to pages of a website that deal with Anglo-Saxon swords and sword-making. First is The Anatomy of a Sword, a short treatment on the basic form of the Anglo-Saxon sword. An excerpt:

"Anglo-Saxon swords had straight, double-edged blades, averaging about 33" long. The blades tapered but slightly and had somewhat rounded points - a weapon used for hacking and slicing, not piercing. A shallow indentation, the fuller, ran along the centre of the blade upon both sides and served to lighten the weight of the weapon."

Second is Pattern Welded Swords, which discusses a fascinating aspect of the lost--but recently rediscovered--art of swordmaking. Pattern welding inspired the following excerpts from an Anglo-Saxon poem and a Roman historian and monk:

"The hard-edged blade with its woven patterns quivers and trembles; grasped with terrible sureness, it flashes into changing hues." [Anglo-Saxon poem Elene]

"The central part of their blades, cunningly hollowed out, appears to be grained with tiny snakes, and here such varied shadows play that you would believe the shining metal to be interwoven with many colours." [Cassiodorus, Description of a sword of the Teutonic Warni tribe]