The production and significance of Swords in the Anglo-Saxon period

The sword is the most revolutionary and iconic weapon of medieval warfare. Swords were the ultimate weapon of the battlefield, and also had a significant amount of symbolism amongst all of Medieval Europe. Swords were given to knights to fight in combat and as representation power. There was an inseparable bond between the knight and his sword, and it never left his side. Knights were even buried with their swords. You would also never see a king without his sword. A Kings sword symbolized his rulership of the land, and that he is ready to defend himself from enemies. In literature, swords were always included in stories as having an important role of symbolism and were usually important enough to have names or even unnatural powers, such as the sword hrunting in the story of Beowulf. Hrunting has the magical quality of never being able to be broken by anyone that wields it. As for sword development, Swords were manufactured through many different techniques of grinding. Sword manufacturing dates back to the Anglo-Saxon time period, and has been seen in poems such as the battle of Brunanburh. Swords were usually made of metal, and were shaped to have a sharp point and a hilt to safely be held. The most common way that swords were sharped were through grindstones. A Grindstone was a large disk-shaped sharp stone that was attached to cranks that could be used to spin the stone quickly. A sword would be pressed against the stone while it is rotated, and the metal would become sharpened. The grindstone rubbing against the sword would cause metal to shave off into a fine point, which added the sharpness. The sword was then treated with whetstone to produce an edge on the sword and smooth over rough edges. An alternative method for sharpening swords was by using millstone. This method is sometimes referred to as mylenscearpum, which translates to mill-sharpened. For this method, the sword was placed on a surface and a millstone was rubbed against it, which filed down the metal of the sword kind of like how a nail filer works.
  
 manufacturing and sword sharpening in 9th century

This picture shows an example of both of these sharpening methods in a mill-camp constructed specifically to create swords. The bottom right is the grindstone method and the bottom left is a sword being filed with millstone. The mass creation of swords this way really had an impact on all of medieval Europe. Swords were decisive in battles, and soon became a staple of warfare in the middle ages.

Swords will always be remembered throughout history not just as a weapon, but as a symbol of the rich history of medieval Europe. for centuries after its time, the sword was always used in some way, and is a weapon that will truly never die off.