"Fragmento" is a poem of 26 lines originally published in 1964.

Book is 38 pp.; embossed pages. Siete poemas sajones / Seven Saxon Poems is a deluxe, double-folio volume illustrated with "impressions" (uncolored embossing in the paper) by Pomodoro, who also designed the relief images in brass with which the book's front cover and case are fitted. The impressions are slightly abstract but evoke artifacts and other aspects of early medieval English material culture. The book contains—in addition to "Fragmento," "Composición escrito en un exemplar de le gesta de Beowulf," and their translations—the following poems also relating to early medieval English language, literature, and culture: "Al iniciar el estudio de la gramática anglosajona," "Un sajon (a.d. 944)" [sic, for 449], "Hengest cyning," "A un poeta sajón" (I), "A un poeta sajón" (II), and translations of each, as well as a brief introductory note by Borges on his "love of Saxondom" (9).

From the limitation statement: "This edition, limited to one hundred copies numbered in arabic and twenty in roman, was printed on a Washington handpress by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds in 1974 at the Plain Wrapper Press in Verona, Italy. The type is Horizon Light and was handset. The paper, dampened before printing, was handmade at the Richard de Bas Mill in Ambert, France" (note in back, beneath which Borges and Pomodoro had signed the copy seen [no. 22]).

The poem begins:

Una espada,
Una espada de hierro forjada en el frío del alba,
Una espada con runas
Que nadie podrá desoír ni descifrar del todo,
una espada del Báltico que será cantada en Nortumbria, (18; sentence continues)

And ends:

Una espada para la mano
Que ganará un reino y perderá un reino,
Una espada para la mano
Que derribará la selva de lanzas.
Una espada para la mano de Beowulf. (18)

Not in MO2.

BAM (arabic no. 22 of XX + 100, in the Special Collections of Texas A&M University).