Beautiful surviving examples of elaborate viking swords

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Jul 30, 2016

 

 

 

During the reign of Charlemagne, the price of a sword (a spata, or longsword) with scabbard was set at seven solidi (Lex Ribuaria).

Swords were still comparatively costly weapons, although not as exclusive as during the Merovingian period, only members of the Charlemagne’s cavalry, who could already afford to own and maintain a warhorse, were required to be equipped with swords.

Regino’s Chronicle suggests that by the end of the 9th century, the sword was seen as the principal weapon of the cavalry.

The sword gradually replaced the sax (a type of long dagger) during the late 8th to early 9th century. Because grave goods were no longer deposited in Francia in the 8th century, continental finds are mostly limited to stray finds in riverbeds (where anaerobic conditions favored the preservation of the steel).

Most extant examples of Carolingian swords are from graves from northern or eastern cultures where pagan burial customs were still in effect.

10th century sword from old Magyar grave Source

 

Viking swords at Bergen Museum Source

 

Viking swords Source

 

Derby Museum viking Sword found in Repton. Source

 

Griffe von Wikingerschwert Source

 

Hilt of a Frankish sword of ca. the 10th century, with characteristically lobed pommel Source

 

Viking swords from the river Meuse in the-Netherlands Source

 

Museum of Scotland, viking sword hilt, 9th century Source

 

Scandinavian sword Source

 

There are very few references to Carolingian-era sword production, apart from a reference to emundatores vel politores (grinders and polishers) present in the workshops of the Abbey of Saint Gall.

Two men sharpening swords, one using a grindstone the other a file, are shown in the Utrecht Psalter (fol. 35v).

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Scandinavian sword Source

Pattern welding fell out of use in the 9th century, as higher quality steel became available.

Better steel also allowed the production of narrower blades, and the swords of the 9th century have more pronounced tapering than their 8th-century predecessors, shifting the point of balance towards the hilt.

Coupland (1990) proposes that this development may have accelerated the disappearance of the sax, as the sword was now available for swift striking, while the migration-period spatha was mostly used to deliver heavy blows aimed at damaging shields or armour.

The improved morphology combined maneuverability and weight in a single weapon, rendering the sax redundant.

Sword; 10 11. century; from Zelenogradsk, RUS; New Museum Berlin Source

 

The Frankish swords often had pommels shaped in a series of three or five rounded lobes. This was a native Frankish development which did not exist prior to the 8th century.

And the design is frequently represented in the pictorial art of the period, e.g. in the Stuttgart Psalter, Utrecht Psalter, Lothar Gospels and Bern Psychomachia manuscripts, as well as in the wall frescoes in the church in Mals, South Tyrol.

Likewise, the custom of inlaid inscriptions in the blades is Frankish innovation dating to the reign of Charlemagne, notably in the Ulfberht group of blades, but continued into the high medieval period and peaking in popularity in the 12th century.

While blade inscriptions become more common over the Viking Age, the custom of hilt decorations in precious metals, inherited from the Merovingian sword and widespread during the 8th and 9th centuries, was in decline over the course of the 10th century.

Most swords made in the later 10th century in, what was then the Holy Roman Empire, still conformed mostly to the “Viking sword” type morphologically but had plain steel hilts.

Two sword hilts on exhibit in Hedeby Museum. Source

 

Sword hilt dated c. 750–850 found in the river Meuse in the Netherlands  Source

 

 

Source
Viking sword hilt c. 850-950 from the river Meuse in the Netherlands Source

 

Viking swords Source

 

The distribution of Frankish blades throughout Scandinavia and as far east as Volga Bulgaria attest to the considerable importance of Frankish arms exports, even though Carolingian kings attempted to prevent the export of weapons to potential enemies.

In 864, Charles the Bald set the death penalty on selling weapons to the Vikings. Ibn Fadlan in the 10th century notes explicitly that the Volga Vikings carried Frankish swords. The Saracens raiding Camargue in 869 demanded 150 swords as ransom for archbishop Rotland of Arles.

Viking swords  Source

 

Viking sword from Skaun, Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. Estimated to be from early Iron Age (from AD 550 to about AD 1050) Source

 

Wikingerschwert Source

 

Carolingian scabbards were made of wood and leather. Scabbard decorations are depicted in several manuscripts (Stuttgart Psalter, Utrecht Psalter, Vivian Bible). A number of miniatures also show the system of suspension of the sword by means of the sword-belt.

While the scabbards and belts themselves are almost never preserved, their metal mounts have been found in Scandinavian silver hoards and in Croatian graves. A complete set seems to have included two to three oval or half-oval mounts, one large strap-end, a belt buckle and a trefoil mount.

Their arrangement on the sword-belt has been reconstructed by Menghin (1973).