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ANTIQUITIES OF THE IRON-PERIOD.

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to include the spears with hooks, not unfrequently found in the graves, and which were fitted for the insertion of a wooden handle. The handle itself was furnished with a thong, to give increased force to the throw; and appears to have been partially split at the end, and to have been furnished with feathers. The little arrows which were used for shooting birds, were of course by no means so large as the javelins. They were not merely three and four edged, but usually flat, and occasionally furnished with barbed hooks. Among the most usual weapons of defence, the ancient Sagas mention helmets, coats of mail, armour, and shields. The fact that of the three first-named objects scarcely any relics at all have reached us, is by no means difficult to explain. The helmets, which were furnished with crests, usually in the shape of animals^[1], were probably in most cases only the skins of the heads of animals, drawn over a frame-work of wood or leather, as the coat of mail was usually of strong quilted linen, or thick woven cloth. Lastly, the armour which covered the breast was formed, it is true, of metal, either in iron rings attached to each other, or of plates fastened on each other like scales, but it certainly was only a few individuals who had the means and opportunity of obtaining such expensive objects. The shields, on the other hand, were in general use; they had commonly the same form as the shields of the bronze-

and lastly C. C. Rafn's Krigsvafenets Forsatning under Knud den Store, 8vo. Copenhagen, 1818.—T.

↑ The animal generally represented was the boar, and it is to this custom that reference is made in Beowulf when the poet speaks of the hog of gold, the boar hard as iron.
Swyn eal-gylden
Eofer iren-heard,—11.2217, 18, ed. Kemble.
Nor are allusions to this remarkable custom of wearing the figure of a boar,—not in honour of that animal, but of Freya to whom it was sacred,—confined to Beowulf. They are to be found in the Edda and in the Sagas, while Tacitus, in his De Mor. Germ. distinctly refers to the same usage and its religious intention; when speaking of the Aestii, he says, "Matrem Deum venerantur Aestii; insigne superstitionis formas aprorum gestant. Id pro armis omnique tutela securum Deæ cultorem etiam inter hostes præstat." See further Ettmuller's Beowulf, (Zurich, 1840,) p. 50. In this practice it is obvious that we may recognise the origin of the more modern crests.—T.

[1] The animal generally represented was the boar, and it is to this custom that reference is made in Beowulf when the poet speaks of the hog of gold, the boar hard as iron.
Swyn eal-gylden
Eofer iren-heard,—11.2217, 18, ed. Kemble.
Nor are allusions to this remarkable custom of wearing the figure of a boar,—not in honour of that animal, but of Freya to whom it was sacred,—confined to Beowulf. They are to be found in the Edda and in the Sagas, while Tacitus, in his De Mor. Germ. distinctly refers to the same usage and its religious intention; when speaking of the Aestii, he says, "Matrem Deum venerantur Aestii; insigne superstitionis formas aprorum gestant. Id pro armis omnique tutela securum Deæ cultorem etiam inter hostes præstat." See further Ettmuller's Beowulf, (Zurich, 1840,) p. 50. In this practice it is obvious that we may recognise the origin of the more modern crests.—T.

[1]