Not the least interesting among the many singular objects discovered by the Abbé Cochet in his researches in Normandy, is the little silver coin containing the portrait of "un guerrier frank debout." In his right hand the warrior carries his lance, while the left appears to hold the well-known round target of his time. This curious little relic is engraved on page 359 of the Normandie Souterraine.
Plate IV.
Plate IV.
The Swords of the ante-Norman period may be divided into three classes: the earlier broadsword without cross-piece, straight, double-edged, and acutely pointed; the later sword, similar in fashion to the above, but having a guard, or cross-piece; and the curved weapon with a concave edge, called in Anglo-Saxon the seax; the sica of classical times. The first has become familiar to us from the numerous examples procured from the graves of France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and England. This type agrees exactly with the description left us by Sidonius Apollinaris; who, recording a victory obtained by the Franks over the Goths, has this passage: "Alii hebetatorum cæde gladiorum latera dentata pernumerant. Alii cæsim atque punctim foraminatos circulos loricarum metiuntur[62]." We have engraved, figure 1 of our plate of swords, a fine specimen of this kind of weapon, which was found among the "Fairford Graves." It is nearly three feet in length (the usual size of these swords), and when dug up, had fragments of the wood and leather which once formed its scabbard, still adhering to the iron. Other examples discovered in England are engraved in Mr. Neville's "Saxon Obsequies," Mr. Akerman's "Pagan Saxondom," and in the account of the Ozingell Cemetery[63]. German specimens appear in the "Selzen Cemetery," Swiss in the Tombeaux de Bel-Air, Danish in the "Copenhagen Museum," p. 66, and Frankish in La Normandie Souterraine. The Irish swords are shorter than others of this date,—not exceeding thirty inches,—as we learn from the researches of Mr. Wakeman[64]. That this sword of the earlier Iron Period resembled the anterior bronze sword in being without cross-piece, seems clear from two facts. Firstly, no such provision (except in one or two isolated cases) is found to accompany the weapons disclosed by the graves; secondly, it has been remarked, that in many instances, where the wood of the handle and that of the sheath remain, they approach so closely together, that there is no space left for any intervening appendage.
The sword with cross-piece appears to belong to the later Iron Period. When real examples are found in this country, and in others early Christianised, they are generally dredged from the beds of rivers, or turned up among old foundations; though in states where paganism held a longer sway, they are obtained from the graves. Two very early English specimens are figured in the "Pagan Saxondom:" one found at Gilton, in Kent, and now in Mr. Rolfe's Museum; the other found at Coombe, in Kent, and preserved in the collection of Mr. Boreham. The cross-piece in these examples has projected but little beyond the edges of the blade. From specimens given in our plates, and from the numerous representations of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, we see that the guard eventually became a much more prominent feature of the Northern brand.
The third variety of the Anglo-Saxon sword, the seax, which Mr. Kemble[65] defines to be "ensis quidam curvatus," is apparently that old Thracian weapon, the sica, which among the Romans was in such little repute, that sicarius came to mean a bandit, or an assassin. The Anglo-Saxon curved sword never appears in their book-paintings, and has not been found in their graves. But in the Copenhagen Museum is a weapon which seems exactly to answer this description of the Northern seax. It is engraved in Mr. Worsaae's "Illustrations of the Copenhagen Museum," p. 97, fig. 384.