[Jeremiah Swanger]

Hi guys,

Out of curiosity, are there any documented examples of grete sverdes roughly fitting Type XIIa sporting Tea-Cosey, Brazil-Nut, or Cocked-Hat pommels?

Just curious, because I'm brainstorming (several years in advance) for a custom piece.

Hey, I can't sleep. What the heck else am I supposed to do with my annoyingly-active neurons?

[Alexi Goranov]

[Jeremiah Swanger]

[Blaz Berlec]

Hi Jeremiah, and everybody else,

Bellow are some drawings of swords, found in river Ljubljanica in Slovenia. They all date from 12. to 13.th century, almost pass for great swords due to their grip length, and they have the pommels you’re interested in.

They’re in pretty bad shape, but you can still get the general idea of their shapes and dimensions. Below I will try to translate some of the measurements. The book (Tomaz Nabergoj, Oboroženi stan srednjeveške družbe na slovenskem na osnovi materialnih virov. Primer: Meci, 2001) gives detailed description, a lot of measurements, x-ray photos of inlays, and much more.



Sword No. 8, T. 28.


Finding place: Ljubljanica, year 1982.

Description: Double edged steel sword, blade is broken and much corroded. Pommel is lenticular. Cross is straight and of a round section. Blade has a rhomboid cross section and has a fuller on both sides. On one side of tang are remains of wooden grip. Blade has incised decoration on both sides of blade – fish skeleton with a head, and there are some remains of a metal that was inlaid (copper).

Measurements:
length = 93,4 cm (36.7 inch), weight = 1375 g (3.03 pounds), grip length = 13,7 cm (5.4 inch), blade length = 75,1 cm (29.6 inch)

Datation: 12. century.



Sword No. 9, T. 2:9.


Description (after drawing!): Double edged steel sword, blade is broken and much corroded. Pommel is lenticular. Cross is straight and of a square section. Blade has a rhomboid cross section and has a fuller on both sides. On on both sides of tang are remains of wooden grip. Blade has incised decoration on both sides of blade – on one side is fish skeleton without a head, on other side fish skeleton with a head.

Measurements: item was not available for measurement.

Datation: 12. century.



Sword No. 10, T. 3:10.


Finding place: Ljubljanica, Crna vas, year 1992 or before.

Description: Double edged steel sword, blade is broken. Pommel is lenticular. Cross is straight and of a round section. Blade has a rhomboid cross section and has a fuller on both sides. Blade has incised decoration on both sides of blade – cross, remains of copper inlay are visible.


Measurements:
Length = 46,1 cm (18.1 inch), weight = 822 g (1.8 pounds), grip length = 12,7 cm (5 inch), blade length = 29,3 cm (11.5 inch).

Datation: 13. century.



Sword No. 11, T. 3:11.


Finding place: Ljubljanica, 80. years of 20. century.

Description: Double edged steel sword, cross is missing, blade is broken. Pommel is lenticular with narrow lower part. Blade has a rhomboid cross section and has a fuller on both sides. Blade has incised decoration on both sides of blade – cross, remains of bronze inlay are visible.

Measurements:
Length = 82,5 cm (32.5 inch), weight = 1010 g (2.2 pounds), grip length = 13,2 cm (5.2 inch), blade length = 65,2 cm (25.7 inch).

Datation: 12. century.

Sorry for all the errors in translation and unit conversion. I’m in a hurry right now, so that’s it. Enjoy.

Oh, and the drawings:

[Alexi Goranov]

To add to this list:

From Zurich Landesmuseum AG2465. 109cm overall length, 90 cm blade length, 16.5 cm grip (6.5in). Dated to 1200-1250.
A flat type N pommel and down turned type 1 guard. Blade XI (only half the blade is visible on the photograph).

Very nice looking sword

Alexi