and retainer, horseman and foot-soldier,--all are equipped with the target. Its form was usually round, though in the pictures, being seen in profile, it often has the appearance of an oval. And, as the plump-cheeked houris of the East were called "moon-faced damsels," so the round targets of the Teutons were named by the poets "moony shields." They were convex, and in the centre was a boss of metal, generally terminating in a button or in a spike, but sometimes without either. The spiked shield was no doubt used as an offensive arm. The buttons are sometimes plated with silver, or tinned, as are the heads of the rivets remaining in the edge of the umbo. Across the hollow of the boss was fixed a handle of wood covered with iron; and by this handle the shield was held at arm's length, the hand entering the hollow of the boss: see woodcut, No. 13. In the Wilbraham Cemetery was found the umbo of a shield to which the handle was still attached by its rivets. (See fig. 10 of our XXth plate.) The shield was sometimes strengthened with strips of iron fixed across the inside; these strips being prolongations of the handle just described. Such a shield-handle was found at Envermeu by the Abbé Cochet, and is figured on Plate XVI. of his work. In this example the handle has a _single_ strip on each side, running towards the edge of the shield. A similar one was found in a Merovingian cemetery near Troyes. In a Frankish grave at Londinières was discovered a variety of this type, in which the strips proceeding from the handle were _three_ on each side, radiating towards the rim. This very curious example is engraved in the _Normandie Souterraine_, Plate VIII. Others were found in the recent excavations in the Isle of Wight.

The body of the shield was usually of wood; the lime having a marked preference. Thus, in "Beowulf[123]," the heroic Wiglaf "seized his shield, the yellow lindenwood" (_geolwe linde_). And a spell preserved in Harl. MS., 585, f. 186, has:--

"Stod under linde
under leohtum scylde:"

"I stood under my linden shield, beneath my light shield." In the Anglo-Saxon poem of "Judith:"--

"The warriors marched:
the chieftains to the war,
protected with targets,
with arched linden shields."
(_hwealfum lindum_[124].)

In a fragment on the battle of Maldon:--

"Leofsunu spake
and lifted his linden shield."
(_and his linde ahof_[125].)

PLATE XX.]

And the Saxon Chronicle tells us, in recounting the defeat of Anlaf in 937, how King Athelstan and his heroes

"the board-walls clove:
and hewed the war-lindens."

Leather was sometimes used in the construction of shields, as we learn from the Laws of Æthelstan, which forbid the employment of sheepskins for this purpose under a penalty of thirty shillings. In an example from the cemetery at Linton Heath, Cambridgeshire, the leather covering seemed to have been stretched over the iron umbo as well as over the wooden surface of the shield[126]. The edge was protected by a rim of metal. Portions of these rims have been found in the graves, both in England and on the continent; and as they present segments of circles, become of use in determining the shape of the shields themselves. In the Museum of Schwerin is an example of the metal rim which is complete: it is circular, and the central boss is also present.

The oval shield appears in a few examples only. One was found among the graves explored at Oberflacht, in Suabia; another is figured by Silvestre, (vol. i. pl. CXLIV.) from a Longobardic miniature of the eleventh century; and a third occurs in the Bayeux Tapestry, Plate XVI. The surface of the Northern shields was painted in various fanciful devices, sometimes heightened with gilding. And, as Christianity was embraced by the various Northern tribes, the cross became a frequent decoration. The encomiast of Queen Emma, in describing the fleet of Canute the Great, says: "Erant ibi scutorum tot genera, ut crederis adesse omnium populorum agmina. Si quando sol illis jubar immiscerit radiorum, hinc resplenduit fulgor armorum, illinc vero flamma dependentium scutorum[127]."

Among the devices, there is nothing of a heraldic character, and even as late as the time of the Bayeux Tapestry, as Stothard has well remarked, "we do not find any particular or distinguished person twice bearing the same device[128]."

In the accompanying figure from Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. viii., we observe that the Anglo-Saxon horseman carried his shield, when not in use, slung at his back. The knights of the fourteenth century carried their helmets in the same manner, as may be seen in the fine manuscript of the _Roman du Roi Meliadus_, Additional MSS., 12,228. Besides the ordinary Northern shields, we sometimes find them represented of so large a size as to cover the whole person. In Harleian MS. 2,908, fol. 53, are two such, but perhaps mere exaggerations of the draughtsman. Shields of this kind were, however, certainly in use in the East at an early date, and may be seen in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Indian monuments[129].

It has been conjectured that the bronze coatings of shields which have from time to time been discovered in this country, and commonly attributed to the Ancient Britons, may belong to the Anglo-Saxon period: while we admit this probability, we must not forget that they have not yet been found in the Anglo-Saxon graves.

The shields placed in the graves were the ordinary "lindens," of which no part commonly remains but the metal boss and handle. The chief varieties of forms offered by the bosses will be found in our Plates XIX. and XX., figs. 1 to 10; all from English tombs[130]. Similar relics have been dug up in Scotland; of which No. 11 in our Plate offers an example. This was procured from a tomb in the county of Moray, accompanied with fragments of oak and remains of the hero's horse and its bridle. See Dr. Wilson's "Archæology of Scotland," to which we are indebted for this specimen. On the continent similar objects have been found, differing but slightly from our own examples. No. 12 is from the cemetery at Selzen, in Rhenish Hesse. No. 13 is from a Danish tomb. See also the examples given in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum, p. 68. The shields of the Danes appear to have been ornamented with gold and colours, the favourite hue being red. In Sæmund's poetical "Edda" we read of a "red shield with a golden border," and Giraldus de Barri tells us that the Irish "carried red shields, in imitation of the Danes." Some of the Danish shields, like the weapons, were inscribed with runes[131]. In the tumulus opened at Caenby, in Lincolnshire, believed to have been that of a Danish viking, part of a wooden shield was procured, ornamented with plates of silver and bronze, bearing the serpentine and scroll patterns so characteristic of this period. These fragments are engraved in the seventh volume of the Archæological Journal.

The _guige_ or strap by which the target was occasionally suspended from the combatant's neck, leaving the hands free to direct the steed or ply the weapon, appears (at least during the later days of Saxon rule) to have been in use among our countrymen, as well as with their Norman neighbours. Of Harold's nobles, Wace tells us:--

"Chescun out son haubert vestu,
Espée ceinte, _el col l'escu_."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 213.

And in the Bayeux Tapestry, the kite-shield thus fixed may be seen on the English side.

The place occupied by the shield in the graves of the Frankish, Germanic, and Scandinavian heroes is by no means uniform. It has been found on the breast, on the right arm, upon the knees, and beneath the head. It is by the position of the umbo in the grave that this fact has been exactly ascertained. Examples will be found in the Ozingell Cemetery, in the explorations at Harnham Hill (_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv.), in the Selzen find, in the _Normandie Souterraine_, and in the account of the cemetery at Linton Heath (Archæol. Journ., vol. xi. p. 108).

The HORSE FURNITURE of the Northern cavalry appears to have been usually very simple. By referring to our engravings, Nos. 16 and 21, it will be seen that the saddle was provided with girth, breastplate, and crupper, the latter being fixed to the sides of the saddle: pendent ornaments are attached to the bridle, breastplate, and crupper. From the poem of "Beowulf" we learn that the war-horse was occasionally furnished with much costliness:--

"Then did the Refuge of warriors command eight horses, ornamented
on the cheek, to be brought into the palace: ... on one of which
stood a saddle variegated with work, made valuable with treasure:
that was the war-seat of a lofty king when the son of Healfdene
would perform the game of swords."--_Canto_ 15.