Swords figured prominently in the art, archeology, and literature of early medieval Northern Europe--so much so that it would be a fine example of Germanic understatement to claim that swords were not unimportant in early medieval England and Scandinavia. Recent archaeological developments have prompted increased attention to their study: the discovery in 2009 of the Staffordshire Hoard, an unprecedented assemblage of early Anglo-Saxon metalwork dominated by sword fittings, was followed in 2012 by the discovery of a ninth-century hoard also containing sword fittings in Bedale, North Yorkshire. New methodologies for studying material culture, including advances in three-dimensional x-ray computed tomography (CT) and a burgeoning interest in new materialisms have further catalyzed fresh inquiry into the dense meanings that accrued to swords in early medieval thought. Sue Brunning's impressive interdisciplinary study of swords in England and Scandinavia between the fifth and eleventh centuries sheds light on a topic that is both important and timely.
The earliest major sword studies were concerned mainly with archeological typologies and with sorting weapons into chronological types based on shared characteristics. Prior scholarship also tended to focus on continental swords, with an emphasis on the materials and methods deployed in their production and distribution. Brunning takes a more holistic approach, synthesizing insights from medieval art, archaeology and literature to reveal the complex role that swords played in identity formation, ritual behavior, and social relationships. She argues that the social and symbolic significance of swords transcended their use as weapons and, further, that swords offer a valuable opportunity for reassessing modern views of medieval warfare and "warrior identity." One of the main goals of her monograph is to counter the long-standing idea that the sword's primary symbolic function was to reflect elite social status. Brunning contends that "while the physical ownership of swords was restricted, recognition of their purpose and significance was not" (157), and that swords conveyed a myriad of different types of status, including religious authority, political standing, and mythical power, rather than simply military worth. Finally, she demonstrates that perceptions of swords and status were regionally specific: for instance, "in Scandinavia, swords often communicated 'warrior' and in England they communicated 'elite'," a phenomenon that, as Brunning suggests, may reflect wider sword ownership and accessibility among Scandinavians (152).
The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe is arranged by type of evidence or medium of expression. The first three chapters treat, respectively, art, archaeology, and text, while chapter 4 provides a detailed discussion of inter-source parallels, with close attention to "living swords"--swords that exhibit traits typically found in animate objects, humans, or animals (e.g., agency or emotion). Swords are the most carefully illustrated weapon in the extant corpus of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian art. Chapter 1, "Image," provides a broad iconographic study of sword imagery drawn from published and publicly accessible resources. Brunning's wide-ranging iconographic survey--encompassing "metalwork, stone sculpture, carvings, manuscripts, embroideries and coins, in both secular and religious contexts" (18)--reveals a number of striking patterns. For example, early medieval artists seem relatively unconcerned with characterizing scabbards or the finer features of blades while depicting hilts in conspicuous detail, leading Brunning to conclude that "swords were not seen as generic items but as distinctive individuals, recognised primarily by the features of their hilts" (26). Many images appear to show swords that were old and outdated by the time of their illustration. A case in point is the tri-lobed sword pommel, which was fashionable from the early eighth to late tenth centuries, but is nevertheless found in at least ninety images from eleventh-century art. Brunning points out that the vast majority of these outmoded weapons are depicted in the hands of figures with some form of special status, such as kings (e.g., Cnut on the frontispiece to the Liber Vitae of New Minster, Winchester), major Biblical figures (e.g., Saul, Abraham, Moses, David, Joshua), the angels of God, and even Christ himself. She contends that traits such as authority, power, and success were embodied in the ownership of old swords and, more generally, that particular sword motifs became part of the visual language for conveying identity and personal status and expressing a range of warrior identities. Warriors who fought with swords, for instance, surpassed those who fought with other weapons, such as spears or axes.
Sword symbolism was not, as Brunning argues, limited to those who used them for fighting. Swords were also important symbols for women, albeit with an emphasis on their protective rather than combative qualities. This chapter includes an impressive discussion of gender, with an eye toward understanding the hundreds of miniature weapon-shaped amulets from the sixth to eleventh centuries found in female graves, both in England and Scandinavia. These small objects, which take the shape of both swords and shields, were worn as pendants, sewn to clothing or suspended from belts, and were probably, as Brunning suggests, used as apotropaic devices, designed to protect their wearer from harm or ill-fortune. Actual sword-wielding women, by contrast, such as those found on the Ardre picture-stone from Gotland, the Oseberg embroideries, or the Anglo-Saxon Psychomachia manuscripts, tend to be extraordinary figures, such as Valkyries, Amazons, or personified Vices and Virtues. As Brunning argues, "The abiding message from art is that swords and femininity intersected only within the extraordinary worlds of myth and mind" (51).
