People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — SAXON SWORDS. [ARTICLE]

SAXON SWORDS.

Weaponi That Are Always Found When a Saxon Gravo Mound Is Opened. Arms seem to have been borne almost universally by the Saxons—that is, by the freemen; serfs are believed not to have been allowed this privilege, which was held in some sort to be a badge of freedom, though no doubt they had rude arms served out to them during war; but if they returned home alive it is probable these arms had to be given over into the keeping of their lord until they were next required, ! says the Westminster Review. We judge that personal weapon* must have been very numerous, bo- ! cause it is seldom that a Saxon grave mound is opened without their being i discovered; the things most commonly j found are the heads of spears and a i kind of javelin. They vary much in size and also in shape. There Is the 1 leaf-shaped, the lozenge, the barbed and the four-edged, all of which have been found in the grave mounds scat- 1 tered over various parts of Europe ! The blades are of iron, and the length, as a rule, varies from ten to fifteen inches; but they were found at Ozingell, in Kent, twenty-one inches in length; swords are much more rarely 1 found than spears, and axes are even less often to be met with. In the illuminated Saxon menu- J scripts the barbed spear is often to be seen, but it is very rarely found in the graves. There is a very curious one in Copenhagen, being only barbed upon one side and being leaf-shaped upon the other. The shafts appear to have been usually made of ash. The spear- ( head is usually found lying beside the I skull, so often as to induce the belief that this was the recognized position in which to place it with regard to its departed owner; bosses of shields are frequently found upon the breasts of the dead: these bosses are generally conical in shape, and often have the handle yet remaining across the inner side. The shield itself is rarely found, the wood having, as a rule, moldered away. Most likely the reason that < swords are so seldom found is because they were regarded as in some sort ! heirlooms, and passed from father to 1 son; they would, therefore, be but very , infrequently interred with the other ! weapons.