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Thus at least one-third of the adult males buried at Sarr were sword-bearing
warriors; and this fact must, I think, lead to a reconsideration of the
various opinions that Saxon thegns, or the "viri electi," or the
borsholders or tything-men were alone armed with this weapon. The
"Capitularies" of Charlemagne seem to indicate that amongst the
Frankish nations cavalry only then bore the sword.1 This probably
applied to those Continental tribes who were armed with the francesca, or
axe, as well as the spear, a weapon certainly not in general use at the
period of these interments, though introduced at a later period amongst the
Anglo-Saxons, if we are to consider the Bayeux Tapestry as reliable
historical authority.
One axe only was found at Sarr, and that probably not a
battle-axe.
An angon, one of the weapons of the Franks, a long, barbed iron
spear, with iron shank, forty-five inches in length, was found in a Sarr
grave (Plate XIV.). It is almost a solitary example from any
ancient English
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interment. Mr Akerman has given an interesting account of this weapon (‘Archaeologia,’
vol. xxxvi. p. 78), and Mr. Wylie also (Id. vol. xxxv. p. 48).
Amongst the glass vessels are the beautiful example from grave
IV., with slender arched ornaments terminating in drops round its base, and
the two "pillared" glass vessels from graves LX. and
CLXVIII., almost the only specimens preserved entire in England. I have no
doubt that these glasses were manufactured as sepulchral relics. Their
"tear-drop" ornament, as it is sometimes called, is curiously
illustrated by a similar
1 The footmen of the Celtic tribes were armed with swords.
M. Froyon, on the authority of Mr. Akerman, discovered iron swords in
Switzerland, with the remains of the Celtic period. Amongst the Teutonic
tribes, swords of iron might be confined to the aristocratic orders, and yet
be considered too valuable or too useful to be buried with other relics in
the grave. Spear-heads, knives, and keys could probably be hammered out by
any village smith; but not so, the sword.
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