i = 



Sword from 



Thames at the 



Temple (J) 



A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



from the inscription, which is lightly engraved along the 

 top of the guard. Though now somewhat obliterated by 

 use, it was evidently intended for leofric me fecit (Leofric 

 made me) ; and though the form of the legend is usual, 

 the use of Latin for such a purpose is somewhat unexpected. 

 It is possible to regard Leofric as the sword-smith or as the 

 owner who had ordered the sword to be made ; but the 

 balance of probability is in favour of the former view. Thus 

 on a sword-knife ^ found at Sittingbourne occurs the owner's 

 name on one side, with the maker's on the other, the two 

 appearing as of equal importance ; whereas on the famous 

 Alfred jewel ' the name of the craftsman is suppressed. These 

 and several other relics of the later Anglo-Saxon period have 

 the inscription in Old English, and the difference of language 

 suggests that the Exeter sword belonged to a religious founda- 

 tion. Before the appointment of Leofric to the new see of 

 Exeter in 1050, there was a monastery in the city, and one 

 of its abbots (about a.d. 970) bore that name,' which was 

 indeed common enough ; but, supposing the sword to have 

 belonged to the abbot or to one of his followers, we should 

 have expected a cross to precede the inscription,* for such 

 was the rule even on objects of secular use, and in the 

 attestations of charters. 



The original form of Leofric's sword may be deduced 

 from an extant example of which the metal portion is 

 complete, the bone or wooden grip alone having perished. 

 It was found in the Thames off the Temple, and is now 

 in the British Museum : the blade tapers and is 27J in. long, 

 with a wide groove down the centre of both sides. Its 

 guard (4 in.) is slightly longer than the Exeter specimen 

 (3*3 in.), the opening (o"8 in.) for the tang also being a little 

 longer. The blade being 2j in. broad at the base, a heavy 

 pommel was necessary as a counterpoise, and this generally 

 took the form of three lobes, the base measuring in the present 

 instance 3 J in. It is therefore permissible to regard the 

 sword of Leofric as a specimen of one of the two leading 

 patterns of the pre-Norman period, the other having a 

 straight guard and pommel like those of pagan Anglo-Saxon 

 times ; but though we may fix the date between the 

 establishment of the West Saxons ^ in the west and the siege 

 of Exeter by the Normans, there is at present insufficient 

 evidence for a more precise chronology. 



' F. C. H. Somerset, i, 376. 



' Arch, xliv, pi. xii, p. 332. 

 ' F. E. Warren, Leofric Missal, p. Ix. 



* The leather sheath of Charlemagne's hunting-knife (so-called) has the cross and 

 Latin inscription : Franz Bock, KarPs des Grcssen Pfalzkapelle, p. 46 ; see also coin- 

 brooch from Canterbury, with inscriptions nomine domini and -{• Jjvdeman fecib (late loth century). Proc. 

 Soc. Antiq. Land, xix, 210. 



'a.d. 741-785, according to Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, zxxix, 259. 



374 



