udy the quality of the pattern in order to determine the quality of the work.
Just as today, where the marketplace is awash with fake designer goods, the wide degree of variations in letter formation and spelling would suggest that, if the trademark hypothesis is correct, rampant counterfeiting prevailed. Today, ending up with a ersatz Gucci bag is merely unfortunate but to our sword-wielding ancestors, a poor-quality sword which failed catastrophically in the heat of battle could be a matter of life and death. Caveat emptor indeed !
For the blades with inlaid names, a geometric pattern was often seen on the opposite blade face. Inlays of circles, lines and curved symbols were also seen.
These inlays, fire-welded into the surface of the blade, are often formed of twisted wire made from the very phosphorus-rich iron which had, hitherto, been used in pattern-welding; the silvery ferrite providing a good contrast.
By the second half of the 11th Century C.E. these designer labels had been simpler inlaid inscriptions, most commonly consisting of various corrupted spelling of IN NOMINE DOMINI, ("In the name of the Lord,") probably reflecting the surge of pseudo-religious fervour in that time of the earliest Crusades.
Anglo-Saxon swords of this period most often are equipped with a curved lower guard of stout iron. This design innovation is important in that it better protects the sword-hand / wrist by catching the blade of an enemy’s weapon and preventing it slipping onto the grip. It also allows more wrist movement, for a swifter style of sword-play. In this later period, swords were increasingly used for thrusting as well as for cutting strokes. The Scandinavians copied the curved form quite widely but the fashion did not survive the coming of the Normans and we find that, post conquest, swords were again produced with straight guards. These were, though, considerably longer. This design was less elegant but equally functional. It was also slightly simpler to manufacture but the compelling reason was probably ‘religious’, in that the upturned sword now mimicked a cross.
No grip from this period survives, so we can infer that it was of organic composition ; usually of shaped wood, although bone, horn and leather would also have been used. There is no evidence from England of any sword having a wire-bound grip in this period. The grip would have normally been of oval cross-section, inferred from surviving silver binding strips. Very occasionally, the whole grip was encased in metal (as in the Fetter Lane sword - although this beautiful example is early, being dated to the 8th Century CE.)
From the 9th Century onward, the flat composite Upper Guard and triangular pommel-cap was replaced by a simpler, very functional iron pommel-guard and pommel-knob. From the 9th Century, many pommels were lobed; shaped with three or five lobes, the central one usually being slightly taller and being separated by indentations. These were sometimes accentuated by strands of twisted silver or gilt wire.
|Viking Sword Xray|
Slightly earlier, some ‘Viking’ swords were equipped only with a simple bar pommel and it has been fancifully suggested that the lobed pommel originated in the practice of tying an amulet of some sort in a bag onto one of these. Lobulated pommels on a straight pommel-bar are more a feature of ‘Viking’ swords. English swords, as has been alluded to earlier, most often had an upward-curved pommel-guard and so the pommel-knob base needed to be curved also. These most often were three-lobed and often decorated with silver and niello. Another smaller group (10th Century) have a more dome-shaped pommel.
Later still come the pommels which R.E. Oakeshott called the ‘tea-cosy’ and the ‘brazil-nut’. These, though, are true pommels and totally lack any pommel-bar. This former is first found in 10th Century Norse graves but is found widely across central and eastern Europe. It was popular as it was more comfortable to hold than the tea-cosy (as the author can confirm). By the 11th Century, the simple heavy disc pommel became the fashion.
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