oak sih5

37

Sigridsholm in Swcdcn - Fig. 35) had the words ME FECIT (madę me) following the name, leaving no doubt that these inlaid names were the names of makers, not owners. So far there are not so many of these as Ulfberhts, but that means only that not so many have been recov-ered from the ground and identified (by means of x-ray, sharp eyesight, or Worcestershire Sauce - see my domestic anecdote in Chapter 2); there are no doubt many still waiting to be found today (or tomorrow), which is always a cheering thought for the lover and collector of such things.

One or two other swords have comc to light bearing similar smith-names, but nonę in such great numbers as the Ulfberhts and Ingelris. Thercfore it is perhaps possible to say that in these we have the work of an individual smith. These are, so far, identified as follows: NISOMEFECIT (3 swords)

BANTO (1)

ATALBALD (1)

LEUTFRIT (2)

BENNO (1)

EROLT (1)

INNO (1 sword -and this is a name, not part of INNOMINEDOMINI, for it is followed by ME FECIT)

GECELIN ME FECIT (8 swords - Figs 37 - 39)

Figurę 36. Iron laid inscription from a blade out of a Viking grave at Laitila, Kansakoulumaki, Southern Finland.

The Ulfberht inscriptions are characterized by the insertion of a cross among the letters -+ULFBERH+T, and never (as so far observed) have they added Me Fecit. The Ingelri blades sometimes, but not always, have a plain cross preceding the name and sometimes (but not always) Me Fecit after. The blades of both these workshops have groups of various symbols on their reverse sides which

appear to be arranged in an infinite variety

of

ways and which undoubtedly meant some-thing in the 1 Oth century which is completely hidden from us now. The same group of symbols is on the reverse of the Niso, Atalbald, Banto, Benno, Inno, and Erolt blades, and their variants seem to have been standard. The Gicelin blades, however, are c]uite different. The technique of inlaying the lettering with strips of iron wire is the same, but in all the eight sur-vivors, the fullers are narrower, and the letters neater. The name is preceded and followed by a cross, a few plain but most crutched, and in all of them the reverse bears the entirely Christian invocation IN NOMINE DOMINI (In the name of the Lord.)

The find places of all of these swords are widely distributed, all over northwestern Europę, so while we may not say that one kind is Swedish and another West German, we can see that they went all over the map -as indeed the warriors who carried them did. The two Leutfrit blades are a case in point. One was found in Southern Russia (Fig. 40) and the other in the River Witham near Lincoln, in England (Fig. 1).

The "new" type of blades were only fractionally lighter than the earlier ones, sometimes (like the Leutfrit sword from Lincoln) they were actually heavier, but because the point of bal-ance is so much nearer to the hand that wields them, they feel lighter. A feature which appears now for the first time is one which lasted as long as sword-blades have been madę: the tang and the upper part of blade, sometimes only about 4 cms and sometimes as much as 12 cms of it,