CoFFRY AND AuMSTKONG — Scavdmavinn Object!^. 113 



wire. It seems aliiiosl. identical witli tlie liilt figured liy T)u Cliaillu, 

 The Viking Age," vol. ii., p. 67, lig. 788. It measures 3<SJ inelies in length. 



Plate IV. No. 3 (Wk. 33), from the cemetery of Kilmaiuham, is the finest 

 sword of the period in the collection, and one of the finest swnrds in any 

 nniseum. The hilt is heavier and larger than usual, in order to halance the long 

 blade. It is richly gilt and decorated with small .silver circles. Silver wires go 

 over the head; and the lower part of the head and the quillon are ornamented 

 at the centre and edges with decorated bands. The decoration will be best 

 understood by examining the illustration. It measures 35|- inches in length. 



Plate IV. No. 5 (Wk. 5), from Kilmainham, is a remarkable hilt. Tlie 

 upper portion of the head, which is smaller than in the hilts just desci-ibed, is 

 divided into five lobes, with silver wire between each ; the lower portion is 

 decorated with a kind of meander pattern, which is repeated on the quillon. 

 The upper surface of the guard bears the name Hartolfa.' It is broken into 

 three parts, and measures 36| inches in length. A sword-hilt of very 

 similar shape and decoration, with the name Hlither engraved in the same 

 place, the upper surface of the guard, is figured by Kygh, " Norske Oldsager," 

 No. 511. It was found in 1864 in a tumulus at Gravraak, Melhus, Norway. 

 No indications of damascening or the names of armourers were apparent upon 

 the lilades, such as are known upon swords of the period ; but examination 

 for these was not attempted, as the blades had been covered with a thick 

 coating of paraffin wax to preserve them, and as little as possible was done 

 to disturb this. Many of the ornamented parts were quite hidden by rust. 

 Thus the sword with the name Haktolfa on the quillon was so covered witli 

 rust that when Mr. Wakemau was working at these objects, he says this 

 sword " is said when found to have been inscribed with the letters Hartolf. 

 Of this lettering, if it ever existed, no trace at present remains." The 

 careful cleaning of the sword has made this lettering, with the exception of 

 the final A, now quite plain. The damascening of the blades of the Viking 

 swords, which has been thought to imply an Eastern oiigin for them, is not 

 the true damascening, and is called " false damascening " by Lorange ; and the 

 swords are considered to be mostly derived through the North-West of France, 

 and the districts of the Ehiue and north of the Danube. (See " Den Yngre 

 Jernalders Svaerd," by A. L. Lorange, of the Bergens Museum, where the 

 subject of the origin and damascening of the swords is fully gone into.) 



The superiority of the Scandinavian arms was recognized by the Irish. 

 The ancient author of the " War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill " (p. 53], 

 speaking of the indescribable oppression and suttering intiicted on the Irish, 



' We are iniielited lu Professor Carl Miirstraiuler, of the Seliool of Iiisli I.eiiniiiig, for dra« ing 

 our attention to the fimvl A. 



