63901 oak sih2

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Figurę 20. Two distinct types oflong sword from the Kragehul bog in Dcnmark, c. A.D. 400. These clearly demonstrate. I believe, what the Norsc poets meant whcn they distinguished broad and narrow-blad-ed swords as SVAERD (the norma] broadsword) and MAEKIR (Danish National Museum, Copenhagen.) BL on left hand sword 76.2cm.

had been removed, while the sword remained in use. There are unassailable archaeological facts which show beyond a donbt that, for sonie reason or ptirposc unknown to us, rings were given, worn perhaps for a lifetime, and removed whcn, maybe, the sword passed on to someone who was not entitled to have a ring.

The evidence shows that rings on swords did not denote kings or chieftains, for no ring on a sword has yet been found in a royal grave -i.e. Valsgarde in Sweden and Sutton Hoo in England. Therefore we may guess that perhaps a ring for one's sword-hilt was a badge or warrior-rank or special rcsponsibility and that only certain individuals were, for some reason, entitled to it; and that on that individual's death or retirement, the ring returned to the " Ring-giver," who of course was a king or chieftain, while the sword was handed on to a son or comrade of the previous owner. There is much hard evidence to show that the swords of this period were used often by several generations, not always in the same family. Sometimes they were put into a grave, to be taken out again a generation later to be handed on to a grandson or close relative; sometimes they were looted by strangers breaking into the grave purposely to take a sword; and sometimes they remained for 20th-century archaeologists to find.

There are two words which the Norsemen used to denote different types of swords, Svaerd and Maekir. Svaerd dcnoted the usual broad, double-edged, blunt-pointed slashing weapon, and Maekir denoted a slender, acutely pointed one useful for thrusting. Archaeology is extrcmely fortunate to have two outstanding examples from the Kragehul Bog in Denmark (dating to c. A.D. 400), which, seen side-by-side as here (Fig. 20) show quite clearly the difference of form of the two blades. This is madę even morę interesting because the hilts and scabbard-mounts are all of exactly the same type and form, clearly from the same workshop. That the nar-rowness of the Maekir blade is not the result of mere corrosion is proved by the narrowness of the chape at the point end of the scabbard, clearly madę to fit closely to the sharp point.

Why swords, and other things, were put into graves so far remains yet another mystery. It certainly was not because of a simple-minded belief that the dead man needed them in the Next World: nothing, I think, as straightforward as that. The Norse peoples seem to have believed that inanimate objects, as well as animals and men, had spirits which would survive death. So a