ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS struggle with Mercia continued with varying success till the final pacifi- cation under Ecgberht. By that time documentary evidence is avail- able in plenty, and a change becomes noticeable in the character of the antiquities discovered, as Danish and subsequently Norman influences are felt among the Anglo-Saxon conquerors of Britain. A remarkable sword (see fig.) was discovered 1 in 1831 from 2 to 3 feet below the surface in a railway ballast-pit at Reading. The blade, which was about a foot longer when found, was bent in a curve corresponding to the ribs of a horse which lay upon it. The skeletons both of horse and rider were com- plete, and one side of the sword- handle is much worn by chafing, as if the weapon had been long carried on its owner's side. The grip was small however, and can- not have been intended for use by a grown man : its elaborate though rude decoration indeed suggests that the weapon was rather a symbol of authority. On the horizontal pommel and guard, which are formed of metal resem- bling pale copper, are imperfectly executed figures of men and ani- mals ; and the blade is of the usual type, double-edged with a central and somewhat abrupt point. A sword of another type (see fig.) fairly common in the period of the Danish incursions was found about thirty years ago at or near Wallingford and is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. It has been described by Sir John Evans 2 and attributed by him to the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. The blade is incomplete, and the silver plates applied to the guards and pom- mel have been somewhat damaged, but enough remains intact to show the variety of the design. Figures and animals on a background of niello are associated with foliage seen on certain examples 3 of late Anglo-Saxon work ; while the beaded border and animal head in relief on the pommel occur on metalwork of Alfred's reign. 4 It is more likely, therefore, to be English work of the early tenth century. A silver pommel of exquisite 1 Pne. Soc. Antiq. ser. 2, iii. 461. a Arch. 1. 534, pi. xxvii. ' On the back of EthelwulPs ring, and on a piece of silver in the Cuerdale hoard, about 910 (Arch. Journ. iv. 190, fig. 90). Silver bands from St. Austell, Cornwall (Arch. ix. pi. viii. fig. 7). 243 HILT OF THE SWORD FOUND AT READING.
