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The Sword
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Sketch of sword
General
Description
The sword consists of a pattern-welded blade of 72cm topped with a
hilt of 13.4cm.
The blade is entirely fused inside the scabbard and has been
interpreted by means of radiography. The hilt consists of a gold and
cloisonne garnet pommel of 'cocked hat' design, gold upper and lower
guards and gold filigree clips all by means of gold rivets.(The gold
elements are discussed in detail on the Artefacts
page.)
Sword Pommel
Very little of the handgrip survives. This fragment consists of a flat
piece of iron (the tang) with some adhering wood. The iron strip is
4.5mm thick and varies in width from 2cm to 1cm where it passes
through the upper and lower guards. The wooden grip was built up
around the iron tang with an oval cross-section. The filigree clips
were then attached to the upper and lower sections of the wooden
grip by gold rivets.
Sword Hilt showing the tang,
pommel, upper and lower guards and filigree clip
The Scabbard
The extremely poor condition of the scabbard has hampered the
analysis of its construction. It appears to be composed of a very fine-
grained wood layer of about 2mm thickness. At the top end the
wooden surface was tightly wrapped in fine linen tape. Inside the
scabbard are traces of hair and hair roots, indicating that the
scabbard was lined with soft skin or fur similar in characteristics to
that of beaver or some other small animal.
Two gold
bosses set with garnets and millefiore glass were attached
to the outside of the scabbard on long shanks and mounted in collars
of a white substance thought to be bone or ivory.
Scabbard bosses as they appeared on the scabbard
Blade Construction
Radiographic analysis has revealed that the sword blade was
manufactured by twist-forging four bundles of seven iron rods in an
alternating pattern and lying back to back with four more bundles of
seven rods. The bundles of rods twist in alternating directions
forming a characteristic herringbone pattern seen in other swords.
The twisted bands then alternate with straight bands along the
length of the entire blade. The width of the cutting edge is
approximately 1cm at the tip of the blade and the same width in the
middle sections.(Evans in Bruce-Mitford 1978:307)
Sword in situ
The Swordbelt
The sword was designed to be worn slung from the waist from a leather
belt and steadied by a strap attached to the belt and the scabbard.
Although no traces of the leather belt or strap survive, the gold fittings
found
in connection with the scabbard indicate that this was the case.
The fittings for the belt and strap included:
- the scabbard slider
- strap distributor
- rectangular buckle
- two rectangular strap mounts with stepped mushroom design
- two rectangular strap mounts with cable-twist design
All were manufactured in gold with cloisonne garnets with
excellent workmanship.
They show little sign of wear and may have been used for ceremonial
purposes
only.
