janken myrdal Weapons. A sword was the most common single item in this category, and swords were loaded with strong symbolic significance. Anna Waśko has shown that they were only bequeathed by men to other men of the nobility, often a close heir or a soldier in the testator’s retinue.30 Armours or equipment for war horses (including the horse) could be given to any man but normally not to women. They could moreover be donated to clerics or clerical institutions, but then it is often stated that they could be sold. A hauberk or a plate harness had a rather high value, and a war horse could cost more than a hundred marks. For some of the most expensive horses it is stated that they should head the funeral procession, but nevertheless also these horses should be sold.31 In other European surveys of personal property in wills, armour is less common, perhaps due to the urban context.32 It could also be that the focus on weapons in Sweden was an archaic feature. Sheehan showed that English testaments from the 13th century had many fewer weapons than in the Anglo-Saxon period, though a new study of English testaments provides examples of a sword given to close male relatives.33 Livestock: generally. As already mentioned, farm animals are ubiquitous within the large testaments. In an article based on the data collected for my dissertation, I investigated the relation between testators and testatrices, on the one hand, and on the other hand the legatees, focusing on the gender distinction.34 A special tradition was to grant a cow to every church in parishes where the testator had landed estates. Cows could be a part of the inventory a parish priest took over, and could even become church property. Church cows were rented out, and the donated cow of course could also be sold. Besides being used for food and leather, cows could be donated 369 30 Waśko 1996, p. 134; Beckman 1954, p. 242 on bequests of swords as “vigerarv”: a gift related to the duty to take revenge. 31 Waśko 1996, pp. 128–134 on armoury and horses as gifts to be sold; SDHK4355 is an example of an expensive horse used in the funeral procession. 32 Baur 1989, pp. 222–223 with a table of the most common objects in Konstanz; Epstein 1984, p. 107 for Genoa; Howell 1996, pp. 30–32 for Douai. 33 Sheehan 1963, p. 284; Teague 2013, pp. 173, 215. 34 Myrdal 2008, pp. 65–68.
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