[Karl Knisley]

Hello.What is the significace, of the five lobes, on the viking type pommels?Thanks

[Geoff Wood]

[Nick Trueman]

MMMMMM

Who knows? but there pretty! It would be dificult to really prove what there purpose beyond aesthetics would be? I have heard of the bag tying argument also. Apart from looking very nice and the vikings love for ornate artwork ect I really havent a clue?

Ps it would also really hurt if someone started smashing it in your face, some solid contact points on that style of pommel.

N

[Jim Adelsen]

I have never heard of any reason other than it looks cool. There were quite a number of 3 lobe as well as no lobe pommels also. Was probably just an odd number that worked well.

[Merv Cannon]

I shouldnt just quote this without my source reference ( which I have somewhere on my PC) but I have just had emergenct major eye surgery and I cant spend too long on the PC. It has been suggested that back in Vendel times they used to tie a tallisman object to the pommel wrapped in leather and bound with wire. The wire which divides the 5 or 3 lobes seems to have been always present but it has worn away on most surviving originals. However, (in my report somewhere) traces of where the wire can usually always be found. After time, the leather wrapped talisman became a decorative item which was then simply cast. Its the same with the rings which are also often found on one side of the pommel. Perhaps back in the mists of time the talisman could be also worn around the neck by the ring and then tied onto the pommel before a battle for protection or to somehow impart power to the sword ?
Guess well never know for sure.........if anyone knows the article please post a link....meanwhile I'll try to find it when my sight returns more in comming weeks. Hope this helps.
Cheers !

[Jeff Pringle]

H. E. Davidson’s “The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England” blames this concept on Laking (Sir G. F. Laking who wrote “A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Ages”), who quotes ‘an eminent authority’; Davidson finds it unlikely: “…there is no indication that they ever formed parcels of this kind, which would be clumsy appendages to a sword. It seems more probable that the lobed pommel is a natural development from the animal-head type…”
And I’d have to agree.

[Robert H. Shyan-Norwalt]

In Ian Peirce's Book, Swords of the Viking Age, ISBN 085115 914 1 the Intro by Ewart Oakshott goes into great detail over the Type, style, and decoration of the the Migration-Norman period pommels. His overall observation ( My take on it, no quotes here ) Is that as the blades got longer and heavier, that pommels grew to help counter-balance them. He says the three lobed is most common, but that most variations can be found just about everywhere solingen shipped too from Celtic-Roman times to beyond the conquest 1066.

my .02

Peace

[J.D. Crawford]