Childeric sword hilt construction? -- myArmoury.com

Stephen Curtin

Hey everyone, I'm sure most of you here are aware of the sword said to have belonged to the 5th century Frankish King Childeric I, but does anyone here know how the hilt of this sword was constructed? Specifically; how was the pommel attached, was it riveted to the upper guard, or was the tang peened over it, and how about the guards, were they made from wood covered in gold and garnets, or were they gold plated bronze, or perhaps something else? As always I'd be very grateful for any assistance in this matter.

Paul Hansen

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Tue 06 Sep, 2011 12:52 pm Post subject:

Hi Paul, thanks for the pic, and for the info.

This pic clearly shows that the upper guard is now hollow, so it probably had an organic interior. It also shows that the upper guard is broken at both ends, so we can't tell if there were holes to allow for rivets. As for the pommel I've never seen a picture of the underside of it, so I don't know if it is solid or hollow, or if it has nails for riveting. So has anyone here ever seen the underside of the pommel on Childerics sword?

I do know (or at least according to Patrick Barta, who examined the original) that the pommel from the Blunica sword is solid gilt silver. Although the Blunica sword is a contemporary, and of the same type as, Childeric's sword, the pommel is slightly different, as the pommel of Blunica sword was cast in none piece with the top plate of the upper guard, while the Childeric swords pommel is seperate. Does anyone here have any info on other swords of this type, e.g. Snartemo, and their construction methods?

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Sun 18 Sep, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject:

Hi Everyone, AFAIK the childeric sword in housed in cluny museum, Paris, so I've been looking around online for contact info for the museum. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any email address, if anyone here could send it to me I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance.

Paul Hansen · Posted: Mon 19 Sep, 2011 10:56 am Post subject:

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Mon 19 Sep, 2011 6:17 pm Post subject:

Hey Paul thanks a million for the link to those pictures, their very helpful. They quite clearly show the "pin-holes" where the pommel was attached to the upper guard.

Ok so let me explain what I meant when I said, that the pommel from the Blunica sword, was cast in one piece with the top plate of the upper guard. If you look at the upper guard of Childeric's sword, you will notice that it was made from an organic interior, incased in sheets of gold. The sheet that forms the top of the guard is what I was referring to as the top plate of the upper guard.

Paul Hansen · Posted: Tue 20 Sep, 2011 1:50 am Post subject:

On the Childeric sword, the pommel is a separate piece, and it's also smaller than the top plate of the upper guard.

On the Blucina sword, I would guess the construction is the same: separate piece, and noticeably smaller than the top plate of the upper guard. That's also how Patrick reconstructed it. The upper guard of the Blucina sword could have been made from gold (or gilted silver) completely covering an organic core, like Patrick did, or alternatively it could have been organic with only the top and bottom being covered by plates. The plates are visible in my photo, as well as the one from Patrick's site on the bottom right.

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Tue 20 Sep, 2011 9:07 am Post subject:

Paul Hansen · Posted: Tue 20 Sep, 2011 10:54 am Post subject:

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2011 7:48 am Post subject:

Hi Paul, sorry I took so long to reply, but I wanted to wait untill I could view these images at a higher resolution.

Paul Hansen · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2011 12:56 pm Post subject:

Sander Marechal · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2011 1:07 pm Post subject:

If it helps, I also took a couple of pictures of this sword in the Cluny museum: http://gallery.jejik.com/?dir=cluny-museum

Apologies if it's slow to load. It's hosted off my home server and I don't have a high outbound speed. Just 256 kbps.

Paul Hansen · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2011 1:14 pm Post subject:

Yes, thanks again for taking them Sander!

I keep wondering what the piece of steel (?) is in these pictures?
http://gallery.jejik.com/photos/cluny-museum/DSCF0178.JPG
http://gallery.jejik.com/photos/cluny-museum/DSCF0179.JPG

I didn't think any steel part of the sword survived...

Also, it appears that he pommel did have an organic core. At least it was hollow and perhaps quite a number of garnet pieces are missing. Most notably the "snout" of the beast on the pommel, exactly where Barta put the rivet to the upper guard on the Blucina sword.

Sander Marechal · Posted: Wed 28 Sep, 2011 8:57 pm Post subject:

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Thu 29 Sep, 2011 3:49 am Post subject:

Hi Sander, thanks for sharing these pics, and as for the piece of metal in the display, I agree, it's probably just a prop like you said.

Paul, thanks for enlarging the pic from Mr. Barta's site. To me, what we see in this image, seems to be made in one piece, not a pommel attached to a plate as we see on later swords. The holes in the plate part of this piece, seem to be for holding it to the upper guard, and have nothing to do with attaching the pommel part, as I believe that they were cast in one piece and dont need attaching.

I hope what I'm saying here makes sense, it's kind of hard to explain in writing, and I could be miles off anyway.

Stephen Curtin · Posted: Fri 30 Dec, 2011 11:18 am Post subject:

This just occured to me but Patrick Barta's interpretation of the Blunica sword bares a close resemblance to the silver plated sword hilt from Thorsbjerg bog, the only differences being that one is gold and the other silver, and the shapes of the pommels. The pommel from Thorsbjerg shaped like an upturned boat, and the one from Blunica with it's trilobate/zoomorphic shape. Perhaps the Blunica sword is a development of the Thorsbjerg, thoughts?