A double-edged iron sword of Petersen Type L or O variant with straight tapering blade and rounded point, the blade with tapering fullers showing evidence of employment on the battlefield, boat-shaped cross guard with highly-polished surfaces curving towards the blade, straight upper guard with a massive five-lobed pommel divided by thick vertical lines, the central lobe with incised 'stirrup' symbols to both sides.

PROVENANCE:
Property of a European gentleman living in London; from his grandfather's collection by descent in 1989; formerly in the family collection since at least the 1970s; accompanied by an archaeological report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D’Amato; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10683-175187.

LITERATURE:
See Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919; Oakeshott, R.E., The Archaeology of the weapons, London, 1960; Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002; Żabiński, G., ‘Viking Age Swords from Scotland’, in Acta Militaria Mediaevalia III, Kraków, Sanok, 2007, pp.29-84; the sword finds parallels in various similar Viking age specimens of L variant, for example the one from Old Torbeckhill, Scotland (Żabiński, 2007, figs.33,34), the pommel of which (with three triangular lobes) was also ornamented with a non-ferrous inlay; two very similar swords, both in the British Museum, have been published by Peirce (2002, pp.77-81); the combination of the curved guard with the five lobes seems to have evolved from the pattern of variant O, like the sword of Oslo University (from Vestre Berg, Løiten parish, Akershus, Norway, Peirce, 2002, pp.87ff.), or more evidently like the Gunnarsby (Rygge, Smaal) sword (Petersen, 1919, fig.105).

FOOTNOTES:
The sword was the ultimate status symbol for a Viking warrior, and amongst the most prized possessions of a Nordic warrior of Viking age. Swords were considered so valuable that they were typically handed down through the generations from father to son. Imbued with characters of their own, individual swords were often given names recorded in the Epics, such as ‘destroyer of armour’, ‘war snake’, and even ‘widow maker’. During the age of their diffusion these swords, mainly produced in North West Europe, represented the height of military craftmanship, to the point that the technique used to forge and decorate them was kept a closely-guarded secret. The Old Norse term for sword was sverð (sverth), while the blade was called brandr, the blade tang tangi, and egg-teinn, was the steel cutting edge of the sword.