Thanks for the support guys! I was feeling quite embarassed...
In answer to J. Padgett's comment, I don't believe that the sword's appearance on eBay, where a few genuine viking-era swords have been sold over the years (there's another on there now which appears somewhat less questionable), nor the fact that it has never appeared in one of
Oakeshott's books should necessarily flag this one as being a fake. There are a great number of undocumented swords in the world, and as those who discover such swords today can make a far greater profit by selling to private collectors, and may risk losing their claim to the artifact by presenting it to a museum or university, it is likely to remain so. I'm certain that there are some simply astounding weapons in private ownership whose existence has never been recorded by any archaeological authority. I've also seen more than a few artifacts improperly handled (ie no gloves) by sellers who should know better, so I don't personally find this damning either ...but I've obviously little expertise in this field.
However, Since the number of unusual features of this particular sword, combined with the seller's reputation, leads one to the conclusion that this is likely a fake, I wonder, are the unique characteristics of this sword the result of ignorance on the part of the forger, or intentionally added in an attempt to raise the value of the sword?
The sword seems "close enough" for me to guess that the engraving was added in full knowledge that such a thing is undocumented in the archaeological record. The somewhat mis-matched upper and lower guard, which Peter called attention to, is quite unusual as well, but not, I think, unprecedented. To be honest, I didn't catch this feature at all on first glance and I'm glad to have it pointed out. But really, aside from those two elements, the sword still appears very convincingly aged to my untrained eye, and I'm glad to hear that at least a few of you agree.
Unfortunately, it seems likely that we'll never really be able to establish the sword's origins one way or the other...
Thanks for all of your comments, I'm glad some good has come of this!
-C.L.Miller