Large Pictures Chapter 11.4 |
||||||
![]() |
Some Viking sword hilts that could be found in the Copenhagen museum | |||||
100% |
||||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Some Viking swords
as exhibited in the museum in Bergen; Norway. One blade is clearly pattern welded, two carry inscriptions of some kind. |
|||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Some Viking swords as exhibited in the museum in Helsinki, Finland | |||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Some "precious" hilts of Viking swords. | |||||||||
|
||||||||||
![]() |
Frankish sword wielders from the "Stuttgarter psalter"" from 825 AD. | |||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Swords displayed in
the Haithabu museum in North Germany. Haithabu was a large Viking settlement at a strategically important place for controlling East - West trade in Northern Europe; look at this map. The swords shown must have belonged to high-up guys, chieftains or kings. They are almost certainly of Frankish origin even so Haithabu had many blacksmith making a wealth of everyday iron objects. The last one on the far right might be the exception. It is rather plain but sports an inlaid copper cross on the blade; see the close-up below. Most of the swords are encrusted with remnants of the scabbard and it is impossible to see if they are pattern welded or not. The rather dim illumination doesn't help either. |
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Some details of the swords above. | |||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Here is a sword (hilt) shown in the Neues Museum in Berlin that is almost identical to the one above . | |||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Metallograpy of an all-steel sword from the 9th century found im Moravia; Czech Republic. | |||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Metallograpy of a
second all-steel sword from the Moravia 9th century grave yard. |
|||||
|
||||||
![]() |
The other empires and cultures around the Frankish Empire at the death of Charlemagne in 814 AD | |||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Here is a large
version (with enhanced contrast) of the picture in the
Psalterium
Aureum. It shows a scene from the tales around King David; here the taking and pillaging of the city of Edom. |
|||||
|
||||||
Ulfberht Swords |
||||||
![]() |
Below are the
Ulfberht swords from the 2014 Berlin Viking exhibition I apologize for the bad quality but picture taking was not permitted and the illumination - as seems to be the present custom - was shitty. They are from (not quite in the order going down; the museum didn't provide details): 1. Peltomaa, Häme, Finnland; 2. Wiskiauten / Mochewoje, Obl. Kaliningrad, Russia; 3. Berlin, 4. Awecken, Awajki, Woj. Ermland-Masuren, Poland; 5. Schwedt, Brandenburg, Germany (see also below) 6. Unknown place in Norway; (with some chain mail found at the same place), 7. Ostrów Lednicki, Poland |
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
![]() |
Here is an Ulfberht sword that was sold for 13.000 in 2012 by Bonhams: | |||
|
||||
![]() |
Here is another
Ulfberht sword that was sold at an auction in Brussels in 2011 for
14.000 by Hermann Historica & Pierre Bergé. It is dated to 1050 - 1150 and extremely well preserved. |
|||
|
||||
![]() |
Here is a splendid
Ulfberht from the achaeological museum in
Dublin / Irland. It is known as the Ballinderry Sword and here is what the museum has to say about it: The first known piece of German technology in Ireland dates to the mid-9th century. It is a superb sword marked with the name of its maker Ulfberht. The Vikings, who had a huge impact on Irish history, bought blades from high quality workshops in the Rhineland. Ulfberht was the brand name of a master whose blades have been found as far east as Russia and as far west as the lake dwelling in Ballinderry, County Westmeath where this sword was found in 1928. His name had such prestige that there is even evidence of cheaper copies pretending to be Ulfberht originals: an early example of brand piracy.The Ballinderry sword is one of Ulfberhts finest. It tells us a lot about the mixing of cultures: the blade is German, the hilt and pommel are Scandinavian and the whole thing belonged to an Irish chieftain. He acquired it, possibly in battle but more probably through trade with Viking Dublin. It suggests that the newcomers created a kind of arms race among the native Irish. This was, quite literally, cutting-edge technology and the Irish, not for the last time, had to adapt to it. The National Museum of Ireland Archaeology |
|||
|
||||
![]() |
Here is the
Hamburg Ulfberht sword. It's
inscription is not easily "readable" any more but it is clear that
the letters were made from striped (and twisted) rods Both, cutting edge and bulk shows a kind of "striation" along the length of the blade. That can be seen as strong indication that the material was faggoted and piled. It that interpretation is correct, at least this "true" Ulfberht sword has not been made from crucible steel as claimed by Alan Williams. |
