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One of the earliest surviving poetic references to the regard which a warrior folk gave to the sword comes in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf This dates, so far as it is possible to tell, front c. A.D. 700. In this short extraet, we read of how the hero, about to go down into the depths of a mere to figlu a dreadfi.il troll-woman, mother of the monster Grendel which he had just slain, needed to borrow a sword.

"Not the least or the worst ofhis war eąuipment Was the sword the herald of Hrothgar loaned In his hour of need - Hrunting its name -An Ancient heirloom, trusty and tried;

Its blade was of iron, with etched design Tempered in blood of many a battle Never in fight had it failed the hand That drew it, daring the perils of war,

The rush of the foe, Not the first time then That its edge must venture on valiant deeds. "

This reference to "etched design"(and, at other places in the same poem, expressions like "with spiral etching and twisted hilt," "the sword-edge splendid with cuiwing scrolls," "the battle-blade with its scrolled design") still seems to baffle translators of the poem, for without knowing anything of real pattern-welded blades, they are unable to make sensc of the Anglo-Saxon origi-nal. The actual Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse words for these patterns, such as the Anglo-Saxon

Figurę 19. Two hilts in bronze gilded, with late forms of solid ring-knobs. (Frorn Nocera in Northern Italy.)