68606 oak sih 3

95

and probably make a guess in the end. I will set down a few bits of this literary evidence which does seem to cast sonie light upon the popularity, in the period of circa 1250-1360, of these "Grant Espees d¹ Allemagne."

However, it might be a good idea to study one or two swords first. Illustrated in figurę 83, is a particularly well preserved example that is an absolutely classic example of the type. Notę particularly the well-marked double fuller and the many nicks, evidence of hard wear, in the edges of the business part of the blade. This next illustration, Fig. 84, shows an even finer example in the great Burrell Collection in Glasgow. Hcre the State of preservation is remarkable - even the thin leather covering of the grip survives, so you see the sword in spite of the shiny red-brown patina that covers it and a few deep rust-pits on the blade, morę or less in the condition it was in when in use. Inlaid in latten in each fuller, are the letters - Gothic capitals - A.C.L.I. I handled this sword forty-one years ago, in Sotheby's salerooms in London, and I have never forgotten the "feel" of it: well-balanced, not too heavy to use comfortably with one hand. Altogether a most splen-did sword. Next to it, I show another (Fig. 85) sold at Christies in 1982. 1 was told that the person who put it up for sale bought it in New Zealand, painted all over with aluminum paint! It bears on the blade an Arabie inscription in Nashki script. This was translated as "Inalienably bequeathed to the armouries of the frontier town of Alcxandria the well-guarded, from what was presented during the days of our master chief of the Emirs, al-Saifi al-Nasiri Aristai." Saif Addin Aristai al-Zahiri was Governor of Alexandria in 1400-1401. (This inscription is the same as that on the sword No. 325 in the Kienbusch Collection in Philadelphia, which I referred to and illustrated in Ghapter 8.) Unhappily, doubt has been cast upon the accuracy of the translation of these inscriptions, a totally different meaning having been given, 1 am told, but this has never been published, and I don't yet know what that new meaning is. If the name of the Emir is correct, the datę of 1400-1401 does not in any way indicate the datę of the sword, which would have been in use almost certainly before 1350, but could well have been still going strong half-a-century later.

Many of these swords with Arabie inscriptions of this kind were deposited in the Armouries either as spoils taken by piratical raids upon Christian lands, or by gifts from Christian princes to the rulers of Egypt, so the dates given - all between circa 1365 and 1432 - are quite unrelated to the probable datę of the sword's making.

When we look at these Great Swords - or morę particularly, when we look at pictures of them - it is easy to understand how they may be mistaken for two-hand swords. There is no doubt, however, that in the 13th and 14th centuries, there was elear and positive dis-tinction between the "Grete Sword" and the "Twahandswerd." Even so, we today cannot be surę of what exactly was meant by a Twahandswerd. It certainly was not one of those highly specialised and distinctively shaped, enormous two-handers of the 16th century.

Figurę 83. A typical sword ofType XIIA. Burrell Collection, Glascow.