pallas_athena: (Default)
pallas_athena ([personal profile] pallas_athena) wrote2009-09-24 07:35 pm

Gold in them there hills

Deep in darkness    as dragon's dwelling
Hidden under hill    lay heaped the hoard, 
Battle-gear    brightly gleaming.
Sword-hilts splendid,    serpent-spiraled,
Helms and horns    and handles to hold,
Gold to grace    the graves of the great.
Silent it slumbered    as centuries passed.
Then a carl came,    keen and cunning,
The dark earth delving    with deft detector, 
Singer of spell-song,    seer into stone.


Shiny pictures here,
explanation by a British Museum bod here.

I love the way the BBC keep referring to the find as a "hoard," as if it had been found with the bones of a dragon coiled possessively over it. Attempts to interview the finder were unsuccessful as he seemed to have disappeared, along with one of the hoard's less significant items, reportedly a small inscribed gold ring...

[identity profile] nineveh-uk.livejournal.com 2009-09-24 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Well I suppose that hoard is in fact a technical term, though whether this lot meets the technical definition I don't know. But I think I'm going to Birmingham on Saturday.