Viking Sword with an History

[Tordenskiold1721]

Reading the article about the Viking sword find and it's plausible history is interesting in it's self:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...h-battles.html

What I find the most interesting is the wire wrap and what looks like turk's heads on such an early sword in Northern Europe.

Anyone that has any good insight on wire wrapping this early in Northern Europe on sword hilts? Imported?

.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you so much for posting this exciting sword! It seems it has been quite a month for finds and publishing of earlier ones.

As the article indicates it seems most likely this sword is not actually Norwegian though a grave find located in Norway. I agree with the suggestion this is more in line with Anglo-Saxon types and corresponds to similar forms such as in Oakeshott (1960, pp.133-36, fig. 57) which describes them as type V.
This type is considered to have been in use c. 875-950 AD, and the curved guard and peaked pommel according to Wheeler (1927) the form itself is regarded as English, Abingdon form (Ellis-Davidson, #67, plate X, p.55).

With regard to the 'turks heads', it seems that this is likely also English affectation, as seen in an example of 10th c. also a Thames find, which has remains of silver plaited wire circles which may have once held the leather grip cover. ("Swords of the Viking Age", Lee Jones & Ian Pearce, 2002, p.104).
Apparantly the swords of the Vikings were decorated by the smiths rather than by jewelers (Oakeshott, p.139) and the English swords were likely to have far more embellishment of this kind.

The spiral and geometric decoration seem to relate most likely to the complexities of Celtic and associated symbolism, while the other characters seem to be so as well rather than to be runes. Perhaps the pictograph of a hand holding a cross might represent some sort of blessing or achievement in the Church?

While in a pagan graveyard, it does not seem that such associations would be relevant in the case of a celebrated warrior or powerful figure.

[Tordenskiold1721]

Thank you for your good input and identifying the sword as Anglo Saxon. It is as you point out clear that this hilt is not of Norwegian late Viking age origin.

This type of hilt can not be found in Dr. Petersen typology. Petersen Devised the original hilt typology of 26 Viking types that is still widely used across Europe for classifying and dating Viking swords. Based on about 1,700 finds of Viking swords in Norway, this typology remains the most commonly used. Since 1919 we have found a little more that 2500 Viking swords in Norway. This gives us a wider scope of variations and makes it easier to date the Viking swords.

In 1927 Wheeler Created a simplified typology of Viking sword hilts based on finds from Britain. This gave additional insight into the use of the Viking Sword.

In 1960 Oakeshott added two more types to Wheelers typology bridging the gap between the Viking Age and the later medieval sword. This is critical for those with particular interest in Viking swords, as some high quality Viking blades was often used on hilts from 1100 - 1200. Norway still held large territories in Scotland up until 1266. Making the real history slightly different than the simplification of "Pirate raiding started at Lindinsfarne in 793 and ended at Hastings in 1066......"

Anyway, I am just mentioning the above so that we are all on the same page regarding your reference to Oakeshott and his wider scope of study of swords than Petersen and Wheeler and how to bridge the three when using on of them as reference.

I think the Christian symbol on the Anglo Saxon sword found in this Viking Grave is particularly interesting since there is a runic stone below the grave in the same Valley with the text:

"Arnstein raised this stone in memory of Bjor his son. He found death When Canute "went after" England. God is one" (Translated from the Old Norse). The text probably refers two King Canute's conquest of England in 1013-14.

The three words "Good is one" tells us that the reference is to the Christian Good. This again corresponds with what we see on the sword.

It is very rear that swords found in Viking graves or sites can be attributed to specific campaigns, but this Anglo Saxon sword brought home by a Viking to Norway can plausibly be linked to King Knut / Canute's military campaign that lead to the conquest of England and the establishment of the "North sea Empire", Denmark, England, Norway and large parts of Sweden.

https://translate.googleusercontent....8VffdovX_RyKqA

By using google translate this Norwegian article translate into English or any other desirable language:

http://www.fvn.no/lokalt/setesdal/Vi...t-2853277.html

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all and Tordenskiold1721...This is another important thread adding to the last few months haul of vital and excellent additions to Forum... I searched but can only find this reference to wire work on Viking hilts and show below a pommel so decorated...Please see http://www.hurstwic.org/history/arti...hilt_inlay.htm As for Anglo Saxon I add picture below from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...ddfface1ac.jpg

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Tordenskiold1721]

Hello Ibrahiim, Thank you for the very pleasing photos !! I think Jim is right when he identifies the sword hilt as Anglo-Saxon. He also refers to an other contemporary Anglo-Saxon sword find where the grip also has wire wrap. I think Viking grips where mostly wood with leather.

