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Niels Just Rasmussen
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 Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 6:24 am Post subject: |
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| Luka Borscak wrote: | | Niels Just Rasmussen wrote: | | Luka Borscak wrote: | | Tim Lison wrote: | | Thank you for posting these!!!! Do you have any other information on the Esrum Sø sword? I will be commissioning this one at some point. I love it!!!!!! |
I was just going to post the same thing.  Exceptional sword. |
Thanks and fully agree. Albion or Arms & Armor should make one 
By the way 99,5 cm blade on a clearly 1-handed weapon seems pretty extreme.
As I don't know about how it handles, could it be for cavalry to have a long downward reach?
Do you know of any other examples that equals that length? |
I had a singlehander with 99cm long blade. It was a converted Del Tin handle and a half XIIIa blade. It would have handled great if distal taper was more dramatic. This way it was not really responsive but it cut great. Strikes were not that difficult to make, but recovery was slow. William Swiger owns it now. This Esrum sword looks like it has more profile taper and surely more distal taper than that Del Tin has. I believe it handled very well. But it certainly was made with mounted use in mind. |
So a lot less weight than your blade and likely better balance for quicker recovery.
Found a drawing in one of my old books of the Esrum Sword.
Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark 1970.
Rikke Behrend: Vandfundne sværd fra middelalderen p. 89-102 [Middle-Age swords found in water].
The article states that the sword was found 1 meter out from the old lakeshore. [So clearly someone just waded out and put the sword down in the lake or perhaps pushed it into the mud?].
NB: The Sword on the right [Skafterup Å, Zealand ~1400 AD] looks very much like the Boringholm Sword.
http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=31532&highlight=
 Attachment: 492.55 KB
Esrum sword on the left.
Source: Behrend (1970), Drawings by Holger Schmidt.
Last edited by Niels Just Rasmussen on Wed 17 Jun, 2015 4:51 am; edited 4 times in total
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| Scott Kowalski wrote: | Niels,
Do you have any more information on sword #5 in the first picture of your first post? It looks to have the longest grip of all of the swords while being the shortest of all the blades with the exception of the gladius and seax. Is it possible with this particular sword that the blade had broken and reshaped to prolong the life of the blade? Very interesting information and great pictures! Thank you for posting. |
Sadly no. The image is probably from the 1882 Boye publication of the swords found at Søborg castle and Søborg Lake.
The publication is not online.....
Since later Scandinavians loved long handles (Danish 2-hander for instance) it could be a beginning trend.
Maybe somebody wanted a bastard sword with a short thick blade for close infighting?
Actually the middle sword in the scan I attached in the post right above [from Illerup Å, Jutland ~1300 AD with the bullhead engraved in the blade] is also fairly short with a longish grip (and same kind of guard and pommel even).
The shortness of the blade compared to the handle off course speaks in favour of your hypothesis.
If you really loved the blade and had wielded it in multiple battles, it might be your "talisman" - you want to stay with it even if shortened?
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| Niels Just Rasmussen wrote: | I have to add that besides Albion a Søborg replica has also been made by the Danish “Ildsmeden“:
See: http://www.ildsmeden.dk/html/vare_rekonstruktion.htm
NB: Fjederstål og hærdet (spring-steel and hardened).
Ildsmedens version is only 95 cm long (same as the new sword from 2010), whereas the Albion version is 109 cm probably as the original.
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Ups made a reading mistake.
Ildsmedens Søborg-replica has a blade 95 cm long (not sword length), so his version is overall dimension-wise an exact replica.
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Tim Lison
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 9:09 am Post subject: |
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| Niels Just Rasmussen wrote: | | Luka Borscak wrote: | | Tim Lison wrote: | | Thank you for posting these!!!! Do you have any other information on the Esrum Sø sword? I will be commissioning this one at some point. I love it!!!!!! |
I was just going to post the same thing. Exceptional sword. |
Thanks and fully agree. Albion or Arms & Armor should make one
By the way 99,5 cm blade on a clearly 1-handed weapon seems pretty extreme.
As I don't know about how it handles, could it be for cavalry to have a long downward reach?
Do you know of any other examples that equals that length? |
I will ask Robert Moc to make it for me after he finishes the one he's currently working on for me. I will most definitely post the finished sword here! Thank you so much for the pictures and information.
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 9:22 am Post subject: |
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| Tim Lison wrote: | | I will ask Robert Moc to make it for me after he finishes the one he's currently working on for me. I will most definitely post the finished sword here! Thank you so much for the pictures and information. |
Wow, looking forward to seeing the result. His work is spectacular. 
Happy to bring more unknown swords, that can inspire, into the limelight.
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Scott Kowalski
Location: Oak Lawn, IL USA Joined: 24 Nov 2006
Posts: 818
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 9:40 am Post subject: |
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Thank you for the information NIels. I agree about keeping a sword even if it had been broken and reshaped as a talisman if you had survived previous battles when using it. Your other hypothesis could be true as well about it being at the leading edge of the longer grip to blade length in Scandinavia.
It is to bad that there is not more information available about it.
Chris Landwehr 10/10/49-1/1/09 My Mom
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Sun 07 Jun, 2015 9:50 am Post subject: |
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| Scott Kowalski wrote: | Thank you for the information NIels. I agree about keeping a sword even if it had been broken and reshaped as a talisman if you had survived previous battles when using it. Your other hypothesis could be true as well about it being at the leading edge of the longer grip to blade length in Scandinavia.
It is to bad that there is not more information available about it. |
Maybe the talisman-effect actually started the trend of long grips compared to blade-length [Danes are a quite sentimental people, English would say depressed people after reading Hamlet]
If I unearth any information or pictures I will bring them here
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Mon 08 Jun, 2015 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Peirce has actually measured the Tissø Viking Sword in “Swords of the Viking Age" (2002), page 106-107.
Sword length: 87,7 cm
Blade length: 73 cm
Grip length: 9,1 cm
Guard length: 10,2 cm
Point of Balance: 15,3 cm
Fuller: 2,3 cm wide
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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Mark Lewis
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| Posted: Thu 06 Oct, 2016 9:18 am Post subject: |
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| Niels Just Rasmussen wrote: | | ...but it does show the picture of a "halberd-mace". |
I have not seen one quite like that before... are any measurements for it given?
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Niels Just Rasmussen
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| Posted: Fri 07 Oct, 2016 6:35 am Post subject: |
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| Mark Lewis wrote: | | Niels Just Rasmussen wrote: | | ...but it does show the picture of a "halberd-mace". |
I have not seen one quite like that before... are any measurements for it given? |
Sadly no info other, that the mace head has 8 protrusions and the spike was 4-edged.
It is definitely uniquely looking.
As Søborg Castle was destroyed during the civil-religious war - Grevens Fejde from 1534-1536 - the weapons found around the castle are most likely from during or before that period.
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This is a