Dwarves
Here is as far as I got during my Shotley Bridge history book research:
Celts around the North Sea, millennia bCe, claimed they learned their forging science from "The Hidden One": an underworld god. This science continued to be used in Briton, first by Vikings, then Anglo-Saxons, until around 1066.
Those skills had also migrated south and, c.500bCe, they were producing superior blades in Toledo, Spain using the process known as 'Billet Welding' i.e. forging together different metals to create neither breaking nor deforming blades.
Those Toledo swords ended-up, via Carthage, in Roman hands, following the Punic wars, which were 264 bCe onwards.
I assumed the Celts were doing the same thing in Hallstatt so they also ended-up in Roman hands, but my history is not great... actually, nobody's is when put to the ever evolving tests.
Of course, none of this answers my question regarding Norman Briton's lack of ability.
Why has nobody been here before me?
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