PART XVII.
THE DAGGER.
The dagger is a short sword in great variety of form; it is a weapon for thrusting only. We meet with it in the ages of “stone” and “bronze,” and it was in use among almost all the great nations of antiquity.
The scramasax, a short two-handed sword or dagger, is an ancient Germanic weapon of varying length. In form it resembles a single-edged cutlass. There are examples in some of the German museums; one was found in a barrow near Andernach.
Mr. John Hewitt, in his work on Ancient Armour and Weapons, refers to a dagger preserved in Durham Cathedral, which was supposed to have belonged to Bishop Anthony Bek in 1283, bearing the inscription “Anton Eps Dunholm.” This is doubtless the dagger now at Auckland, which was exhibited to the members of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Society at the Castle on the 28th December, 1892. The blade, which seems originally to have been longer, is now eighteen inches in length; while the haft measures five inches. The quillons do not project far beyond the blade, and curl slightly upwards at one extremity, and downwards on the other. The authenticity of this weapon is more than doubtful, and Baron de Cosson even suspects who the forger was, and when it first appeared at Auckland. The forgery is one of the clumsiest, for it is so obvious what the hilt originally was, viz., portions of a Scotch basket-hilt.
There are representations of figures armed with the dagger in the thirteenth century, when the quillons turn up towards the blade, as is the case with most of the swords of the period. It does not appear in effigies before late in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. An anelace dagger may be seen on the effigy of William Wenemaer, died 1325; and another on that of the second Baron Berkeley, figured in Gough, vol. i., p. 44.
Fig. 43.—Anelace at Berlin.
The anelace dagger, which is of Italian origin, is about sixteen inches long, and derives its name from the ring which was originally attached to it, and which was connected by a light chain with a mamillière. A somewhat similar weapon was used as a dart, and often attached to the end of a staff, and then called “langue-de-bœuf.” An actual specimen, with the ring, was found among the débris at Tannenberg. This dagger is double-edged, broad in the blade, which narrows towards the point. Chaucer mentions the weapon. The larger anelace is mentioned in the notes on swords, and an illustration is given in [Fig. 43]; the only distinction, if there be one, is that of length.
The form of the dagger is often that of the sword in miniature, and the guards, as is the case in the larger weapon, are naturally an excellent guide as to date. The guard of two knobs and the wheel-guard appear in the fourteenth century.