Sax of Beagnoth

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Sax of Beagnoth
Thames Scramasax Decoration.jpg
Sax des Beagnoth on display in the British Museum
Information
Weapon type: Short sword ( sax )
Use: weapon
Creation time: 9-10 Century AD
Overall length: 72.1 cm
Blade length: 55.1 cm
Blade width: 3.87 cm
Blade thickness: 0.82 cm
Weight: 985 g
Material: iron
Handle: unknown
Particularities: the only completely epigraphically preserved Anglo-Saxon Futhark series
Lists on the subject

The Sax of Beagnoth (also known as Thames scramasax ) is an Anglo-Saxon single-edged sword that dates back to the 9th or 10th century . It was found in the Thames in London in 1857 and has been exhibited in the British Museum ever since . The sax is a prestige weapon with ornate precious metal inlays, with the Anglo-Saxon Futhark runes and the name Beagnoth on one sideis inserted. The rune series is the only epigraphic evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Futhark and originally served magical purposes. The meaning of the name Beagnoth is unclear, but there are several theories about it. In addition to many weapons from the Vendel and Viking ages with inscriptions in Latin letters, the Sax of Beagnoth is one of the few weapons of this era with a runic inscription.

discovery

The Sax of Beagnoth was found by the worker Henry J. Briggs between January 6 and 23, 1857 in the London borough of Battersea in the Thames . In addition, between 1843 and 1866, Briggs sold numerous other archaeological artifacts to the British Museum that he had found in the Thames. The museum bought the Sax from Briggs, whereupon the employed antiquarian Augustus Wollaston Franks presented it on May 21, 1857 at the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London . The description read:

“[The Sword-blade] resembling in the form of the Scramasax of the Franks, of which examples are very rare in England; and bears a row of Runic characters inlaid in gold. "

“The shape [of the blade] resembles the scramasax of the Franks , of which there are very few specimens in England; she wears a series of inlaid runes made of gold. "

In the course of time, the name Thames scramasax was first established for the Sax of Beagnoth . The word scramasax (from Old Franconian scrâmasahs ) appears only once in historical sources, in the 6th century AD in the Ten Books of Stories (Decem libri historiarum) by Gregory of Tours . Since the meaning of the prefix scrama- is controversial, the Anglo-Saxon lexeme (word) seax or sax ( English ) for this type of weapon, which in German means something like knife , sword or cutting tool.

description

The Sax of Beagnoth is a 985 g heavy, single-edged iron sword , which tapers towards the tip ( place ) and served as a prestige weapon. The total length is 72.1 cm, the length 17.0 cm and the blade length 55.1 cm. The tang is separated from the blade and the back of the blade by slight fillets and tapers slightly towards the end. At the widest point, the blade is 3.87 cm wide, the thickest point is 0.82 cm. The blade has a straight groove on both sides along the axis of the blade . The cutting edge runs straight in the area of ​​the blade and emerges slightly arched from the area of ​​the bent back towards the location. The place is in the extension of the straight part of the cutting edge, well below the blade axis. The material of the grip grip originally pushed on is not known.

Sax of Beagnoth

The blade is decorated on both sides with geometric patterns such as lines, triangles and diamonds formed by damascening of partially interwoven copper -, brass and - silver wires were incorporated into the metal. The decorations are each arranged in a rectangular decorative strip on the upper, blunt side. While only diamonds and triangles are incorporated on one side, there are two runic inscriptions on the other side . The inlaid technique was used on many Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Saxons and spearheads in the 9th and 10th centuries in order to decorate the respective weapon with patterns and inscriptions. In addition, it was used by the Vikings on their swords at around the same time.

Inscription side

Inscriptions

First inscription

The first inscription shows the Anglo-Saxon Futhark . The table provides an overview of the rune series occurring on the sax:

