It is true we have only a tiny percentage of the era’s product to admire! The artisans of the Viking age were subject to the same limitations of technology, whims of fashion and economic restrictions as the rest of us, so you can make some pretty concrete predictions about the 99% of swords we have NOT seen from the time. Just as you will not find a Viking sword with an aluminum hilt (technology not available), you can be pretty sure an iron one with relief interlace carving is not going to show up – although technologically feasible, it was not the fashion of the time or what the economics of the situation would favor, inferring from the ones that have survived.
A few Finnish examples of Viking age swords can be found here:
http://www.helsinki.fi/arkeologia/ra...t_viikinki.htm
Though the photos are woefully small, you can see they were using the same techniques as the folks further South to render designs in a slightly different style.
