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Illerup Swords with Special
Patterns
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Palmette
Patterns |
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Illerup Ådal produced more
thant 400 well-preserved swords, some with rather unusual patterns. Some of
those are shown here. There are far more swords with "normal"
patterns, however. Get the
books if
you want to see them all.
First we look at swords with a "palmette" pattern.
Palmette is the expression for a motif in
decorative art that resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It's roots
go back to the ancient Egyptians. We also find it on several pattern-welded
Illerup swords and on a few swords from other regions.
One picture tells more than a thousand words: |
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Drawings of an Illerup sword "SAFG /
RNU4" with Palmette pattern on one side; palmette, herringbone and stripes
on the other side
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| What (parts of) the blade look like today
(front / back) |
| Source:
Illerup
Ådal; Vol. 11, 12. Also for all other pictures in this module if not
otherwise noted. |
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Below is
probably the real sword. With luck, you can find it in the
Moesgaard Museum
in Aarhus; Denmark. You won't see much, however, because the present custom in
museum exhibits is to keep things in the dark. |
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| Sword with a palmette pattern |
| Source: Photographed in the Moesgaard museum, 2015
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These pictures, like pretty much all
of what follows, are taken from the "official" records of the
diggings in Illerup (and elsewhere), a series called
"Illerup
Ådal". These very scholarly (and very hard to read) books
contain drawings of about every sword unearthed in Illerup, some photographs,
in-depth descriptions, and long essays about this and that, including the
making of pattern welded swords. |
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However, the books
carefully avoid to mention how the special patterns shown here were made. I do
not know it either; what I know (or guess) is given right here. |
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The pertinent data of the sword shown
above are:
- Sword identifier: "SAFG / RNU4"; single find
- Type:
Woerden-Bjaers.
More about that in the "Sword Types" link
- Descriptions on pp. 142 (11); 167, 202, 213, 224, 232 (12)
- Asymmetric blade. One side with two broad fullers; the other side planar.
Three (illegible) stamps. Parts of the hilt were also preserved.
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The side with the four fullers
sports 4 stripes with palmettes on the whole length. The two fullers on the
other side show a palmette pattern and a herringbone pattern; both change to a
stripe pattern further down the blade.
Maybe the smith ran out of palmettes, maybe the customers wanted it this way -
we will never know
With this first example we also encounter a few more puzzles. The sword is
asymmetric. Two fullers versus two, different patterns. Why?
Three stamps to mark the producer? Or what else? |
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Good questions but
the main question is: How are palmettes made? I have given this a lot of
thought and I spend a lot of time searching for an explanation in the
literature - without a positive result. Finally I remembered my own advice:
"Listen to the smiths", or even better, ask
them. I asked Patrick
Bárt how to make palmettes and his reply was short.
"I's a kind of mosaic
damast". At first I didn't understand what he menat but somewhat later
I got it. The result can be found in this module.
Let's look at a few more "palmettes" |
© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)
With frame
Books and Other Major Sources