Anglo-Saxon sword

Many different weapons were created and used in Anglo-Saxon England between the fifth and eleventh centuries. Spears were the most common weapon, and were used for piercing and throwing (in which case the spear would be called a javelin). Other commonplace weapons included the sword, axe, and knife—bows and arrows, as well as slings, were not frequently used by the Anglo-Saxons. For defensive purposes, the shield was the most common item used by warriors, although mail and helmets were sometimes used.

Weapons also had symbolic value for the Anglo-Saxons, apparently having strong connections to gender and social status. Weapons were commonly included as grave goods in the early Anglo-Saxon burials. The vast majority of these weapons were buried in male graves, but there were some exceptions. In a non-funerary context, weapons were occasionally deposited in the ground or near rivers. However, the establishment of a literate Christian clergy in Anglo-Saxon England resulted in the production of several textual sources which describe weapons and their usage in battle. Some of these literary sources include the poems Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon.

The early pagan Anglo-Saxons left ample physical evidence of their lives as a result of their practice of burying their dead with grave goods, yet they left no written record; once converted to Christianity and given the opportunity to record their lives with the written word they disdained the pagan practices of their forebears, burying their dead without material possessions. As a consequence, we are repeatedly driven to interpret artefacts from the pagan period on the basis of much later written records.

Evidence for arms and armour in Anglo-Saxon England derives from three types of sources — archaeological, textual, and illustrative — all of which raise different interpretation issues and are not evenly distributed in a chronological manner. Much archaeological evidence exists for weaponry from the early Anglo-Saxon period because of the widespread inclusion of weapons as grave goods. According to historian Guy Halsall, the "deposition of grave-goods was a ritual act, wherein weaponry could symbolise age, ethnicity or rank; at various times and places a token weapon might be used to illustrate such concepts." In addition, some late Anglo-Saxon weapons have been found at riversides. Pollington proposed that this was either a return to the prehistoric practice of "deposition in sacred waters" or a reflection of the fact that battles were being increasingly fought at fords, which is confirmed by contemporary sources such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

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