Migration Period Sword - Ring-sword

Ring-sword

The ring-sword (also ring-spatha, ring-hilt spatha) is a particular variant of the Germanic migration period swords. Ring-swords are characterized by a small ring fixed to the hilt (not to be confused are Late Medieval to Renaissance Irish swords with ring-shaped pommels, also known as "ring-swords").

Ring-swords come into fashion in the last phase of the Migration period (or the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, in the 6th and 7th centuries. They are found in Vendel era Scandinavia and in Anglo-Saxon England as well as on the Continent (Saxony, Francia, Alemannia). These swords were prestigious, prized possessions, probably reserved for kings and high nobility. The ring is interpreted as a symbolic "oath ring".

The design appears to originate in the late 5th century, possibly with the early Merovingians, and quickly spreads to England (from the earliest phase of Anglo-Saxon presence) and Scandinavia. The Beowulf poem uses the term hring-mæl, literally "ring-sword" or "ring-ornament", and scholars who interpret this as referring to this type of sword can point to it as one indication that the Beowulf poet was still drawing from an unbroken tradition of the pagan period, as ring-swords disappear from the archaeological record with Christianization, by the late 7th century.

Examples include:

• Continent
  • the Beckum ring-sword, dated ca. AD 475-525, found at Beckum, Germany
  • Wünnenberg-Fürstenberg, grave 61, 6th century.
  • the Schretzheim sword, found in tomb 78 in the Schretzheim Alemannic cemetery, Dillingen, Bavaria, dated to between AD 580 and 620. The sword is a rare example of a blade inscribed with an Elder Futhark inscription, four runes arranged so that the staves form a cross shape.
• England
  • the Kent (or Dover) ring-sword
  • Sutton Hoo ring-sword
  • the Chessel Down II (Isle of Wight) ring-sword), early 6th c.
• Scandinavia
  • the Snartemo sword, found 1933 in tomb 5 at Snartemo, Vest-Agder, Norway, dated to ca. AD 500.
  • Vendel ring-sword, found at Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, 6th century.
  • the Vallstenarum sword, found in Gotland, provides an important indication of the spread of the fashion. The sword was made in the early 6th century, and a ring was added only later, around AD 600, damaging part of the existing hilt decoration.