15 



tides, procured from this country some years ago by that most energetic 

 and learned Dane, Dr. Worsaae, who, however, has not figured them in 

 his beautiful Catalogue of the Copenhagen Museum ; neither have such 

 weapons been described by Engelhardt as found in the Thorsbjerg Mose- 

 fund, or the bogs of Slesvig, nor in the same author's splendid "work, 

 " Denmark in the Early Iron Age." A few, however, have been found in 

 England, and are figured and described in the "Horse Eerales" of the late 

 J. M. Kemble. Our Danish invaders, or at least their commanders, were 

 clad in mail, generally chain armour ; wore conical helmets, of which 

 there is an exemplification upon one of the oval brooches, lately procured 

 from Islandbridge ; had circular shields, probably bound with iron, 

 and studded with large central bosses, one of which bears evidence of 

 the indentation of an Irish battleaxe. They had also long sharp iron 

 spears and javelins ; but their chief weapon was the large heavy-hilted, 

 broad-bladed iron sword, -with a strong decorated hilt, and loaded 

 pummel. We have no evidence derivable from physical objects, nor any 

 record in our manuscripts, of the cross bow or any similar projectile 

 having been employed in the Danish wars, except that shown in the 

 helmet crest, p. 17. There were also found some fragments of bone 

 sword handles, and a few vestiges of the brass ferules or tippings of 

 scabbards. An endeavour had been made to scrape and polish some of 

 the articles, but it should be generally known among all classes that 

 every effort of the kind decreases the commercial value of the articles. 



In conclusion, Sir "William stated that his attention was at- 

 tracted to the Islandbridge discovery by Sir Thomas Larcom, to whom 

 the Academy was already so much indebted ; and ended by congratu- 

 lating the members upon these and other valuable accessions which had 

 been made to the Museum during the past year. He also referred to 

 the history of the Committee of Antiquities, and the formation of the 

 Museum, which he had brought under the notice of the Academy some 

 years ago, and in which formation those who bore a part were justly 

 referred to, and more especially Dr. Todd, then Secretary of the Academy, 

 and who subsequently, during his presidency, so effectively assisted in 

 procuring the publication of the first part of the Catalogue. 



The following is a list of the principal Antiquities procured from this 

 very remarkable Eind, given in the consecutive order of the arrange- 

 ment observed in the Museum Catalogue, " according to Use ;" and illus- 

 trated by engravings of some of the rarest articles : — 



Eive complete iron swords, much corroded, but with handles ; also 

 a decorated sword handle. They are numbered 2356, -7, -8, and -9; 

 and also 2360, and -61, in the New Registry. The Scandinavian 

 weapons of this class are of two kinds — single and double-edged ; the 

 latter average 36 inches long in the blade, and 2 wide, and have 

 rather obtuse points ; the former are not quite so long, and have the 

 cutting edge running off obliquely into the straight blunt back. In a 

 few rare instances the flats of these sword blades are indented with 



