Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/411

 ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS end. So far as this evidence goes, the Scandinavian pirates of the ninth century appear to have entered Norfolk from the sea both on the east and west, reaching Norwich from Yarmouth, and crossing the Fens from the Wash to the south-western corner of the present county. It is perhaps hazardous to assign a more exact date to these swords and brooches than the Viking period, which is generally reckoned from the year 700 to 1000 a.d. But it is even more rash to assume that dur- ing three centuries no progress was made and no innovations introduced into the arts of a people whose opportunities for inspecting and appro- priating the latest artistic productions of Europe were unequalled. They were more than borrowers : they assimilated new ideas and evolved artistic forms peculiarly their own, as witness the ' grasping animal ' motive of the tenth century, and the Thor's hammer of the latter part of that century. The appearance of such new features can be approximately dated by the coins that constantly occur in finds of jewellery ; and it may some day be possible to go a step further and trace the sequence of the various forms of weapons, especially the sword, during this period. The sword of the early Anglo-Saxons may be readily distinguished from the pattern introduced by the Scandinavian pirates and settlers of the ninth and following centuries ; for while the weapon found in many of our pagan graves has a long straight blade, a diminutive pommel and no metal guard, the Danes carried a wider, tapering blade, with a projecting guard and heavy pommel, both of metal. The wooden handles, guards and pommels of the former have almost invariably perished, but the blade and tang that still remain are of such uniform shape and size that it is difficult to imagine that there was much divergence in the shape and character of the more perishable parts. In the British Museum is a sword-handle that may be regarded as typical of the pagan period. It is in almost perfect preservation, and consists of three parts, all of wood. The grip is grooved transversely, and at each end is a cross-piece, slightly swelling in the centre but at right angles to the grip. The socket of the guard is just of a size to admit the usual type of blade found in the graves, and part of the tang still remains inside the grip. This view is supported by the representations on the Franks casket, which dates from about 700. Many warriors appear on the top and sides carved in whalebone ; and the sword is always of one patten, the handle exactly corresponding with the extant specimen just described. When this type was abolished in favour of a more durable and handy weapon is hard to determine, but the old pattern was probably not retained long after the northmen began to vex our shores. It is unlikely that a fighting race would, after the introduction of a metal guard by their enemies, be content to oppose them with their own traditional weapon, which was distinctly inferior in more than one respect. The Scandinavian swords have heavy trilobed pommels, and metal guards which either run straight across or curve away from the grip. Of the Norfolk specimens, 349