You are right. I did write wire wrapped hilts and some Viking swords hilts are found with richly silver wire inlays. Unfortunately the grips are almost always long gone as on the viking swords below.


I can see your location is Oman. Arabic silver coins are often found in Viking archaeological sites. Regular trade as far as Baghdad is well documented. Relations with the middle east was peaceful trade up until Christianity brought the viking era to an end.

King Sigurd of Norway "the Crusader" went on crusade persuaded by the Pope, "to help" King Baldwin the first of Jerusalem who had some serious military set backs.

Sigurd was probably more motivated by going on "Viking" than crusade but he did the dirty work for the pope that there was no other fighting force in Europe at the time that was capable of successfully undertake with such certain outcome as King Sigurd and his men as they still where conducting battle in the Viking ways:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Crusade

http://thedailybeagle.net/2013/06/08...crusader-king/

[Reventlov]

Hello everyone,
This is a remarkable sword which is very much worthy of discussion, thanks to the original poster for sharing this article! The suggested link with England is new to be and quite interesting. I must say however that it seems to me that only the associated circumstantial evidence (axe, coin, runestone) really support this hypothesis, and I don't see anything intrinsic to the sword itself that would suggest an Anglo-Saxon origin...

The case for Wheeler's type V, corresponding to Petersen's type L, being of uniquely Anglo-Saxon origin is very strong. Examples originate primarily in England naturally, and the Norwegian examples first classified by Petersen frequently bear ornamental details in the characteristically Anglo-Saxon Trewhiddle style. These swords are generally very uniform in appearance; the two examples below illustrate the typical characteristics.



Note that the metalwork is altogether different in character from the Langeid sword. The guard is small and thin, curving closely towards the blade, instead of wide and fan-shaped. The grip also displays the distinctive Anglo-Saxon style of wide ornamental metal bands, not wire wrapping. The pommel is of two-piece construction, as can be clearly seen in the many examples that have lost the upper part of the pommel.


The pommel of the Langeid sword is of one piece only; the construction can be seen in the following x-ray.


The Langeid sword falls into a small group of swords which are generally viewed as a variant of Petersen's type AE due to the very distinctive crossguard. The best known example of this subtype was found in grave in Finland (thought to belong to a woman) and has an identically shaped guard and pommel as the Langeid sword, though the decorative elements are entirely different in character (Urnes style).



http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/...g-valkyrja.htm

The closest analogue to the Langeid sword comes from another site in Norway however... here the ornamental metalwork is of precisely the same style. Notice in particular the identically placed spiral designs. This sword is held in the museum in Oslo, under inventory no. C36640.


The handheld-cross motif on the Langeid sword is apparently unique and very interesting. It may be worth noting that the other type AE swords above are dated to the 11th century, by which time Christianity is taking hold in the North. As Christian and pagan symbols and traditions become intermingled, a cross on a Viking hilt may not seem so out of place...

[Reventlov]

The sword from the Thames (now in the British Museum) mentioned above may have been found in England, but I think it is unlikely to be of Anglo-Saxon manufacture. This sword falls under Petersen's type S. Examples have been found across Europe, from Iceland to Russia, but are most common in Denmark (as a percentage of finds per country).
[Androshchuk, "Vikings and farmers", 2009]



At a minimum, this type is known to have been produced in Gotland, as shown by the discovery of a hoard of incomplete hilts and local-style jewelry.
[Gustafsson, "Viking period metalworking hoard...", 2011]

The surface of the hilt is covered with decorative designs of distinctly Nordic type, perhaps classifiable as being of the late 10th-century Jellinge or Mammen styles. Other type S swords with similar decorations have been found in Norway (C237, shown in Swords of the Viking Age) and near the Danish emporium of Haithabu/Hedeby.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_art#Jellinge_Style

The latter example shares the wire-wrapped grip as the Thames sword. This feature seems to be most common on swords of type S, with other examples coming from Iceland, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia...

