it is said,

"Hē þǣm bāt-wearde bunden golde
swurd gesealde."[97]

And when Beowulf returned to the land of the Geats and presented to
Hygelac and Hygd the gifts he had received from Hrothgar,

"Hēt ðā eorla hlēo in gefetian,
heaðo-rōf cyning, Hrēðles lāfe
golde gegyrede; næs mid Gēatum ðā
sinc-māðþum sēlra on sweordes hād;
þæt hē on Bīowulfes bearm ālegde."[98]

It is not said that either of these swords had a golden hilt; but it is
plain that it was not unusual to represent a sword that possessed
excellent qualities as being ornamented with gold, and the hilt is the
part of the sword that naturally lends itself to ornamentation. Other
examples of richly ornamented swords are King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
whose "pommel and haft were all of precious stones";[99] Roland's sword,
Durendal, which had a golden hilt;[100] and the sword of Frothi II,
which also had a golden hilt.[101]

The fact, therefore, that, both in regard to the giant-sword in
_Beowulf_ and King Hrolf's sword in the saga, the hilt is said to be
golden proves nothing as to the identity of these two swords.

And when, both in the term "gylden hilt" and in the word
"Gullinhjalti," the hilt of the sword is made prominent, it is due, in
the one instance, to the fact that nothing but the hilt remains; in the