Ancient German Weapons

“Iron does not abound in Germany, if we may judge from the weapons in general use.  Swords and large lances are seldom seen.  The soldier grasps his javelin, or, as it is called in their language, his fram—­an instrument tipped with a short and narrow piece of iron, sharply pointed, and so commodious that, as occasion requires, he can manage it in close engagement or in distant combat.  With this and a shield the cavalry are completely armed.  The infantry have an addition of missive weapons.  Each man carries a considerable number, and being naked, or, at least, not encumbered by his light mantle, he throws his weapon to a distance almost incredible.  A German pays no attention to the ornament of his person; his shield is the object of his care, and this he decorates with the liveliest colours.  Breastplates are uncommon.  In a whole army you will not see more than one or two helmets.  Their horses have neither swiftness nor elegance, nor are they trained to the various evolutions of the Roman cavalry.  To advance in a direct line, or wheel suddenly to the right, is the whole of their skill, and this they perform in so compact a body that not one is thrown out of his rank.  According to the best estimate, the infantry comprise the national strength, and, for that reason, always fight intermixed with the cavalry.  The flower of their youth, able by their vigour and activity to keep pace with the movements of the horse, are selected for this purpose, and placed in the front of the lines.  The number of these is fixed and certain:  each canton sends a hundred, from that circumstance called Hundreders by the army.  The name was at first numerical only:  it is now a title of honour.  Their order of battle presents the form of a wedge.  To give ground in the heat of action, provided you return to the charge, is military skill, not fear or cowardice.  In the most fierce and obstinate engagement, even when the fortune of the day is doubtful, they make it a point to carry off their slain.  To abandon their shield is a flagitious crime.  The person guilty of it is interdicted from religious rites and excluded from the assembly of the state.  Many who survived their honour on the day of battle have closed a life of ignominy by a halter.”

Teutonic Customs

The kings of this rude but warlike folk were elected by the suffrages of the nobility, and their leaders in battle, as was inevitable with such a people, were chosen by reason of their personal prowess.  The legal functions were exercised by the priesthood, and punishments were thus held to be sanctioned by the gods.  Among this barbaric people the female sex was held as absolutely sacred, the functions of wife and mother being accounted among the highest possible to humanity, and we observe in ancient accounts of the race that typically Teutonic conception of the woman as seer or prophetess which so strongly colours early Germanic literature.  Women, indeed, in later times, when Christianity had nominally conquered Paganism, remained as the sole conservators of the ancient Teutonic magico-religious lore, and in the curtained recesses of dark-timbered halls whiled away the white hours of winter by the painful spelling out of runic characters and the practice of arts which they were destined to convey from the priests of Odin and Thor to the witches of medieval days.