Fig. 798.—⅙ real size. Sword with runic letters on the blade.—Norway. ] Iron Swords. Whetstones were used from very early times to sharpen their weapons or tools of iron, for these are quite common in the finds. [Illustration: Fig. 799.—Sharpening stone, found with 108 Roman coins (Vitellius-Commodus), with small bits of bones, under a stone which was part of a double circle of stone.—Götland. ] [Illustration: Fig. 800.—Sharpening stone encased with bronze. ⅔ real size.—Upland. ] [Illustration: Fig. 801.—Real size. ] [Illustration: Real size. Fig. 802.—Buckle for belt, plated with silver and gilt, ornamented with coloured glass, found by the side of a skeleton, with fragments of a sword and spear-heads.—Upland. ] Silver Ornaments for Sword Scabbards. [Illustration: Fig. 803.—Bronze button to sword-hilt, ⅔ real size; enamelled in blue, white, and red, with the centre originally enamelled: found in a round tumulus with several ornaments of swords of bronze, a shield-boss of bronze, plaqué with silver, &c.—Norway. ] [Illustration: Fig. 804. ] [Illustration: Fig. 805. ] [Illustration: Fig. 806. ] [Illustration: Fig. 807. ] Ornaments of silver for scabbard of sword, partly gilt and niellé; found in a tumulus, with sepulchral chamber of wood, with the following objects:—Among the principal objects were, a spiral gold bar used as money, two gold rings, four clay urns, four or five wooden buckets with bronze fixtures, bronze fixtures for a drinking horn, bronze fibula inlaid with silver, pieces of a leather belt with bronze traps, a large mosaic glass bead, fragments of a two-edged sword, three shield-bosses, fragments of garments and furs, fragments of a balance, sharpening stone, &c. Real size.—Norway. [Illustration: Fig. 808.—Ornament for scabbard. Real size.—Upland. ] [Illustration: Fig. 809.—Ornament of gold for mouth of scabbard; real size.—Vestre Slidre, Norway. Weight, nearly 2½ oz. ] [Illustration: Fig. 810. ] [Illustration: Fig. 811. ] Gold ornaments in filigree for sword-handle, found with the neck-ring. Real size.—Thureholm, Södermanland, Sweden. [Illustration: Fig. 812.—Norway, real size. Silver mounting to a scabbard.—Horseus. It lay under a large clayurm filled with bones, together with a damaged double-edged sword, spear-point, arrow-point, shield-boss, all of iron, fragments of iron shears, and mountings to a drinking horn of bronze. ] Swords seem to have been prized above all other weapons; occasionally their genealogy was carefully kept. Some swords caused death every time they inflicted a wound, from which we must infer that their blades had been poisoned, either during or after the forging. [Illustration: