A long, narrow blade, sharply contrasting with the broad, short blades of Type X, the edges running parallel for about 2/3 of the blade's length, then tapering in subtle curves to an adequate point. The fuller is narrow, often very shallow and poorly defined, and runs 4/5 of the blade's length, sometimes (in later examples) beginning in the tang within the hilt. The cross in most surviving examples tends to be straight and of rectangular section, while the majority of pommels are of the various Brazil-nut forms, though a good many have disc pommels. A few have thick disc pommels with strongly bevelled edges (Type H—see chapter III). The tang is short, generally with parallel sides, and not so flat as in the Type X swords
General Remarks
This type has generally been held to belong to the period c. n20-c. 1200-1220, but recent research has given a much earlier 11
Possible date. A sword of this type (plate 4A) recently examined 15 has been found to have runes engraved on the tang and inlaid in white metal in the blade. The runes on the tang are of a distinctively Anglo-Saxon character,16 and of 10th century date at the latest—runes were little used by the Anglo-Saxons after about 900.17 The wellformed Brazil-nut pommel and the long, almost imperceptibly curved cross are both of a form hitherto held to be of a date no earlier than c. 1100,18 but there is actually plenty of evidence that they were in use, particularly in England, during the 10th century. 19 Several English manuscripts,20 datable within that century, show long, slender swords (fig. 12) with hilts much akin to this example; in some cases the cross is extremely long, and very sharply curved. There is a pommel, too, in the British Museum,21 found at Ingleton
In Yorkshire with a mount of silver gilt nielloed and decorated in a typically English style of c. 900 which is—or was, for the iron part is much corroded—very similar indeed in shape to the pommel on the sword in question, and to those in the manuscripts referred to.
Thus it would appear that the type was in use at least as early as c. Another sword of this type which may be considered to some extent datable is the magnificent weapon in the
Schatzkammer in Vienna, formerly used as a ceremonial sword at the coronations of Emperors and known as the
Sword of St. Maurice. It has always been considered that this could be dated firmly at 1198-1215, for upon the
Pommel of gilded iron (formerly said to be of silver) are engraved arms which seemed to indicate the treaty made
In 1208 between the Emperor Otto IV and John of England; on one side are the arms of the Empire, and on the
Other a shield of a demi-eagle impaling three leopards.22 Hence the whole 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Weapon was deemed to date between those years, but now that it has been worked upon further a different story has emerged. The arms were in fact those used personally by Otto IV, and have nothing to do with England. The blade (plate 5B) is enclosed in a very magnificent scabbard, decorated with gold panels showing repousse figures of monarchs, with bands of enamel-work between each panel. The sheath itself is of olive-wood. Now, as we shall see later (chapter V) a sword's scabbard was made by using the blade as a mandril around which the long, very thin strips of wood were formed to a perfect fit; and upon these slats any covering, of leather or velvet or of gold or silver or whatever it may have been, was as closely fitted. Thus, every individual blade had its own scabbard, which no other blade would be likely to fit. Using these data, it can be said with assurance that the gold panels on the scabbard in question were made to fit the sheath that fitted the blade. A careful examination of the figures embossed upon the panels shows, stylistically, that they are of 11th century date; of this there is no question. And they were clearly made to fit over the sheath itself; there is no evidence (quite the contrary) to show that they might have been altered to fit the sheath, even allowing such a cheese-paring piece of economising to have been possible. So the sheath too must be of the 11th century, and so, ipso facto, must the blade. These figures on the sheath, incidentally, are put on it in such a position that to stand upright the sheathed sword must be held, in the manner of a ''Bearing Sword" with the point upward. So it seems it was never made for a sword in ordinary use, worn at a knightly belt, for then the golden monarchs would have had to stand on their heads.
When we come to examine the little bands of enamel, done in tiny squares, white and blue and red, forming a diaper pattern, which separate the gold panels, we find that they are as characteristic of the early 13th century as the panels are of the 11th. The hilt too is of a kind previously regarded as typical of the same period (c. 1200), though it is very similar to the 10th century sword of Type XI described above (plate 4A), and may well be contemporary with the blade; but engraved upon the cross are the words Cristus Vincit. Cristus Reinat. Cristus Inperat. These words were used as the antiphon to the Coronation Anthem "Laudes Regiae" as well as a war-cry by the hosts of the 3rd Crusade, so it
May be inferred that on this sword they are of that, or a subsequent, date. So what emerges is that in the time of Otto IV (probably for his coronation), the scabbard was embellished with the enamel bands, and the hilt was engraved—the whole thing in fact was "done up" for Otto IV.23 So now, instead of having a complete sword datable at about 1210, we have an 11th century blade fitted with clearly dated 13th century decoration; and as this weapon has hitherto been used as a dating-point to put blades of Type XI into the 13 th century, we must now re-date the type.
