44 
with leather. This circular form is common to the Saxon and 
Frankish shields. When Beowulf encountered the fire-dragon, 
however, instead of the ordinary linden-wood shield, vve are told— 
“ then commanded to be made for him 
the refuge of warriors, 
all of iron. 
# # # * 
he knew well enough 
that him forest-wood 
might not help, 
linden-wood opposed to fire.” 
61. Bronze stud, probably from an Anglo-Saxon shield, found at 
Old Sarum, in 1862. 
62. Iron blade of Anglo-Saxon sword, found at Toyd, Wilts. 
The presence of the loug iron sword is an unfailing evidence of 
the people to whom the grave belonged. These long Anglo-Saxon 
swords were m ended for cutting rather than for thrusting; they 
are usually doubled-edged, and the blades are plain and nearly 
uniform in shape; sometimes there is but one edge. The handle 
was usually of wood, but sword-hilts belonging to this period of 
bronze or silver have also been found; these were sometimes gilt, 
and at times bear runic inscriptions. 
“ So was on the surface 
of the bright gold 
in runic letters 
rightly marked 
set and said 
for whom that sword, 
the choicest of irons, 
was first made, 
with twisted hilt and serpentine.”— Beowulf. 
The sheath was usually of wood, tipped with metal, and some¬ 
times covered or made entirely of leather. 
Although the iron series is so poor, it has been considered 
desirable to give an account of the early use of that metal, as 
otherwise the sketch of the three great periods—the “ stone age,” 
the “ bronze age,” and the “ iron age”—would be incomplete. 
There is little in the appearance of the ores of iron to attract the 
attention of the early metallurgist. Unlike copper, it occurs rarely 
(if at all) in nature in the metallic state. It is, indeed, stated to 
have been found in situ near Canaan, in the United States, and a 
kind of native iron, which is accompanied with platinum, is ob¬ 
tained in the Uralian Mountains. The native iron, which occurs 
in the centres of masses of brown hematite, is supposed to be 
caused by electro-chemical action, whilst certain small button ingots 
of native iron are held to have been produced by the spontaneous 
ignition of seams of coal in the neighbourhood, of ferruginous 
deposits. Meteoric iron again always contains nickel, which does 
not occur in any of the ores of iron. Yet, notwithstanding the 
general non-metallic appearance of the ores of iron, the art of 
smelting them was practised at a very early period. The inha- 
