http://www.oldfunn.no/

This link will take you to a company in Norway that can make you an authentic replica of the Snartemo sword. They use real gold and silver and it looks magnificent. I have been unable to get details of the blade other than it is made of carbon steel.

The Snartemo is the earliest Germanic ring sword so far found and unlike all the others, where the rings are on the pommel, these are below the lower guard.

Those interested may wish to know that there will be an e-mail contact address on the site, soon.

The price? Around 18,000 USD!

Form an orderly queue, please.

Paul

hmm This is pretty interesting. I wonder, why change in the position of the ring at all at all? And furthermore, how do they justify such an enormous sum for the replica? Maybe there is something in the Norse I'm missing? :wtf: not to be petty, im just curious. Sword buyers are a rather small market force so they the company either dont want to sell any or have actually found people who will.

Elling, I don't like the entire notion of bashing swords or people who decide to collect them. The difference between critique and bashing is all about one's approach. While these items may very well be outside the interest of myself, or even the general preferences of those in this community, the notion of enjoying and collecting them is perfectly valid. To each their own.

Let's get back on topic. Thanks for understanding.

I live near where the sword was found. A friend of mine has some measurements of it, and when he gets more accurate ones(he lives here too), he is going to comission a replica of it from Russel Thomas. Sometime...in the future.

Johan Schubert Moen

I'd really like to have a functional Snartemo.... just not $18,000 badly....

... maybe I can trade in my old Marto #520? :lol:

Thanks for posting this Paul. This seems to be a beautiful recreation of a very significant find. There's a lot of high quality recreations from this era coming out of central and northern europe.

Neat!

I get the impression that they have made one or two for mueums and that, prehaps, is the market that they are aiming for. Museums do pay very large sums for one off reproductions. The Sutton Hoo Visitors' Centre (highly worth a visit when anyone is in England) paid about $15,000 for their helmet.
As for the change in position of the ring -- no-one knows. The earliest speculations about the rings is that they were for a strap to attach the hilt to the hand. However, none of the free rings are robust enough for this and later they rings become solid and fixed. All sword rings, known, have decoration on them. Current thinking is that the lord, as ring giver, gave these swords to his most high ranking followers and that the rings were the sign of a bond between lord and retainer.


Paul

Museums huh? That does make more sense. I wonder if it handles like the original or close to it. It certainly looks stunning in any case.

In various sagas generous men are called ring breakers but it is unclear what kind of rings this refers to so the giving of rings in general seems to be symbolic. And what better way to give than to give the gift of a sword with a ring! :D

One wierd thing. The site claims that they produce the only copy of the snartemo sword. Well...if they do, then the sword is crap. I have seen it for sale at Oldsaksamlingen, and it is a horrible thing that looks like the blade is made of stainless. The fuller begins a few centimeters _above_ the crossguard, and the blade profile is wierd. The fittings look decent, but the overall appearance is shoddy.

Now, if it is as they claim, that Oldsaksamlingen has approved their sword, and only theirs, as an accurate replica of the snartemo sword, then I would steer away from it. Unless there are two companies replicating it, in which case the statement about the sword being the only available replica is slightly duboius.

Johan Schubert Moen

Hi Johan,
I suspect that what you have seen is the Marto version, made in Toledo in Spain. It does have quite decent fittings but the blade is awful and it is sold without a scabbard. The Oldfunn version uses high quality parts but they do not show any details of the blade -- it does come with a very interesting looking scabbard.

When I win the lottery I shall buy one and ten more swords from Patrick Barta plus a few from Vince Evans and..........................