Canute himself is depicted bearing a type S sword in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript illustration. Ultimately it may be the Thames sword that has a better claim to a direct link with Canute, but as a Danish import brought to England by one of his high-ranking followers, instead of an acquired local product.

[Tordenskiold1721]

Thank you for your in-depth explanation and additional material that cast light on this very interesting sword Reventlow ! (Christian Detlev Reventlow?)

You show examples of wire wrapping on Viking sword grips, do we agree that we are talking sometime between the end of the 900 hundreds to early period 1000 ?

[Reventlov]

Originally Posted by Tordenskiold1721

Thank you for your in-depth explanation and additional material that cast light on this very interesting sword Reventlow ! (Christian Detlev Reventlow?)

Glad you found it to be of interest! I must confess that my username was actually borrowed from an Isaac Asimov novel long ago...

Originally Posted by Tordenskiold1721

You show examples of wire wrapping on Viking sword grips, do we agree that we are talking sometime between the end of the 900 hundreds to early period 1000 ?

Yes, this definitely seems to be the time-period for this sort of grip. I can offer a dozen or so more examples... At least half are of type-S and greatly resemble the Thames sword; several of the others are of seemingly related types T and Z. These types are not at all common in general, so the correlation seems to be more than mere coincidence.



Now what is even more interesting is that the wire grip also appears on a small number of swords which are of very rare or even unique types. The sword below has a fantastically ornate hilt of cast silver, and must have belonged to a very prestigious (royal?) owner. The sword comes from Dyback in the region of Scania, in Southern Sweden, formerly Danish territory. Note that the lower guard is actually shaped very much like the type-Z sword above, and the lower portion of the "guard" is in fact the mouth of the scabbard which has become fused to the hilt.


It has been suggested that the ornamentation can be linked to the Anglo-Saxon Winchester style, characterized by bushy, leafy, scrollwork designs. So here we may have evidence of Anglo-Saxon gifts or trophies brought home by Vikings, or a product of the Anglo-Danish environment of the Danelaw or the period of Canute's rule over England. The Winchester style is exemplified in the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, dating to around the 960s-80s. Note that this purely Anglo-Saxon product also shows a sword with the curving guard and triangular, two-piece pommel resembling Petersen's type-L.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_art

The upper portion of the pommel of the Dyback sword is lost, but amazingly the corresponding component of another sword of the same type has also been recovered, again in Scania. The metalwork is so similar, it seems surely to be the product of the same artisan.



The wire-wrapped grip occurs again on a couple of swords from Norway of even more unusual typology. The better preserved example is shown below. The sword seems to combine the small curved guard of the Anglo-Saxon type-L with the unusual pommel of the type-AE variants (which strictly speaking does not appear in Petersen's typology). Like the Langeid sword, the pommel seems to be silver plated and decorated with Nordic designs... the clubbed tips of the foliage/tendrils seems to me to be a feature of the Ringerike style, which would suggest a slightly later date for this sword compared to the previously discussed examples.



Classic examples of the Ringerike style appear in the form of several weathervanes from Norway and Sweden. Another example is a runestone recovered from the yard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which dates to reign of Canute. Again, it might be possible to interpret this very rare style of sword as the result of the combining Anglo-Danish influences of the late 10th-early 11th centuries.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking...ingerike_Style

[Tordenskiold1721]

Reventlov: The closest analogue to the Langeid sword comes from another site in Norway however... here the ornamental metalwork is of precisely the same style. Notice in particular the identically placed spiral designs. This sword is held in the museum in Oslo, under inventory no. C36640.

Thanks Reventlov ! Great post and lots of valuable information.

You absolutely are right, One sword almost identical to the Langeid sword was found in Al, Buskerud and is the sword you show with museum reference to Oslo. From what I understand there is two more swords with this hilt found in Denmark and the one in Finalnd that you show, the same sword from Finland is seen below with other Viking and early medieval swords:



The "Langeid swords" was not found when Petersen made his typology in 1919 and is therefore not part of his work. Oakeshott is in reality a copy and paste of Petersen and Wheelers work with an expansion of the scope of swords and time line, so there is nothing new in Oakeshott's work(On Viking swords) that is not in Petersen and Wheeler's work from 1919 and 1927 other than the two medieval swords who bridges the Viking swords with the medieval swords types.

