the lost oakeshott sword

[Reventlov]

Originally Posted by cornelistromp

herewith the pictures of the sword after the restoration.
several layers of paint of hundreds of years old have been removed from the blade.

it was a risk, because it was not known how the general condition of the steel would be covered for 100 of years in in paint and whether the new point which was mounted around the old point could be removed neatly. Fortunately everything turned out well.

Thanks so much for sharing the new photos! My curiosity is satisfied... It is great to see the restoration has been such a success.

I think it is very interesting to find this inscription on your sword. The unusual form of the sword is so immediately striking to modern viewers, and yet (as I'm sure you know) the SOS/OSO inscription is not so rare. So in a way, the sword is still "part of the family" and perhaps once upon a time, would not have seemed so unusual at all.

I do not think it is likely that it is a trace of a longer inscription... the 18th c. illustration of the inscription that was once present on the Szcerbiec can be seen in the article "Szcerbiec - the coronation sword of the Kings of Poland" from 2011, and it's actual appearance is as follows:

CVM . QVO . EI DNS . OS . AVXIL
ETVR . ADUS . PARTES . AMEN

So in this case the first "S" is simply the last letter of "dominus", and the "OS" stands alone, no doubt meaning "omnipotens Salvator" or "omnium Salvator". Nevertheless, the stand-alone SOS sequences surely seem to refer to a similar invocation!

The sword in the Real Armeria is of course an amazing artifact, even if it is not Durendal... If I remember correctly, does not the earliest(?) source for this attribution to Roland also mis-name it "Joyosa", which would be Charlemagne's sword? Someone did not read the Chanson carefully! The history of these various claims and attributions of legendary swords is a whole topic in itself, and coincidentally is something I have been reading about lately.

best,
Mark