[Cornelis Tromp]

The sword was found in 1973 in the river meuse near roermond.
was in the Visser-collection, hereafter the famous San Diego, California Collection and now ( luckily) back in the Netherlands.
The length of the sword is 117 cm, the blade 93 cm and the grip 19 cm. The pommel is onion-shaped and decorated with woven bands and has the characteristic for the 16th century flower-shaped brass blade-button on the pommel.
With a grip of 19cm it can be handled with two hands, so it is slightly larger than a one-and-a-half-hander. its a big 1 1/2 hander or a small two hander.
a katzbalger is very rare in itself, but this one in particular , it has a cross-guard shaped like a snake, which twists and bites its own tail, here the characteristic katzbalger hilt is formed.
The snake biting its own tail is a common motif in the 16th century. The time of the Renaissance, a time when the tail-eater was frequently depicted in paintings and on and around sculptures and statues. This made it even more a symbol for rebirth (= literally renaissance). And stands for eternal repetitive life.

the Landsknecht's sword can be dated somewhere between 1520-1530.

Does any body know of similar comparable hilt shapes from the 16thC?

[Eric W. Norenberg]

Hi Cornelis!
This sword popped up in an earlier thread, discussing so called “kringla”, or pretzel, shaped guards on a subset of scandinavian longswords:

[url] http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.32093.html[/url]

This one you posted has a very well defined snake motif, compared to some of the others here with more of a, well, hand rolled pasta look to them. But the overall form is similar and I wonder if it really should be considered Danish or Swedish more than low country or landsknecht.

Nice to hear from you again!
-E

[Jeff Cierniak]

I don't have much of answer, just wanted to say thanks for sharing! Love that motif.

[Cornelis Tromp]

[Mark Lewis]