Swords, Seaxes and Saxons

By Matthew Harffy

The Germanic tribes who settled in Britain from the 5th century onward, commonly known as the Anglo-Saxons, were a bellicose people. They put great stock in battle-prowess and dying in combat in the service of one's lord was the ideal death of a warrior. They were a people of tales and sagas told around hearth-fires in smoky halls. The story of Beowulf, a great warlord who later becomes a great king, harkens from sometime during this period. The eponymous character of the epic poem is typical of heroes of the time. He is brave, strong, honourable and his fame is known throughout the lands in which he travels. Warriors such as Beowulf measured their battle-fame and success in the quality of their weapons and armour. The Saxons are even named for their use of the single-edged knife or short sword called the seax.

High status warrior with pattern-welded sword

The period from the end of the Roman presence in Britain to the Norman Conquest is now known as the early medieval. However, it is more romantically, and much more commonly, known as the Dark Ages, and in many ways these centuries were dark. Literacy and education was very rare, so much of the history was not recorded in writing. As to remains for archaeologists to study, the Anglo-Saxons built their halls and houses of timber, leaving little in the way of visible marks on the landscape. The times were dark indeed for many who perished in the frequent bloody battles between the small kingdoms that divided Britain.

However, it was not all gloom and death. It was also a time of great craftsmen, who created some incredibly intricate work. Nowhere was this more apparent than when their love of war melded with their sense of the artistic in the creation of their sword blades and the ornate decorations that adorned their pommels and hilts. The Anglo-Saxons' skill in forging pattern welded blades was second to none. The discovery of the Bamburgh sword and the Staffordshire Hoard show the incredible workmanship that these craftsmen from the so-called Dark Ages were capable of.

Pattern welding

The best quality sword blades of the time were made using the forging technique that we now know as pattern welding.

Pattern welding involves forging together alternating twisted rods. These rods form complex patterns when forged into a blade. During the Anglo-Saxon period, sword manufacture reached a level where thin layers of steel were overlaid onto a soft iron core. This made the swords flexible with a springy strength that would prevent the blade bending or snapping in combat. The most sought after blades had pattern welding forged around an iron core.

Pattern-welded seax

Not only were these blades coveted due to their qualities, they were also things of beauty in their own right. One sword was described in Beowulf as "the woven snake-blade" and "marked with venom-stripes". It is likely that these descriptions came from the scop putting into words the fabulous, striped markings on the best pattern-welded blades.

Pattern-welded blade

Such blades would have been like the sports cars of their day, admired by many, owned by few. Both functional and beautiful, these incredible weapons were status symbols of kings, warlords and the richest of household warriors.

The Bamburgh Sword

One such fabulous pattern-welded sword is the Bamburgh Sword.

It was discovered at Bamburgh Castle in 1960 by Brian Hope-Taylor, who failed to identify it. It was only forty years later, following Dr Hope-Taylor's death, that a student found the blade in a suitcase that was going to be sent to landfill!

Luckily it was not destroyed, and subsequent studies of the blade showed it to be a unique seventh century sword made up of six separate strands of iron. No other sword has been found from the period with more than four rods in a pattern welded blade. It must have been fabulously valuable, perhaps even owned by a king.

It is now on display at Bamburgh Castle, along with a replica of what it would have looked like when it was new.

The Bamburgh Sword

The Staffordshire Hoard

The swords of noble warriors did not only have fine blades, their hilts were adorned with gold and garnet pommel caps, golden rings, and all manner of scroll work and runes. Nowhere can the quality of these items be seen more clearly or in greater quantity than in the huge number of pieces discovered in the Staffordshire Hoard.

Discovered by a metal detectorist in 2009 near Lichfield, it is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork found to date, with a total of 5.1 kg of gold, 1.4 kg of silver and around 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery.

The Staffordshire Hoard

The hoard was most likely deposited sometime in the 8th century, though the exact date or indeed why such riches were abandoned, can only be speculated upon. However, many of the items were stripped from fine weapons, attesting perhaps to the hoard being spoils of war, or maybe payment from a defeated force containing many wealthy warriors of high standing. The level of detail on the items is really astounding, and shows that weapons were clearly status symbols in their own right and not merely tools for dealing death.

Burials with weapons

Another way we can see the importance of weapons to the Anglo-Saxons is by the objects they buried with their dead. Before Christianity took a firm hold on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, men were often interred with swords, shields, spears and seaxes, not to mention other items that presumably they would have found useful in the afterlife.

