Viking Sword with an History

[Tordenskiold1721]

Reventlov: The closest analogue to the Langeid sword comes from another site in Norway however... here the ornamental metalwork is of precisely the same style. Notice in particular the identically placed spiral designs. This sword is held in the museum in Oslo, under inventory no. C36640.

Thanks Reventlov ! Great post and lots of valuable information.

You absolutely are right, One sword almost identical to the Langeid sword was found in Al, Buskerud and is the sword you show with museum reference to Oslo. From what I understand there is two more swords with this hilt found in Denmark and the one in Finalnd that you show, the same sword from Finland is seen below with other Viking and early medieval swords:



The "Langeid swords" was not found when Petersen made his typology in 1919 and is therefore not part of his work. Oakeshott is in reality a copy and paste of Petersen and Wheelers work with an expansion of the scope of swords and time line, so there is nothing new in Oakeshott's work(On Viking swords) that is not in Petersen and Wheeler's work from 1919 and 1927 other than the two medieval swords who bridges the Viking swords with the medieval swords types.

Here is an good article on the Langeid sword for those interested, use google translate and you will get the article in English. The article reveals that the blade has text on both sides:

http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/saml...a-langeid.html

The Axe found in the same grave, with good detail of construction and mounting on shaft:

http://www.khm.uio.no/forskning/saml...a-langeid.html