Here is an good article on the Langeid sword for those interested, use google translate and you will get the article in English. The article reveals that the blade has text on both sides:

http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/saml...a-langeid.html

The Axe found in the same grave, with good detail of construction and mounting on shaft:

http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/saml...a-langeid.html

[Reventlov]

Originally Posted by Tordenskiold1721

the same sword from Finland is seen below with other Viking and early medieval swords:

That's a great photo right there! I've seen most/all of those swords photographed individually, but here you can really get a sense for the differences in dimension and proportion. Several of the blades bear interesting inscriptions.

Thanks for the link about the axe also, interesting to see what the described "brass decoration" looks like.

[Tordenskiold1721]

Originally Posted by Reventlov

Thanks for the link about the axe also, interesting to see what the described "brass decoration" looks like.

Brass decoration or reinforcement of the shaft against sword blows or axe strike on the Norwegian battle axe is a complicated subject. The battle axe saw practical use into the middle of the 1600'hundreds in Norway.

Below is some later axes with spiral reinforcement of the haft:




When the spiral brass and iron, and in some rear cases gold reinforcement of the haft was introduced I don't know but I have seen it on a small light Viking axe intended for "fast" use with a single hand.

[Lee]

Here is an old thread with another of these early 17th century Norwegian axes that has a helical bronze band.

One thing interesting about this example is how the haft is curved. This is not warping with age as the curve continues into the iron axehead.

[Reventlov]

On the topic of axes... one found recently in Russia is ornamented with seemingly the same distinctive technique as the Langeid sword. Large surfaces are plated with silver, bordered with herringbone trim.


In contrast, some smaller edge surfaces are decorated in the "opposite" way, with silvery tracery on the iron surface. All the decoration on the Buskerud sword seems to be executed in this way. The decoration of the axe is particularly interesting because it seems to show the trident emblem of the royal Rurik family - a symbol which survives today in the coat of arms of Ukraine.


Examining the pommel of the Buskerud sword, a cross shape can be seen at the left. The central motif is probably a highly abstracted face or mask... a similar design appears on one side of a sword hilt found in Sigtuna, Sweden (I can't find a better example at the moment, but it is a recurring design). It might be a stretch, but with some imagination one can see the curve of an arm connecting the cross and the human face/figure... making an additional similarity with the decoration of the Langeid sword.



http://www.slavorum.org/archaeologis...arks-of-rurik/

[Tordenskiold1721]

Originally Posted by Lee

One thing interesting about this example is how the haft is curved. This is not warping with age as the curve continues into the iron axehead.

You are absolutely right Lee. As the Norwegian battle axe continued to develop from early Viking age trugh the centuries we know that at some time during the 16th century we start getting the curve on the shaft where the axe head is mounted.

This type of curved shaft with the shape of the axe itself, creates a blow and a slicing cut, making this type of battle axe a very nasty and effective weapon.

I tried to upload photos of some of my axes that desplays how this axes evolved but it looks like I have to downsize the file sizes

[Tordenskiold1721]

Originally Posted by Reventlov

The decoration of the axe is particularly interesting because it seems to show the trident emblem of the royal Rurik family - a symbol which survives today in the coat of arms of Ukraine.[/URL]

Your axe with the emblem from the Ruik Family is extremely interesting. The Vikings established what is today Kiev and was called Rus in the area. Rus was later used as a name for Russia when it became one nation:

http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2014/03/t...a-and-ukraine/

That there is a link with the craftmanship on the Langeid and Buskerud swords and the axe found in today's Ukraine is very plausable.

http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_syste..._in_russia.htm

[fernando]

Following forum rules, pictures may only be inserted with the manage attachments upload features. No linking to hosts shall be used.

[Lee]

Originally Posted by Tordenskiold1721

...As the Norwegian battle axe continued to develop from early Viking age through the centuries we know that at some time during the 16th century we start getting the curve on the shaft where the axe head is mounted. This type of curved shaft with the shape of the axe itself, creates a blow and a slicing cut, making this type of battle axe a very nasty and effective weapon.

I tried to upload photos of some of my axes that displays how this axes evolved but it looks like I have to downsize the file sizes

Tordenskiold1721, Thank you for insight into the origin and purpose of the curvature of this form of axe. It does speak to the sophistication and skill of the makers (and I would love to see additional examples!)

If you would care to e-mail the pictures to me (ljones at vikingsword.com) I will resize them, load them on the server and send back the URLs for posting.