ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



struggle with Mercia continued with varying success till the final pacifi- 

 cation under Ecgberht. By that time documentary evidence is avail- 

 able in plenty, and a change becomes noticeable in the character of the 

 antiquities discovered, as Danish and subsequently Norman influences are 

 felt among the Anglo-Saxon conquerors of Britain. 



A remarkable sword (see fig.) was discovered 1 in 1831 from 2 

 to 3 feet below the surface in a railway ballast-pit at Reading. The 

 blade, which was about a foot longer when found, was bent in a curve 

 corresponding to the ribs of a horse which lay upon it. The skeletons 

 both of horse and rider were com- 

 plete, and one side of the sword- 

 handle is much worn by chafing, 

 as if the weapon had been long 

 carried on its owner's side. The 

 grip was small however, and can- 

 not have been intended for use 

 by a grown man : its elaborate 

 though rude decoration indeed 

 suggests that the weapon was 

 rather a symbol of authority. On 

 the horizontal pommel and guard, 

 which are formed of metal resem- 

 bling pale copper, are imperfectly 

 executed figures of men and ani- 

 mals ; and the blade is of the 

 usual type, double-edged with a 

 central and somewhat abrupt 

 point. 



A sword of another type 

 (see fig.) fairly common in the 

 period of the Danish incursions 

 was found about thirty years ago 

 at or near Wallingford and is now 

 in the Ashmolean Museum at 



Oxford. It has been described by Sir John Evans 2 and attributed by him 

 to the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. The 

 blade is incomplete, and the silver plates applied to the guards and pom- 

 mel have been somewhat damaged, but enough remains intact to show 

 the variety of the design. Figures and animals on a background of niello 

 are associated with foliage seen on certain examples 3 of late Anglo-Saxon 

 work ; while the beaded border and animal head in relief on the pommel 

 occur on metalwork of Alfred's reign. 4 It is more likely, therefore, to be 

 English work of the early tenth century. A silver pommel of exquisite 



1 Pne. Soc. Antiq. ser. 2, iii. 461. 

 a Arch. 1. 534, pi. xxvii. 



' On the back of EthelwulPs ring, and on a piece of silver in the Cuerdale hoard, about 910 (Arch. 

 Journ. iv. 190, fig. 90). 



Silver bands from St. Austell, Cornwall (Arch. ix. pi. viii. fig. 7). 



243 



HILT OF THE SWORD FOUND AT READING. 