Beagnoth Seax Futhorc.jpg

Number on the sax Standard rune Unicode Anglo-Saxon name Transliteration Number in the
Salzburg-Vienna handwriting
1 Rune-Feoh.png ᚠ feoh f 1
2 Rune-Ur.png ᚢ ūr u 2
3 Rune-Thorn.png ᚦ þorn þ 3
4th Rune-Os.png ᚩ ōs O 4th
5 Rune-Rad.png ᚱ wheel r 5
6th Rune-Cen.png ᚳ cēn c 6th
7th Rune-Gyfu.png ᚷ gyfu G 7th
8th Rune-Wynn.png ᚹ wyn w 8th
9 Rune-Hægl.png ᚻ hægl H 9
10 Rune-Nyd.png ᚾ nyd n 10
11 Rune-Is.png ᛁ īs i 11
12 Rune-Ger.png ᛄ gēr j 12
13 Rune-Eoh.png ᛇ ēoh eo 13
14th Rune-Peorð.png ᛈ peorð p 14th
15th Rune-Eolh.png ᛉ eolhx x 15th
16 Rune-Sigel.png ᛋ sigel s 16
17th Rune-Tir.png ᛏ tīr t 17th
18th Rune-Beorc.png ᛒ beorc b 18th
19th Rune-Eh.png ᛖ eh e 19th
20th Rune-Ing.png ᛝ ing ŋ 22nd
21st Rune-Dæg.png ᛞ dæg d 23
22nd Rune-Lagu.png ᛚ lagu l 21st
23 Rune-man.png ᛗ man m 20th
24 Rune-Eðel.png ᛟ ēþel œ 24
25th Rune-Ac.png ᚪ āc a 25th
26th Rune-Æsc.png ᚫ æsc æ 26th
27 Rune-Yr.png ᚣ yr y 28
28 Rune-Ear.png ᛠ ēar ea 27

There are some peculiarities about the inscription:

  • The order of the runes does not exactly correspond to the usual order of the older Futhark or to the Anglo-Saxon rune series handed down in the Salzburg-Vienna manuscript .
    • The first 19 are engraved in the correct order, but the four following ( ᛝ , ᛞ , ᛚ , ᛗ ) are interchanged. This version is not found in any other surviving source.
    • The last two runes ( ᚣ , ᛠ ) are also reversed compared to the Salzburg-Vienna manuscript; but since these came to Futhark later, their order was possibly not entirely certain.
  • The 16th rune, Sigel ( ᛋ ), is very small compared to the other runes. Page assumed that it was added between the 15th ( ᛉ ) and the 17th ( ᛏ ) rune afterwards .
  • The spellings of some runes are unusual:
    • The 12th, Ger ( ᛄ ), is written with a horizontal branch instead of, as usual, with a double hook in the form of a circle, a diamond or a cross.
    • The 16th, Sigel ( ᛋ ), is similar to the Latin small  r . However, this spelling occasionally appears in other sources, such as the shrine of St. Cuthbert . Some scientists suspect that this rune is derived from the insular letter  s , since this is almost identical in ancient Anglo-Saxon writings. The Anglicist and runologist Ralph Elliott , however, assumed that the spelling could have resulted simply from straightening / omitting the left, upper branch and mirroring the rune.
    • The 21st, Dæg ( ᛞ ), looks like two vertical bars with a right-facing hook in the middle.
    • The 24th, Eþel ( ᛟ ), is written at the bottom with a single vertical branch instead of the usual two diagonal bars. This version appears occasionally in other runic inscriptions, but more often in manuscripts . Elliott assumed it was just a simplified form of the standard notation.
    • The 27th, Yr ( ᚣ ), is written with a double hook that opens outwards instead of a vertical branch.
    • The last rune, Ear ( ᛠ ), does not appear in this form in any other runic inscription. Only a similar version is engraved in the name Jeaslheard ( ᛄᛇᛋᛚᚻᛠᚱᛞ ) on a runestone that was found near Dover .

These peculiarities suggest that the blacksmith was not very familiar with the runes. According to the medievalist and runologist Raymond Ian Page , some runes could also be errors or deliberate simplification, due to the difficulty of working the wires into the iron in the form of runes.

Second inscription

The second inscription gives the name of the owner or blacksmith, who was called Beagnoþ / Beagnoth . The name is derived from the Old English word bēag or bēah , which stands for "ring", "bracelet", " torques " or "crown", and from the word nōþ (" boldness "). Translated, the name therefore means something like "Ringkühn".

The name Beagnoth is incorporated as follows:

Beagnoth Seax Name.jpg

The only unusual rune is the Nyd ( ᚾ ), as it is written with a horizontal branch instead of a diagonal branch, so that it has similarities with the spelling of the Ger rune ( ᛄ ) in the first inscription. To the right above the name there are two indefinable symbols that resemble letters or runes, but could not yet be identified.

Dating and origin

Archaeological excavations across Europe brought Saxe to light from the 4th century to the 11th century. The earliest found in England are from 7th century graves. Like this sax, most of the English finds could be dated to the 9th to 10th centuries, which speaks for the great popularity of the weapon at that time.

Several saxes of the same type were found in southern England (three in London, one in Suffolk , another in the Thames at Keen Edge Ferry in Berkshire ), and another was found in Hurbuck in County Durham in northern England . The Berkshire Sax is almost identical to the Beagnoth Sax in terms of construction and design, which could mean that they both come from the same blacksmith.

