32967 oak sih6

Figurc 44. Hilt of a sword from a Yiking grave at Ristiina in S. Finland, latc 1 lth century. Compare the form of this hilt with Fig. 43. AuthoPs photo.

It is unfortunate that most of the swords in these graves are broken, so it is not possible to illustrate them as I would like to do; a lot of their hilts arc in astonishingly good condition, while the bladcs have perished or deliberately been broken. I believe very firmly that it is a pity to illustrate a medieval sword by its hilt alone, for it is only as a whole that its aesthetic quality and its grim purpose can be appreciated. So, while I shall try to make my point with drawings or photographs of sonie of the inscriptions, similar swords from other sources must stand in for the incomplete Finnish ones.

If it is unhelpfi.il to illustrate only the hilt of a sword without includ-ing its most important functional part, the blade, how much morę unhelpful is it to try to study the sword (or any other artifact, come to that) in isolation from the whole of the culture of the time and place of the men who used it? My lifelong involvement with the sword has been based upon the study of medieval art in all its aspects, and medieval architecture, literaturę, popular songs - but above all, HISTORY.

Which is not BUNK!

The first sword I have chosen to illustrate this chapter (Fig. 43. -which I have put at the beginning of it, in order to reassure vou that I am not about to wander off into the realms of philosophy of historiography) is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the best-preserved swords I know. You can see how fine its proportions are, but I ask you to take my word for it that in the hand it is almost magical, a real Excalibur. In the Wallace Collection, in London, it is labeled as belonging to the early 14th century, but by its form it could well be contcmpo-rary with those Viking swords

from Finland. In Fig. 44, is the hilt (no photograph exists of the whole sword) of one of these, and you can see how alike the two hilts are. The blade of the Wallace sword is of extraordinary fine workmanship, such as I have never yet scen the equal, yet is of a form and type which is very common to this period 1050-1 150.

Fig. 45 shows one such - and if I turn my head away from my win-dow, I see it hanging on my wali. (You will appreciate what intense pleasure it gives me to write this.) Its condition is equal to that of

Figurę 45. Sword ofType XA, c. 1100. BL: 87.6cm. AuthoPs Collection.

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