No. 23.
The Spur of this period consisted of a single goad, sometimes of a lozenge form, sometimes a plain spike. The shanks were straight. The following illustration of the lozenge goad is from the bronze monument of Rudolf von Schwaben, in the Cathedral of Merseburg, a work of the eleventh century[135]. A very similar example, dug up in railway excavations near Nottingham, has lately been added to the Tower collection. This is of iron. Compare the Swiss specimen engraved by M. Troyon in vol. xxxv. of the Archæologia, Plate xvii. This also has a lozenge goad, but the neck of the spur is much longer. A Livonian example in the British Museum has the goad in the form of a plain quadrangular spike. The conical spike is seen among the Danish relics figured on pages 70 and 95 of Mr. Worsaae's "Copenhagen Museum." A very curious variety was found in the excavations of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Linton Heath, and is figured in the eleventh volume of the Archæological Journal. The buckles in this specimen, instead of being attached to the strap, form part of the spur itself; being contrived at the ends of the shanks.
Among the many curious usages revealed by the examination of the ancient tombs, not the least singular is the practice of burying the equestrian warrior with a single spur. This fact has been noticed, not alone among the pagan Northmen, but as late as the thirteenth century; and it does not rest on the doubtful evidence of careless observers, but has been vouched by the testimony of skilful and practised archæologists. It has been further remarked that the spur, in all such cases, is attached to the left heel. M. Troyon, in his excavations in the Colline de Chavannes, Canton de Vaud[136], found three spurs, all of different sizes, which he therefore concludes "ont appartenu chacun à des cavaliers différents." At Bel-Air, near Lausanne, this gentleman found an interment where a single spur had been fixed to the left heel of the entombed warrior. And in a note to his interesting memoir on the exploration of the Colline de Chavannes, he says: "J'ai retrouvé quelquefois des éperons dans des tombes antiques, mais le mort n'en portait jamais qu'un seul, qui était fixé au pied gauche." The similar instance which has been noticed in an interment of the thirteenth century is that recorded in the fourth volume of the Archæological Journal, page 59. A knight of the Brougham family, found buried in the chancel of the church at Brougham, in Westmoreland, had a single iron spur "round the left heel." "No spur was found upon the right heel." This knight presented the further singularity of having been buried cross-legged[137].
However highly his steed might be prized by the Northern warrior, it was not alone in feats of horsemanship that he was required to excel. The youthful Grymr, in the old poem of "Karl and Grymr," "as he grew up, was accustomed to make his sword ruddy in the warlike play of shields; to climb the mountains; to wrestle; to play well the game of chess; to study the science of the stars; to throw the stone; and to practise such other sports as were held in estimation."
Olaff Trygvason, according to an old Norwegian chronicle quoted by Pontoppidan, "could climb the rock of Smalserhorn, and fix his shield on the top; he could walk round the outside of a boat upon the oars, while the men were rowing; he could play with three darts, throwing them into the air alternately, and always keeping two of them up: he was ambidexter, and could cast two darts at once with equal force; and he was so famous a bowman that none could equal him." At a little later date, Kali, an earl of the Orkneys, boasts of his acquirements:—"I know," says he, "nine several arts. I am skilful at the game of chess, I can engrave runic letters, I am expert at my book, I can handle the tools of the smith, I can traverse the snow on wooden skates, I excel in shooting with the bow, I ply the oar with address, I can sing to the harp, and I compose verses[138]."
In the tenth century, Richard, duke of Normandy
"—— sout en Daneiz, en Normant[139] parler:
Une chartre sout lire, è li parz deviser:
Li pere l'out bien fet duire è doutriner.
De tables è d'eschez sout compaignon mater:
Bien sout paistre[140] un oisel è livrer è porter:
En bois sout cointement è berser[141] è vener.
As talevas[142] se sout bien couvrir è moler[143],
Mestre pié destre avant è entre d'els dobler:
Talons sout remuer è retraire è noxer,
Saillir deverz senestre è treget[144] tost geter:
C'est un colp damageux ki ne s'en seit garder,
Mais l'en ne s'i deit lungement demorer."
Roman de Rou, vol. i. p. 126.
Of the Standards in use at this period, the notices that have reached us are neither numerous nor clear. In Asser's "Life of King Alfred" we read, that the Christian English gained a signal victory over the pagan Danes in Devon, slaying their king, and capturing "among other things, the standard called Raven; and they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag and got it ready in one day[145]. They say, moreover, that in every battle, wherever that flag went before them, if they were to gain the victory, a live crow would appear flying on the middle of the flag; but if they were doomed to be defeated, it would hang down motionless. And this was often proved to be so." (Sub an. 878.) The Danish chronicles and sagas, however, make no mention of this Raven standard. Mr. Worsaae ("Danes in England") gives the engraving of a coin of Anlaf, on which he recognises the national device, and finds it again in that figure of a bird on one of the flags of the Bayeux tapestry; "for it is very natural," he says, "that the Scandinavian vikings, or Normans, who had achieved such famous conquests under Odin's Raven, should continue to preserve this sign," &c.
Ancient evidences are not agreed as to the Anglo-Saxon standard used at the battle of Hastings. William of Poitiers describes it as "memorabile vexillum Heraldi, hominis armati imaginem intextam habens ex auro purissimo." Malmesbury follows him: "vexillum—quod erat in hominis pugnantis figura, auro et lapidibus arte sumptuosa contextum."
In the Bayeux tapestry this design does not appear, but the old Dragon Standard, derived by the Northern nations from the Romans. And it will be observed that the dragon of Harold is not a picture painted on a flag; but, like the Roman draco, a figure fixed by the head to a staff, with its body and tail floating away into the air. Compare the representations on the Trajan and Antonine columns, and in the Bayeux tapestry. The dragon is found also among the continental Saxons. Of Witikind we are told: "Hic arripiens Signum, quod apud eo habebatur sacrum, leonis atque draconis et desuper aquilæ volantis insignitum effigie[146]," &c. And this device of a dragon appears to have been in use till at length displaced by the more exact distinctions of hereditary heraldry.