|||
|
![]() |
Now I have some
funny ones! First another Ulfberht from Hamburg - or so the figure captions
claims ("das Ulfberht Schwert - Exportschlager aus dem Frankenreich" (The Ulfberht sword - major export item from the Frankish empire) in some Google sponsored web site. Second, one from a recent (Nov. 2017) auction of Hermann Historica, advertised (my translation) as "Viking sword, Middle Europe, 9th century; ... difficult to read inscription (Ulfberht)?. Their funny because you must imbibe quite a bit if something good before you can make out an "Ulfberht" on those swords. They are definitely made from folded (or faggoted) steel, though and thus are definitely not made from wootz steel. |
||||||
|
|||||||
![]() |
Here is the
Nuernberg Ulfberht sword. It was found
in the Rhine close to Mannheim (South Germany) and is dated to the 9th century. It's inscription is very well preserved and reads: +VLFBEHT+. It thus contains a "typo" and wouldn't be counted among the "true" Ulberhts. The two lower pictures show the Ulfbehrt together with a colleague from the front and the backside. . The "colleague" was found in the Danube in Bavaria, dates to the 9th / 8th century and has some more decorative inlay on the front and the back. The Ulfbehrt also has some structure on the back but it is difficult to see details-. |
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Two more
Ulfbehrt's follow that I found in
unexpected places. The first one lives in the "Archäologisches Landesmuseum Brandenburg". It is a genuine Ulfbehrt although I couldn't quite make out the spelling group it belongs to. Here it is: |
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
![]() |
The second unexpected
Ulfberht is in the "Stadtmuseum
Aachen". There is definitely an inscription, probably a variant of "Ulfberht", but it is not possible to see details. |
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
![]() |
Yet another
Ulfbehrt from the "Deutsches
Klingenmuseum Solingen". It is decribed in the book given in the link |
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
The so far last
Ulfbehrt from an auction house
(once more Hermann Historica), coming up for bidding in May 2020. It starts at 15.000.- |
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
The map show the
travel route of Vikings, including how far they went down some major rivers.
The rivers themselves may go on, and that is not shown. |
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Here is the front
page of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" from Oct. 25th 2014,
advertising a large Ulfberht article in its "science" pages. The article is (surprisingly) good. It reports recent findings from the newest Ulberht sword found in 2014 in the river Weser in North Germany, and that these findings do not quite support the "steel from the East" hypothesis. |
|||
|
||||
![]() |
The
"Weser" Ulfberht. The pommel was
covered with a lead-tin (?) alloy, and the lead comes from a mine in the "Rheinisches Schiefergebirge", not far from the old and powerful monasteries of Fulda and Lorsch in the heartland of the Frankish empire; just a bit south-east of Cologne in the map above. Both monasteries were producers of weapons, say historians. |
|||
|
||||
![]() |
Hypereutectoid
bloomery steel (about 0.9 % carbon) from
Schmalkalden,
probably 18 th century. Massive cementite needles are running into a pearlitic structure. Is there slag? Maybe yes (the black regions), but it is not certain. (Buchwald II; p. 219) |
|||
|
||||
![]() |
Silver denars from "Arabia" (actually Samarkand / Iran) brought back to Denmark by the Vikings. | |||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Here are some
details of one of the Viking swords displayed in the Stockholm Archaeological
Museum. Clearly visible is:
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
![]() |
Here is an
"Ingelrii" sword; shown in Hannovrr, Germany. It was found in the
"Devils Bog" near Worpswede and was dated to the 11th century. The inscription (probably with twisted rods) has disappeared, only the grooves remained |
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Critical Museum Guide: Metropolitan Museum, NYC
Critical Museum Guide: Landesmuseum Württemberg; Württemberg
State Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Critical Museum Guide: Museums in Copenhagen
Critical Museum Guide: Landesmuseum Schleswig-Holstein in Schleswig,
Germany
Critical Museum Guide: Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus; Denmark
Critical Museum Guide: Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, Germany
11.4.2 Blades of Viking Era Swords
Sword Polishing and Revealing the Pattern / Structure
The Frankish Empire And Its Swords
Illerup Swords with Special Patterns
11.4. The Transition to All-Steel Swords / 11.4.1 Viking Swords
Northern Sword Types of the First Millennium
Käthe Harnecker and Wootz Blades
Mythology of Wootz Swords: Cutting a Stone
Last Charcoal Smelter in Germany
Additional Pictures chapter 11.4
© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)