I have a couple of questions about 5th-6th century European/British swords - not my main area of knowledge, so hopefully someone might be able to answer these.

The composite handguard and pommels I have seen all seem to use either wood, horn or bone for the middle piece, with metal plates each side. What other materials were used? In particular I am interested to know if rock crystal or other transparent/translucent materials were ever used.

The rings on hilts, especially pommels. When did they appear and disappear? And what is the current thinking on their function?

Hi Peter!

The rings on hilts appear sometimes late 6th C and go out of fashion during the late 7th C. I´ve never tried to nail down an exact dating or period for this feature, so this is more a general guide, than an exact timing.
In the very early stages the ring was an actual ring and a separate piece held with a U-shaped device. Rather early on it became a feature, rather than a proper ring: a very fat doughnut shape that was made in one piece with the U-shaped securing device.
It is speculated if the ring is a mark of rank and that it may have been used in the swearing of oaths (warrior kissing the ring on the hilt of his lord´s sword).
The hilts with a true articulated ring have these upper hilts that are less wide and with "stubbier" proportions: a bit like the pommel of the Sutton Hoo sword.
When the ring becomes a more pronounced feature, it turns into a gesture, not being a true ring any more. These can be very "fat" but are made hollow. The upper hilts they sit on are generally wider and of a proportionately thinner cross section than the earlier type.
In the later examples the decoration becomes more elaborate and almost baroque, with an abundance of niello, silver and garnets in some examples.
Earlier hilts can be more severe and restrained, with zoomorphic motifs on the small pommel mostly and restrained deocrative lines on other parts of the hilt.

On hilt materials, I have heard of wood, horn and bone being used as the "spacer". I have seen swords with bronze or iron (sometimes with silvering/gilding) as the "spacer" and then it is common to see niello and/or garnet inlays as well.

Never seen or heard about rock crystal or amber or any such used for the hilts. Could look very nice on a version of the Excalibur however ;) :D

EDIT:
Hey Jeroen!
Simultaneous posting!
It makes sense what you say it is the receiver who gets the ring sword and not like I had heard it is the sword of the lord that has the ring in the hilt to swear on. The kings in the sagas are called Ring Givers, after all!
There are also quite a few of these ring swords. If they were exclusively for the lord to have, there would have been vary many lords around....

Peter,
thank you for that explanation. I have the del tin lombard model, ordered because I liked the look of it and the period, but I was disappointed that the ring was fixed in the hilt , which I only realized when I received it.
I wrote Del Tin about that, and he assured me that he copied a true weapon, which left me perplexed. I did not doubt his word for a moment, but couldn't figure out why one would bother to have a ring if the darn thing isn't really a ring, but the evocation of a ring. This intrigued me as I knew that ''true'' ring hilts did exist, ie with a ring that could still move.
So thank you for that, now I have an answer to give visitors who see the model on my wall and ask why....JCH

Where can I drum up some extant examples of these ring swords? Sounds like a fascinating tradition. This early portion of the middle ages is almost totally mystery to me.

M.

http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/resultat_bil...mp;page=11
http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/resultat_bil...mp;page=14
http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/resultat_bil...mp;page=15
There are a few examples linked.

Here there is information about one sword found in Kent with a loose ring.

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-...01_041.pdf


Great pics thanks to Kirk Lee Spencer in this thread:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...=valsgarde


The evolution of the ring-hilt swords, from Ewart Oakeshott's Sword in hand.


[ Linked Image ]

The ring also appears on other objects, a shield boss, drinking horn, lower part of a crossguard so I think the theory concerning the 'peace band' has to be looked at again. Fellow forumite has some intersting things to say about the 'ring' in his fourthcoming book and I wouldn't like to be a spoiler by revealing to much at the moment!

Apart from garnet inlay i can't think of any mineral use in hilt garniture.

best
Dave

( nice image being provided o this thread :) )

The "evolution" drawing and the PDF present it very well. The later form of the ring hilt, though, why does it look more like a blob hilt? It's almost as if someone took a stone, wrapped it in a bit of foil, and stapled it to my sword.

M.