Didn't I hear somewhere that the 'swords' were originally used for scraping the sweat & muck off the backs of pit-ponies, much newer occupation than the pagan rites of fertility?

And let's remember chaps that the oldest pagan rites were supposedly to revere Mother Earth & all her offspring. I can't really see where bits of crafted metal would come into that, whereas shaking about bits of cloth or branches certainly wood(sic.) ;)