Among all the ornaments of pagan antiquity, none are more frequently mentioned in the ancient Sagas than the arm- lets. We often read of kings and chieftains presenting arm- lets to bards who had sung their heroic deeds, as well as to others whom they wished, for some reason or other, to honour and reward. Thus King Rolf presented the hero Viggo with two gold armlets, because he had bestowed on the king the name of Krake. The gold armlets which are now exhumed are sometimes shaped like bands or ties, sometimes they are formed of two gold bars, or of a single weighty bar, the ends of which are thicker than the other parts of the ring, and do not shut close; and again with the outward side beaten out broad, and embellished with ornaments[1]. Occasionally a long gold bar is twisted in a spiral form several times round the arm. The rings are usually solid, and even at the present day are of considerable value. This is also the case to a certain degree with regard to the finger-rings. The largest of them are very broad in front[2]; others, found less frequently, are adorned with a border, consisting of pieces of glass; all of these are usually of simple form, in many cases indeed they are such as might be used at the present day.
The silver rings which furnished an ornament for the head or neck as well as the arms, have not been mentioned hitherto, partly because they were very frequently used as money in commercial transactions, and partly because they differ
- ↑ Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries two gold bracelets of this form which were found in 1831 in digging the foundation of a cottage near Egerton Hall, Cheshire. See Archæologia, vol. xxvii. p. 401, where one of them is engraved.—T.
- ↑ A very curious and interesting gold Saxon ring, inscribed NOMEN EHLLA FIDES IN XPO, found in a meadow at Bosington, near Stockbridge. Hants, by a labourer who saw it glittering among the peat, and which is now in the possession of the Rev. A. B. Hutchings, of Appleshaw, Hants, is engraved in the Journal of the Arch. Association, vol. i. p. 341.—T.
