My own experience in examining a number of Viking Age swords is very much in concordance with Jeff's observations.
That 'stretched chevron' pattern is, indeed, unexpected in Viking Age material; I have had this nagging déjà vu that I had seen somewhat similar patterns somewhere in pre-Viking material and at last I have placed this memory with the Danish/N. German Roman Iron Age bog finds and confirmed it by reviewing the marvelous recently published (2006) catalog of the Illerup Ådal finds.
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