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Hringmael, Graegmael, Waegsweord, Wyrmfah, are reaily untranslatable in a literał sense, except perhaps Wyrmfah, "Worm-bright." German scholars have come nearest to this by translating it literally into German, Wurmbunt, to describe pattern-welded blades in inventories and cata-logues, as well as in academic publication. But, to one unacquainted with such blades, what on earth does "Worm-bright" convey to thc reader? Yct, looking at a pattern-welded blade, as in Fig. 16 here, what expression could be morę accurately descriptiver Of course, the adjective "etched" used here is a kind of mark of translators' inability to find a modern English word, other than the inappropriate "etched" to match the Anglo-Saxon. Etching, as a technique, has nothing whatever in common with pattern-welding, nor did it come into use until a thousand years after Beowulf.

We see in this passage too the use of a name for a sword, a personal name, not one of the countless poetic descriptive phrases ("kennings") which the Norse poets used in synonyms for the sword. Marvelous and evocative they are, too: "Hard-edged survivor of the Files," "Battle-Flasher," "Serpent of Blood," "Leech ofWounds," "Widow-Maker," "The Shield's Bane," "Odin's Flame," "Ice of Battle," "Dog of the Flelmet," "Torch of the Blood," "The Sea-King's Fire," "Harmer of War-Knittings," "Snake of the Byrnie;" and very often we find the kenning " Ancient Heirloom" used for a sword. I shall refer to this again, and I shall havc much morę to say about personal sword-names, so I will turn now to the matter of the rings upon sword-hilts.

Here we find a still-unsolved mystery. There are several surviving sword-hilts with rings upon them; several morę exhibit marks of wear whcre rings now missing once rubbed against a pommel, and there are a few detached rings. The use of them covers (as far as we can tell by thc known dates of graves in which they were found) a period between A.D. 450 and c. A.D. 650. It is elear that sonie pommels were espccially madę to accommodate rings, while others were adapted to accept rings. Before going any flirther, let me describe briefly the forms through which these rings developed during the two centuries of their usage. In Fig. 18, I have drawn a developmental sequence.

Figurę 18. The deveIopment of thc sword-ring, c. 450-700.

The earliest ones were madę in exactlv the same way as the rings for suspension on the back of picture-frames: a screw (or rivet, in the case of sword-rings) with a complete ring-head, with a second loose ring interlocked with it. This is thc earliest form, and so far only two have been found, one in England and one in Norway, though comparison of the swords they go with suggests a common Frankish origin (Fig. 18a). At the ncxt stage the rivet-head becomes a cir-cle segment (Fig. 18b), of which the free or open end is fitted against the pommel, the free-moving ring being interlinkcd with it. Later, the two rings, rivet head and ring proper, were still madę as separate units but were soldered together (Fig. 18c). Finally, both rivet-head and ring were madę as one piece, often of solid gold instead of bronze or bronze-gilded or silver as before, and in some cases were of considerable size (as in Figs. 18d and 19).

Some ringless pommels show beyond doubt that they once had rings; some rings show that they have been adapted several times to fit upon different swords; some pommels show that they have been adapted to accept rings and have had them long enough for the loose ring to have worn a groove in the pommel against which it rubbed in wear, and that in the end the ring