The ring was merely part of an ordinary knocker, and had nothing to do with the latching of the door.
Sword.
‘bright brown sword,’ Glasgerion, 22.1; Old Robin of Portingale, 22.1; Child Maurice, 26.1, 27.1; ‘good browne sword,’ Marriage of Sir Gawaine, 24.3; etc.
‘dried it on his sleeve,’ Glasgerion, 22.2; Child Maurice, 27.2 (‘on the grasse,’ 26.2); ‘straiked it o’er a strae,’ Bonny Birdy, 15.2; ‘struck it across the plain,’ Johney Scot, 32.2; etc.
In Anglo-Saxon, the epithet ‘brún’ as applied to a sword has been held to signify either that the sword was of bronze, or that the sword gleamed. It has further been suggested that sword-blades may have been artificially bronzed, like modern gun-barrels.
‘Striped it thro’ the straw’ and many similar expressions all refer to the whetting of a sword, generally just before using it. Straw (unless ‘strae’ and ‘straw’ mean something else) would appear to be very poor stuff on which to sharpen swords, but Glasgerion’s sleeve would be even less effective; perhaps, however, ‘dried’ should be ‘tried.’ Johney Scot sharpened his sword on the ground.
Miscellaneous.
‘gare’ = gore, part of a woman’s dress; Brown Robin, 10.4; cp. Glasgerion, 19.4.
Generally of a knife, apparently on a chatelaine. But in Lamkin 12.2, of a man’s dress.
‘Linne,’ ‘Lin,’ Young Bekie, 5.4; Old Robin of Portingale, 2.1.