Mr. Rolfe had the good fortune to become the possessor of a sword-pommel thus "rightly marked." It is of silver, and was found at Ash-by-Sandwich. The runes occupy one side only of the pommel, the other having zigzag and triangular ornaments. This curious relic has been figured in the "Archæological Album," "Pagan Saxondom," and in Mr. Wright's "Celt, Roman, and Saxon." Professor Thomsen of Copenhagen informs the writer of these pages that, in Denmark, swords of the latest pagan period have been found, having runic inscriptions formed by letters of iron let into the iron blade. In the Tower collection may be seen a sword of somewhat later date, in which also is exhibited this curious practice, of inserting letters of iron into an iron blade. Among the swords found in Ireland, attributed to the Scandinavian settlers in that country, instances have occurred of inscriptions "in Latin letters[72]." In the Northern Sagas, frequent mention is made of the swords of their heroes being marked with runes; and the evidences we have adduced are of no small value in shewing the correctness of these writings as regards the ordinary usages of the time. A further distinction was conferred on the swords of the great heroes of the North;--they were honoured with particular names. In the Wilkina Saga we read of "the sword called _Gramr_, which is the best of all swords," with which Sigurdr slays the cunning smith, Mimer; and again, of the weapon named _Naglhringr_, obtained for Dietrich of Bern, by the dwarf Alpris, (c. xvi.) Vermund the Wise armed his son Uffe with the brand _Skrep_, none other being proportioned to his strength. That of Rolf Krage was called _Skrofnung_. In "Beowulf" (canto xxi.), we have "the hilted knife named _Hrunting_,"-- "wæs þam hæft-mece Hrunting nama;" whose "edge was iron stained with poisonous twigs, hardened in gore." And in canto xxvi. of the same poem we learn that-- "_Nægling_, old sword and gray of hue, False in the fray, in splinters flew."