Hi all,

Some time ago I went to my local museum, Aust Agder Museet, and I brought my camera. I'm unsure if I'm allowed to publish any of the pictures I took, but I found this hilt a bit to interesting to not share with you.

I know little of Viking swords (even though I am Norwegian :p ), mostly becase I'm more interested in Scottish swords, so I'll leave it up to you to discuss it. The only thing I know about this sword is what the label in the museum stated:

"Viking sword of fine quality, 800s. Hilt and pommel inlaid with silver and copper in a square/check-pattern. Found in Gjerstad ca. 1900 during plowing, near a tall memorial stone." (I've translated this from the small plaque, and it may be a bit lacking, because I didn't take a good picture which showed the plaque.)

This is the best picture I got of the hilt:
[ Linked Image ]

Cheers,
Henrik

Very cool pic! Except for the Anglo-Saxon styles, that is my favorite viking style pommel configuration. Thanks for posting.

That is one of my favorite styles (other than Anglo-Saxon styles) as well! Thanks so much for sharing.

As for any further information on it, well I'm no expert....I'm sure there are lots of people on here that know more than me So I'll leave it to them. Neverthless, I'm curious now. *goes to check her Swords of the Viking Age book for more info*

Drool.....I want one!

J. Ypey conserved some swords with similar hilts in the Netherlands, but I'm not sure they were preserved well enough to tell if the decoration was the same, I'll have to dig through my library. This one looks interesting, but the photo is a little too fuzzy to say much - the checks seem to be on the pommel as well, with pairs(?) of twisted wire between the lobes.
Any chance you can head back to the museum, this time with a tripod?
:D

Jeff,
Your observations are quite right! I'm sorry about the image quality. The glass which the sword is behind makes it difficult to take photos, and I forgot to take photos without the flash/blits on. Hopefully I'll go to the museum again soon. And get a decent shot :)

Cheers,
Henrik