Chapter 2, "Archaeology," focuses on swords in funerary contexts based on a sample of inhumation burials from sites across England and parts of Scandinavia. Brunning points out that archeological swords are rarely recovered as stray finds, suggesting that they were hardly ever lost, discarded, or left behind. Rather, the majority of them have been found in contexts with a marked ritual flavor: bodies of water such as rivers, streams and bogs; and burials, both inhumations and cremations. Many of these swords appear to be worn, modified, or refurbished, indicating that they had been deliberately maintained by their owners and, further, that their wielders interacted with them frequently, not just on the battlefield or on special occasions. The close relationship between sword and wielder is further suggested, as Brunning demonstrates, by the fact that when buried, swords were almost always placed in direct physical contact with the body.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Brunning's analysis of archeological swords is her discussion of the Staffordshire Hoard, which contains hundreds of pommel caps, guard plates, scabbard fittings and other sword-related paraphernalia. Although individual sword fittings had been found before, the amount of precious metals found in the hoard's contents raises unresolved questions about its composition and the circumstances of its burial. While acknowledging that this hoard's contents may have been destined for re-use or recycling, Brunning also mobilizes her notion of the entwined identities of swords and their owners to propose a different, somewhat darker interpretation. She points out that during the seventh century, aggressive Mercian kings, such as Penda, were at war with surrounding kingdoms. The numerous swords and sword parts found in the Hoard could, Brunning suggests, comprise tribute or battle spoils seized during these conflicts and "reflect an attempt to obliterate a defeated foe--disfiguring, dishonouring and tearing apart sword and owner alike, ...and in so doing, conferring a final and permanent defeat" (87).
Chapter 3, "Text," examines depictions of swords in early medieval written sources, including histories, chronicles, poetry, inscriptions, letters, religious texts, laws, charters and wills. Brunning considers texts composed in Latin and vernacular languages (i.e., Old English and Old Norse) and written in the runic and Roman alphabets. She notes that detailed discussions of swords tend to be confined to vernacular poetry and that these textual depictions follow a number of patterns. For example, swords tend to be valued in direct relation to their age. Likewise, old swords are often paired with high status figures--a link exemplified in the rise in social standing experienced by Beowulf's sentry when he receives an ancient weapon as a reward. Indeed swords were used as a kind of poetic shorthand in order both to distinguish warriors from civilians and to demarcate their military worth. As Brunning astutely observes, the deteriorating reputation of Beowulf's retainers over the course of the poem is signaled by changes in their armament: Beowulf's men fight with swords when defending their warlord from Grendel but carry only spears after abandoning him to the Dragon. In the latter portion of this chapter, Brunning turns to the few sword-wielding women featured in Old English poetry and skaldic verse. She examines, for instance, the Old Testament heroine in the anonymous Old English verse Judith, who famously decapitates the drunken Assyrian general Holofernes with his own sword, thereby saving her people from certain genocide. Brunning contends that "the poet highlights Judith's unconventionality via heroic diction usually applied to male protagonists: a subtle reminder that this sword-bearing woman is part of an 'other' world" (130-131). Yet Brunning's discussion of Judith glosses quickly over the fact that the Old English poem ends with an arresting image of Judith bedecked in Holofernes' armor and brandishing his sword, a significant departure from the biblical account, in which the heroine eschews (rather than accepts) Holofernes' war gear. Given Brunning's argument regarding the sword's ability to reflect changes in an individual's social standing, I would have liked to see a more sustained discussion of this poem.
Each of the first three chapters of The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe contributes to an overall argument regarding the centrality of swords in early medieval culture. Brunning moves agilely across art, archaeology, and texts and identifies "one message across the boundaries traditionally imposed between these sources...swords were the focus of deep and complex feelings, emotions and perceptions" (139). The final chapter of her monograph focuses on an area in which evidence from these different disciplines converge: the idea of the "living sword." As Brunning writes, "Art, archaeology and texts all present swords as 'person-like' artefacts with external and internal qualities that echo those of human beings" (139). For example, early medieval art and archeological survivals underscore the highly individualized physical traits of swords that enabled onlookers to recognize them by sight, much as one might recognize a human face by its unique features. Likewise, Old English poems "teem with swords that have names, personalities, partnerships and quotable histories," while skaldic verse and Scandinavian-influenced images frequently depict swords as living, animated beings, independent actors, or as otherwise cognate with humans, animals and natural forces (150). Brunning argues that the idea of the living sword transcended cultural boundaries, suggesting that it was part of a broader set of attitudes that were shared across northern Europe. She contends that no other war-gear was viewed in quite the same way and speculates that the special "person-like" qualities of swords may derive, in part, from the intimate relationships and close interactions between swords and their wielders, both on and off the battlefield.
Swords were extraordinary among the weapons used by early medieval warriors. Whereas spears and arrows doubled as hunting weapons, and axes were related conceptually to tools, swords were designed primarily to kill other human beings. In spite of their unequivocal function as weapons of war, Brunning nevertheless demonstrates that the social and symbolic significance of swords extended far beyond the realm of militancy. Indeed, one of the most valuable aspects of The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe is its capacity to help scholars nuance their views of medieval warfare, particularly the "narrow, conspicuously modern, definition of a 'warrior' as an adult male who participated in fighting" (8). As Brunning contends, "There is no reason to believe that the modern understanding of 'warrior' was shared in the early medieval North. The diversity of individuals buried with swords implies that 'warrior' was a social status, identity, and perhaps even an ideology, rather than a mere social function" (145). Given the central role that warfare and weaponry played across the vast array of texts, artifacts, and traditions we think of as comprising medieval culture, Brunning's careful interdisciplinary study of swords in the early medieval North will interest scholars from a range of fields, including literature, history, art history, archaeology, material culture, military studies, and the anthropology of violence. Scholars whose work intersects with new materialisms will also find much to admire in Brunning's balanced investigation of the complex interactions and likenesses between swords and human beings. By combining good judgment with ample learning in a variety of disciplines, Brunning has produced an important contribution to knowledge that is as challenging as it is rigorous.