The Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price

Author:Neil Price [Price, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241283998
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Spears were also comparatively cheap weapons—although not necessarily of low status—and while their heads were sometimes richly decorated with inlaid silver or even with intricately welded blades, the basic kind was not much more than a flattened or pointed piece of metal with sharp edges and a riveted socket. They came in different lengths with varying widths of spearhead, adapted for throwing or, more commonly, for use with both hands as a weapon of close combat. The slimmest lances had lean, pointed profiles and ash shafts of up to two metres, suited for a clean cast or a mounted charge. The heavier varieties had thicker heads and wider blades, sufficient to cause deep, broad, penetrating wounds. The largest added a crossbar behind the blade, giving weight to the thrust and also making it easier to pull out after a strike. To judge from depictions on metalwork, this kind could also be used on horseback, pinned between a rider’s leg and the horse’s flank, and presumably used in shock combat.

Viking swords required time and skill to manufacture. A very basic example would not necessarily have cost the earth, but at the extremes of investment, they were the ultimate badges of military prowess and prestige. Swords were slashing weapons, designed to cut rather than stab. In the early Viking Age, it was slightly more common to use single-edged types, whereas double-edged blades became the norm later on. Most sword hilts ended in a heavy pommel, the best of them made to exactly counterbalance the weight of the blade. A variety of forging techniques could be used, of which the finest was pattern-welding, where separate bars of iron were repeatedly heated and folded together before being hammered flat. The result was a flexible, lethal blade with high tensile strength, but also an extraordinarily beautiful object, as the coils and layers in the metal were visible as fine lines. The effect is mentioned in poetry, as ‘snakes’ writhing in the iron. The edges were hardened, sharpened steel. Every part of the hilt might also be decorated— the guard, the pommel, even sometimes the grip itself if it was made from tightly bound wire or plates of metal rather than the more common leather or horn.

Scabbards were made of wood panels bound or glued together, often lined with greased wool containing lanolin that would naturally oil the blade inside. The sheaths were sometimes covered in leather, tooled with intricate designs that might also be painted on the wood. A metal chape protected the pointed end of the scabbard, while the mouth and other sections of the sheath could be reinforced with bronze mounts. The scabbard was either suspended from a belt or worn on a baldric that crossed the body diagonally over one shoulder. Any or all of the ensemble could be decorated, and the highest end of the scale was a twisting mass of figures comparable to the prestige weapons of the Migration and Vendel Periods.

These high-status objects were the kind of swords that

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