Hi All...

Over the last few years I have collected (and produced) charts related to sword typologies. This thread is started to provide access to some of these charts and to provide a place to include other helpful charts related to classification schemes of Viking Age finds.

ks

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Petersen's Typology modified Chart in Ian Peirce's "Swords of the Viking Age"

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Wheeler's Classification of Viking Age Swords with Ewart Oakeshott's Additions

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Geibig's Blade Classification modified from "Entwicklung des Schwertes im Mittelalter" (The Development of the Sword in the Middle Ages).

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Viking Design Typology From "VIKINGS: North Atlantic Saga" ed. William Fitzhugh and Elisabeth Ward. [ Download ]

...A few months ago I had a chance to work through Geibig's Monograph on Sword Typology: "Entwicklung des Schwertes im Mittelalter" (The Development of the Sword in the Middle Ages). It is a very important work... compiling much that has been learned about Viking Age Swords over the last century.

Christopher (C.L.) Miller's excellent article on Geibig's work has been published here, on myArmoury, under the title:

"The Sword Typology of Alfred Geibig"

It seems that Geibig is most noted for the classification of blade forms. And this was the most original part of his monograph. However his work contains a tremendous amount of information on hilt types distinguished as combinations of pommels and guards. His illustrations give views of these forms from the top and sides as well as frontal views. This allows us to get a better idea of what the types look like in three dimensions.

I have taken these charts and restructured them. I put examples of the blade typology at the top of the chart and below this the Chronology of Geibig's combinations and their relation to Petersen's Typology. In the large field below this are the type combinations that Geibig has defined.

In the progression from one combination to the next you can see the blade types that were used during the type these combinations were popular in the upper register outlined in red.

I have downloaded each type combination in Geibig's sequence. The desire of this project is to try and create a video effect as each type moves along the timeline from left to right. To best see this you should download the images into a folder and arrange by Name (under view in windows). Then do a slideshow in rapid sequence. This should show how the Viking Age sword changed from the 8th to the 13th century.

take care

ks

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Geibig's Typology Continued.

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Geibig's Typology Finish...

(To save images, click download and open to screen, then right click and select "save picture as"...)

ks

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Very good work! I may have to get the ones in the original post enlarged and printed some time.

I would like to motion that this gets put into the "features" section.

M.

Nice work Kirk - I missed this in 2008. Here's another chance for people to have a look.

that chart is excellent, because it sort of helps me identify where my 'hanwei practical norman' ACTUALLY fits historically, at least in termsof hilt and pommel if nothing else

though that first chart doesnt seem to mention the tea cosy pommel..

Many thanks, Kirk for sharing this.

Paul

Apologies for casting my thread necromancy spell, but I’m curious as to why the typology blade+pommel classifications here differ from those in the Geibig Typology article, specifically concerning the type 5 blades and their pommel types. The article lists pommel types 12, 15, 17vI and 18 for Type 5 blades, but those pommels don’t have the red outline for the type 5 blade in this lovely thread. I don’t have access to the original work—which one is correct?

EDIT: I see it now. I looked through too quickly and missed a few of the variant images. The ones missing compared to the article are the type 17 and 18 pommels, and these charts add the type 16 variants. I answered my own question.