Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/79

 were likewise auxiliary weapons. These are found in most Saxon districts. London is responsible for many fine specimens. The seax is back-edged and in profile not at all unlike the modern Cingalese dagger (Fig. 9, a and b).

Found in the Thames at Wallingford Collection: Author

From the Utrecht Psalter, Early XIth century. Harleian MS. 603, British Museum

Found in the Thames at Southwark London Museum

We have already said that the simple militiaman of the fyrd fought light-armed in a leather coat. But the thegn who led him to the field was better fenced with his byrnie of ringed mail. We may not trust over much to the Bayeux needlework for the picture of English warriors. Yet it is to be remarked that it gives the same gear to Norman knight and English house-carle, each alike wears the ringed hauberk almost to the knee, and the helmet with the nasal-guard. His poets tell us that the Englishman's ring-byrnie was "hard hand-locked"; the poem of Beowulf has words of "locked battle-shirts." Precious were these battle-shirts and not to be bartered lightly; no merchant, said the law, shall send byrnies over sea.

But here we are confronted by the difficulty with which all students of the history of armour have to contend; how were the old English mail-shirts wrought? Was it a garment of leather on which rings of metal were sewn at regular intervals, in varying degrees of closeness according to the