The Perfect Sword. Forging the Dark Ages

Abstract

This is a thought-providing account of swords and warfare in early medieval Britain. The book features 16 chapters separated into three parts. Part I, Evolution of Swords, has a general chapter on swords followed by three period-specific chapters (Prehistory, Iron Age and Medieval) tracing forms and development. The six chapters in Part II, Creating the Bamburgh Sword, move through the process of forging a sword, from gathering iron into the smithing process, to fashioning hilt and scabbard. Here Gething and Albert work from the seventhcentury pattern-welded blade found in 1960 excavations at Bamburgh Castle by Brian Hope-Taylor – the rare object had gone missing until rediscovered in Hope-Taylor’s garage after his death in 2001. Part III, The Sword in Action, also of six chapters, contextualises swords in early medieval British society. The book is well produced by Birlinn. There are two maps at the front of the volume, locating key sites named through the text in Britain and Ireland c 650, and showing the Northumberland coast between Bamburgh and Lindisfarne. Other illustrations in greyscale primarily depict swords or their typologies, while a section of full-colour plates look especially at the Bamburgh artefact. While the chosen illustrations are appropriate, now and then the text merited additional images, for example when discussing the Franks Casket, gold-and-garnet decoration or sword pyramids. First and foremost, The Perfect Sword is a public-facing book for general readers, utilising the Bamburgh sword as the central focus of the work. The text is highly accessible and peppered with historical episodes, explanations and comparanda that make for an engaging narrative. Due credit is given to scholarly work, and the names of those scholars or the research themes discussed can be found in the index, as no referencing system is used. Key topics and conclusions of research are brought to the attention of the reader to better understand the Bamburgh sword specifically, and swords more generally. Perhaps of greatest value to scholars are the descriptions of experimental archaeology, including smithing, and the observations offered on how swords were used and fit within early medieval Britain. Such gems are scattered throughout the text.