Later in the Anglo-Saxon period the number of grave goods dwindled, perhaps due to pressure from the Christian church or maybe more prosaic reasons, such as inheritance and trade becoming more commonplace.

Anglo-Saxon swords

Estimating from the number of swords found in graves, only a small number of warriors owned a sword (most had to make do with a spear). However, the sword remained the symbol of the successful warrior. It was what all young men would aspire to own. Lords would gift swords to their most trusted warriors and blades were given names. They were the ultimate Dark Ages status symbol.

Nowadays, if someone wishes to show off at a dinner party they might mention what model of car they drive. If you met a Saxon warrior at a feast in a mead hall, he might boast of the quality of his sword’s blade and regale you with the tales of its exploits in battle.

Images:

Warrior: Copyright Stephen Weatherly, used with permission.

Staffordshire hoard: By David Rowan, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Staffordshire hoard) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Anglo-Saxon Swords: By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

All other photos, Copyright Matthew Harffy

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Matthew Harffy is the author of the Bernicia Chronicles, a series of novels set in seventh century Britain. The first of the series, The Serpent Sword, was published by Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus on 1st June 2016. The sequel, The Cross and The Curse will be released on 1st August 2016. Book three, By Blood and Blade, is due for publication in January 2017.

The Serpent Sword is available on Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, and all good online bookstores.

The Cross and the Curse is available for pre-order on Amazon and all good online bookstores.

Website: www.matthewharffy.com
Twitter: MatthewHarffy
Facebook: MatthewHarffyAuthor

Let's Hear it for the Smith by Deborah Swift

Without the smith most of life in previous centuries would be unthinkable, yet he often does not appear in historical novels. Nearly all of life was supported by the Smith. Forged tools were used by all other craftspeople such as shear hooks for thatchers or chisels for carpenters. All farmers and agricultural workers  relied on him for scythes, ploughs, rakes and so forth. Women used iron cooking pots, metal spoons and knives, all hand-made by the smith.

There were several different types of smith; the traditional blacksmith who shod horses and was an expert in veterinary practice, but also the brightsmith or whitesmith who polished his work to a higher degree of finish.  Cutlers and weaponry makers would come under this category. Some smiths made bells and included the business of bell-hanging in their trade, some were locksmiths manufacturing only locks and keys. Often they worked closely with wheelwrights (sometimes called wainwrights) to make the parts of wagons and coaches - a trade as complex as manufacturing a car today.In the period I enjoy writing about, the 17th century, all transport was by horse or horse and trap/carriage.

As well as large items, the blacksmith would often have apprentices making nails, hooks, hinges and other small items for every day use. Nails were used to hold everything together - furniture, shoes, musical instruments all required hand-made nails.

As the demand for nails was so great, some parts of the country specialized in nail-making. The improvement of slitting the iron into bars came from the France early in the 17th century, and this helped create an English nail trade. Godfrey Box built the first slitting mill in England at Dartford, Kent in 1590. It used water power to slit the iron.

Many forges were close to water because of the need to 'quench' the iron between heatings, and because the wheelwright often required water to soak and bend the wood for wheels. Because their trade involved keeping a fire going all day, villages often built the bake-house with its bread-oven near the smith's. So a symbiotic relationship between all the trades developed with each using the advantages of the other. I'm sure many smiths enjoyed the benefit of a hot pie at the end of their day's work!

18th century painting of a Forge by Wright of Derby

Some blacksmiths specialized in making cutlery and so came to be known as “cutlers”. They had a great knowledge of the properties of iron, and how to control the heating and cooling processes to achieve a particular result. These men made knives, scissors, razors and swords.

For my next novel 'A Divided Inheritance' I researched the making of swords and weaponry, which I will explore in a later post as making a cutting edge is a very specialized skill involving the creation of steel through tempering the metal. But just to whet your appetite, here is a section of a sword discovered hidden in Cropredy Church, believed part of a cache of arms left over from the English Civil War. More about this can be found by following this link.

Quote from www.thomasironworks.com

For more on the history of the Blacksmith I can recommend Simon Grant-Jones'website,

Also http://www.horshamhistory.org/Blacksmith-Millwrights

For more on nail-making http://www.sedgleymanor.com/

English Heritage's 'A Book of English Trades'

My book The Gilded Lily is currently this week's Giveaway, so pop over if you'd like to win a copy. You can also win a copy of The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas this week, just scroll down from my Giveaway.