Excepting for a few specimens found in peat mosses and burial mounds, we are indebted to monkish chronicles for all our knowledge regarding the weapons of the “dark ages” of our era, together with a few glimpses and suggestions obtained from the “Sagas” handed down, partly _vivâ voce_, from generation to generation. There are many errors in the best classifications of arms, and many weapons in museums and private collections scheduled as belonging to the “iron age” are really of mediæval origin; still, this state of things has vastly improved of late years, and some of the newer museum catalogues leave but little to be desired, having been compiled by men who have made a close study of the subject, and who have had the advantages of ample opportunities for comparison in their surroundings. Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius, gives some account of the arms of the Franks of the sixth century, whose weapons were the sword, the axe or francisca, and the spear. The ordinary battering-ram and the testudo, which was a movable shed containing a ram, were in use in this century, as well as a machine for boring walls. The sources of information available from the seventh to the end of the tenth century are very scanty as far as Britain and the Germanic peoples are concerned; but more has been preserved relating to the Franks, a race also of Germanic origin, whose country, more than any other during the “dark ages,” seems to have been imbued with the continuity of Roman methods and traditions. This was indeed a barbarous nation, with the corrupt remnants of the Roman Empire grafted on to it; and the Frankish kingdom only became consolidated some time after the introduction of Christianity, which provided a much needed common platform in the teachings and example of the monastic orders. The monks wrote and preserved the manuscripts, without which the “dark ages” of our era would have left but little trace behind them. Double axes and the lance or javelin appear in the seventh century, and indeed up to the age of chivalry the weapons of the ruling class of the more civilised nations of Europe continued to be the axe, the lance, and above all, the sword; while those of the yeomanry or peasantry were the bow, the sling, and the fustibal or staff sling. The axes differed in shape and length, some blades curving like a halbard, of which it is evidently the prototype, while others were long and narrow. The form of the lance or javelin varied greatly, and some were barbed. Two kinds of swords prevailed--the true sword and a shorter weapon. The true sword was worn by leaders only; it was flat, double-edged and sharp, two and a half to three feet in length, with an obtusely pointed blade. The shorter sword was in general use, also the battle-axe and a dagger.