Type XIa
Several of these swords, two with flat disc pommels,24 two with thick ones with bevelled edges,25 and one with a Brazil-nut pommel, are inscribed with the words GICELIN ME FECIT one side and INNOMINEDOMINI on the other, each inscription having a cross potent at either end, and all being inlaid with iron in the manner of the Ulfberht and Ingelrii swords. The only difference is that in these Type XI weapons the letters are very much smaller, and so appear to be neater. (They are not, really. Magnify them to the dimensions of the Ingelrii's, and they look remarkably similar.) This smallness and apparent neatness has caused scholars to assume that these inlays are a progression from the cruder, earlier ones, and are thus later in date.26 Why? They have to be smaller, for they must be fitted into a very narrow fuller, not allowed to sprawl over a very wide one. In view of the rune-inscribed sword and the Vienna blade's date, it seems that these Gicelin swords, and others similarly inlaid, are probably datable between 1000 and 1100, not between 1150 and 1225. The "developed" disc pommel, also hitherto held to indicate a later date, does not in fact do so; for among many swords excavated in Finland in 1949-1950 from 11th century Viking graves have been these pommels—there was a sixth Gicelin sword too among the finds.27
Many swords of this type have finely-made inscriptions inlaid
23Weixlgartner, A., Arpad. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorische Sammlungen in Wien. N. F. 1. 1926.
24Z. H.W. K. Band VII, 8. Schweitering, J., p. 211-14, fig. 1a; and Bruhn Hoffmeyer, pl. XII, d. g., pp. 15, 21, Copenhage n Nat. Mus. D. 7955 and Hamburg Mus. Gesch. M. 164.
25Z. H.W. K. ibid., p. 214, figs. 1g, 1c; and Bruhn Hoffmeyer, plate XII, h, i, p. 21. Berlin, Zeughaus.
26Z. H.W. K. Band III, R. Wegeli, op. cit.
27This information I had in the course of private correspondence with Dr. Jorma Leppaho of Helsinki, who found them.
With yellow metal (latten) or white (? silver or tin). This different style of inlay has also been taken as being of a later date28 than the iron ones, though it is not easy to see why, for there are many saxes of the 9th and 10th centuries inlaid in fine, small letters of copper or latten,29 which have been known for many decades. Now we have the small white metal inlays of the sword with the Anglo-Saxon runes (the reverse of that blade, incidentally, is inlaid for about 15" in white metal with a small pattern of a herringbone character which seems by its appearance to be intended to simulate pattern-welding. Similar designs may be seen on sax-blades) as further evidence that such inlays were used in the 10th century.30 One of these Type XI swords has an inscription in yellow metal reading SES BENEDICTAS on one side and +INOMINEDOM on the other. This sword—a very beautiful one—was found in a Suffolk ditch at Fornham, on the site of a battle fought in 1173 between Henry II and the Earl of Leicester. Here, maybe, is evidence of a Type XI sword being in use in
1173, but we can probably allow this weapon a lifetime previous to that of 30 years— or why not 50, or even 70?—so we do not get a late, terminating date for the making of the type. Actual specimens of it may still have been in use a century or more later.
Many other swords of Type XI have similar inscriptions inlaid in white or yellow metal, one in the National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen (plate 4C) being of almost the same shape and dimensions as the runic sword in my collection. Of the specimens so far found, only a few have iron inlays like the six Gicelin swords (two are in the City Museum at Lincoln) the majority having finely made religious inlays in the style of the Fornham sword. But as in all these types, new examples are constantly being dug up, or identified, and more information about the type as a whole will undoubtedly come to light. The form of these swords is clearly defined, classic examples
28. Wegeli, op. cit.
29. e. g. two in the British Museum; one from Little Bealings, Suffolk, another from the Thames at Wandsworth; a third from Sittingbourne in Kent (B. M. "Guide to Anglo-Saxon and Viking Antiquities"; and The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England, Dr. H. R. E. Davidson), and a fourth from London (London Museum). 20
Being shown on plate 3, but as in all these sword-types, there are many survivors which do not conform. One such is in the Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology at Cambridge,21 the other in the Armouries of the Tower of London.22 Both have very broad blades which are otherwise of the general shape of Type XI; both have very narrow fullers, running nearly full-length, as in XI. The Cambridge sword has a flat disc pommel and a short, slightly curved cross while the Tower one has a small, roughly-shaped nut pommel and a short straight cross, as in many XI's (plate 5A and C). Though there are few of these, we may put them into a sub-type and call it XIa.
Several other swords appear to be of Type XI, but have rather shapeless blades, narrow, parallel sided with little or no taper, and cut off at the tip to an almost square point. It does not seem certain that in each case the actual point itself is broken off. Some appear to have been made like that, so much so that we may place them as a sub-type also, calling it XIb.23
Swords of Type XI seem rarely to be shown in art. The early,
Fig. 13.
From a panel on one of the 11th century bronze doors of St. Zeno Cathedral, Verona.
Anglo-Saxon examples already mentioned are perhaps the clearest; some of the swords wielded by Harold's warriors on the Bayeux Tapestry could be of this type, but the character of that document forbids too close a reliance upon detail. There is a figure embossed on one of the leaves of the great bronze doors of the church of St. Zeno at Verona (fig. 13) which has what appears to be one, but one would hesitate to say definitely that the many swords apparently of Type XI shown in many manuscripts of the 11-12th centuries are indeed such. They are just swords.
Type XII
World History
