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248
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XVI.
gold, some even of solid silver—a new feature in the
history of metallic art. Then we have shields and
helmets, few in number—for iron soon rusts and perishes
—and some small remains of chain armour. Formerly
this kind of armour was imagined to have been first
introduced into Europe from the East at the time of the
Crusades; but a discovery, made last year, in the
neighbourhood of Flensborg, of several pieces of chain mail in
a morass, together with coins of the Emperor Vespasian
much worn, and others of Commodus fresh as though
from the mint, will, it is supposed, set this question at rest.
The relics of a battle-field discovered at Allesø, in the
island of Funen, show that even in these early days the
cleanliness and creature comfort of the Scandinavian
soldier were not unattended to, for side by side with
broken javelin and battered helmet lay numerous combs
of bone, good sized and strong.
The bronze of the Iron age is far inferior in design,
execution, and quality, to that of the preceding period:
a few, very few articles of stone, still occur in the “ finds.”
Of bronze—or we must now rather term it brass—
we have a bunch of keys of simple design, like the
housebreaker’s picklock, strung on a ring; others more
advanced and intricate: diadems, too, one massive and
fastening behind with a pivot cross. This may possibly
have adorned the helmet of some warrior; but I rather
imagine it to have been a woman’s ornament,
uncomfortable if you will, perched up probably on a cushion or
plait of hair, in the style of the Roman Empresses—for
these Northern beauties boasted and still boast of great
capillary attraction. It could have been, however, scarcely
less ponderous and headachy than the diamond fenders
by which we are still constantly dumfounded at the
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