Ralph Elliott suspected that the Sax was of southern English, probably of Kentish origin, as the runes only reproduce the original 28 runes of the Anglo-Saxon Futhark, but do not include the five other runes used in Northumbria at the time .

This thesis is supported by the fact that the name Beagnoth only appears in two Kentish manuscripts. The first Beagnoth was a witness to a document dating from 748-760 at the time of King Eardwulf of Kent , in which St. Andrew's Church in Rochester was granted pasture rights. The other Beagnoth was a Kentish monk who was present at the Council of Clovesho in 803 and who witnessed a charter from King Æthelwulf of Wessex in 844.

Daniel Haigh, a recognized professor of Anglo-Saxon history and literature in the Victorian era , in his 1872 publication on the studies of the Kentish runic monuments, considered the possibility that the sax was a Frankish import and had originally belonged to a franc . He based his thesis on the engraved name. He assumed that these were Old Franconian runes, so the name is Baugnanth ( ᛠ corresponds to au instead of ea , ᚩ corresponds to an instead of o ).

The current research results suggest an English origin of the sax, which is why it is almost without a doubt Anglo-Saxon, not Franconian runes.

Scientific importance

At the time of the Great Migration , the Vendel Period and the Viking Age, there was a widespread tradition in Scandinavia of engraving or inserting runes into weapons, especially sword blades, in order to impart magical powers to the respective weapon. The magical character of a Futhark lies in the collected power of all 28 runes with their names, as these are each meant for good, protective and healing objects such as gods ( Tīr-rune = Tyr , Ing-rune = "god of the fertile year") Freyr ), trees ( Ēoh rune = yew , Beorc rune = birch ) or intangible things and the like ( Gyfu rune = " gift ", Wyn rune = " bliss ", Gēr rune = "good year") . This symbolic value of the runes exists in all Futhark variants and usually only differs slightly. The aim of a rune spell in the form of the complete Futhark was therefore to bundle the magical effect of all runes on the user and to make it helpful and usable for them.

This type of rune magic is also, at least in relation to a rune in the seventh verse of the Edda song Sigrdrífumál described as the Valkyrie Sigrdrífa the hero Sigurd explains how he the Sowilo rune ( ᛋ have to engrave) in his sword, so this will give him the victory:

Sigrúnar þú skalt kunna,
ef þú vilt sigr hafa,
ok rísta á hialti hiǫrs,
sumar á véttrimum,
sumar á valbǫstum,
ok nefna tysvar Tý

Siegrunen cut
when you want victory;
Dig them on the hilt of the sword;
Some on the sides,
others on the guard
and name Tyr twice .

This song was not recorded in writing until the late 13th century in the Codex Regius , but like most of the parts of the Edda, it was probably written much earlier. Similar instructions for engraving runes in swords can also be found in lines 1694–1698 of the old English Beowulf poem, which was written around the same time as the Sax of Beagnoth:

Swā wæs on ðǣm scennum scīran goldes
þurh rūn-stafas rihte gemearcod,
geseted and gesǣd, hwām þæt sweord geworht,
īrena cyst ǣrest wǣre,
wreoþen-hilt ond wyrm-fāh.

It was also written on the shiny gold,
The tidings scratched with rune sticks,
For whom the noble weapon was first
forged , The priceless sword was forged,
The handle turned and the blade decorated with images of dragons .

This poem thus confirms the practice of engraving the name of the owner on weapons or blades, which is proven on a sword pommel from the 6th century from Kent, and on a silver scabbard mouthpiece, also from the 6th century, of a sword scabbard from Chessell Down ( Isle of Wight ) and could be confirmed. The sword scabbard from Chessell Down is also the only weapon, or the only part of the weapon with Anglo-Saxon runic inscription, which was found outside Kent. In addition, a single Tiw rune ( ᛏ ), which stands for the Anglo-Saxon god Tiw , was found on two Kentish sword knobs and a Kentish spearhead .

The disc-headed needle found near Malton , North Yorkshire with the first eight Futhark runes and three more ( ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳᚷᛚᚪᚫᛖ ).

Writings on stones or in manuscripts by the older and the younger, Nordic Futhark are relatively common in Central Europe and Scandinavia, but those written in the Anglo-Saxon Futhark are very rare and almost exclusively found in manuscripts even in England. The rune series on the Sax is therefore the only known complete epigraphic record of the Anglo-Saxon Futhark comprising 28 runes. However, according to Raymond Ian Page, this could not be just a decoration, the inscription probably had a magical meaning. In addition, there are two other, but incomplete, epigraphic evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Futhark, each of which was engraved in a needle head. On one needle, which was found in Brandon , Suffolk , are the first 16 of the 28 runes, i.e. from ᚠ (f) to ᛋ (s). On the other, found in Malton , North Yorkshire , are the first eight, the eighth being incorrectly the Lagu rune ( ᛚ ) corresponding to the L instead of the Wynn rune ( ᚹ ) corresponding to the W. In addition there is the ᚪ (a) rune and the corresponding umlauts ᚫ (æ) and ᛖ (e). In total there are eleven runes on this needle head.

The Sax of Beagnoth is also the only sword in Europe with an inscription comprising several runes on the blade , and not just a single rune. In this case, the spathe from Schretzheim cannot be taken into account, or only to a limited extent, because four runes are engraved on its blade, but these are arranged in a square and thus have a kind of cryptic encryption. In contrast, inscriptions written in the Latin alphabet are relatively common on swords from the Viking Age. About a hundred swords from this period of around 300 years have the name "Ulfberht" in Latin letters.

A short sax found in Sittingbourne (Kent) with insular capital letters BIORHTELM ME ÞORTE (“Biorhtelm created me”) and ☩ S [I] GEBEREHT ME AH (“S [i] bereht owns me”)

Based on the description in the Beowulf poem, one could now assume that “Beagnoth” must be the original owner of the Sax. However, there are also weapons of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons on which only the name of the blacksmith or his name and that of the original owner is engraved, as is the case with the Sittingbourne Sax . It is therefore not certain what the purpose of the exchanged name on the Sax of Beagnoth is. However, Page considered four specific ways who the name might refer to:

  • The name is that of the blacksmith who made the sax, as it was often common at that time to include the name of the maker.
  • The name is that of the rune master who called the Futhark the blacksmith, because naming the rune master could reinforce the magical effect of the rune series.
  • The name is that of the original owner or client, because as Page points out, the Sax is an impressive weapon that any owner would be proud to see his name on.
  • The sax was a gift from a Beagnoth to another person.

However, Page emphasizes that it is impossible to determine which hypothesis is correct. In the 10th century the runes disappeared more and more from the Kentish kingdom. In order to maintain the old custom and for reasons of personal prestige, the client, according to Page, had the runes inserted into the sax anyway. The fact that some runes are sometimes unusually written suggests that the blacksmith also had only a distant reference to runes and may have only taken it from an imprecise manuscript.

literature

Web links

Commons : Anglo-Saxon seaxes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The lemma is a translation of the English lemma Sax of Beagnoth . It means "Sax des Beagnoth" or "Beagnoth-Sax".
  2. ↑ a b Short biography of Henry J. Briggs . British Museum. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  3. ↑ a b Entry on the Sax of Beagnoth . britishmuseum.org. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  4. ↑ Thursday, May 21, 1857 . In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquitaries of London . 4, No. 47, 1857, p. 83.
  5. ^ Oxford English Dictionary . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-19-861186-2 .
  6. ^ Underwood (1999), p. 68.
  7. ↑ a b c d Page (2006), p. 40.
  8. ↑ a b c d Search for "Seax" in the museum database . British Museum. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  9. ↑ Oakeshott (2006), p. 35.
  10. ↑ Oakeshott (1991), p. 6.
  11. ^ Translation of the runes into the Latin alphabet . britishmuseum.org. Archived from the original on December 5, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  12. ↑ a b c Page (2006), p. 80.
  13. ↑ Elliott (1980), p. 80.
  14. ↑ Elliott (1980), p. 36.
  15. ↑ Elliott (1980), p. 35.
  16. ↑ a b c Elliott (1980), p. 79.
  17. ↑ Krause (1993), p. 16.
  18. ↑ DeVries (2007) p. 35.
  19. ↑ PASE Index of persons: Beagnoth 1 (Male) . Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England . Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  20. ↑ PASE Index of persons: Beahnoth 1 (Male) . Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  21. ↑ Haigh (1872) pp. 253-236.
  22. ^ Underwood (1999), p. 71.
  23. ↑ Düwel (2006), p. 209.
  24. ↑ Düwel (2006), p. 198.
  25. ↑ Jansson (1987), p. 15
  26. ^ Simrock (1851) Sigrdrífumál
  27. ^ Wrenn (1973), p. 160
  28. ^ Hugo Gering: Beowulf . heorot.dk. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  29. ↑ Wilson (1992), pp. 120-122.
  30. ↑ Wilson (1992), pp. 115-117.
  31. ↑ a b Page (2006), p. 113.
  32. ↑ Düwel (2001), p. 72.
  33. ↑ Williams (2009), p. 124.
  34. ↑ a b Page (2006), p. 165.
  35. ^ Wilson (1964), p. 73.