Beschreibung:

Viking Peterson Type X Sword with Inlaid Hilt 10th-11th century AD An iron pattern-welded sword, the hilt is in excellent condition with only light pitting, the blade is double edged and tapering, showing well defined shallow fullers and wide cutting edges, the fullers are occupying not less than one third of the entire width and running to a point about 19 cm from the tip; the hilt is massive and strikingly beautiful, very simply decorated; on the pommel, as well as on the cross-guard, are visible zig-zag patterns; the pommel is of solid tea-cosy type, divided into two sections by a well marked groove, the bottom being the larger, the curved top portion of the pommel is further divided into three lobes, although the dividing grooves, cut into the iron, are scarcely visible in the middle of the zig-zag pattern; traces of inlay are visible on the pommel and on the cross-guard. 1.25 kg, 94cm (37"). Fine condition. A good solid example. Provenance Property of a Suffolk collector; formerly acquired on the European art market in the 1990s; accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato Literature See Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingesverd, Oslo, 1919; Oakeshott, R.E., The Archaeology of the weapons, London,1960; Jakobsson, Krigarideologi och vikingatida svardstypologi, Stockholm, 1992; Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002; this sword finds good parallels in various similar Viking age specimens. A very similar sword can be found in the Musée de l'Armée, Paris (inv. no. JPO 2253, s. Peirce, 2002, pp.118-119); another has been sold at Christie's London, Antique Arms and Armour, 16 December 2002, lot 46; another similar specimen can be seen at the Museum of Cluny. Footnotes The blade and handle are very well preserved, most probably coming from a grave, but we cannot exclude a river find or a battlefield. The fact that cross and pommel is decorated, confirms it belonged to an elite warrior. The blade shows in its central section, and on both cutting edges, the blodiձa style pattern-welding through the central portion of the blade (Oakeshott, 1960, fig. 70). The fine pattern-welded blade patterns of Viking swords are, alternating, the blodiձa (Blood-Eddy) and 'Ann' (like rows of mown hay) of the Norse poetry, very clearly defined. It was Jacobsson (1992,pp.213-214 and 228) who first individuated the distribution over the north-western Europe of the type X swords. The swords of Viking age have traditionally been classified on the basis of the form and decoration of their hilts. Dr Jan Petersen in 1919 classified the latest of the Viking hilt-styles (hose with brazil-nut shaped pommels) as Type X (letter X). The chronology of the swords of such type ranges from 10th until 12th century. Most swords of the Viking Age come into the category here represented, and X (ten) has been chosen to define the type. Since most of these Viking swords are with brazil-nut pommels, as well as those which are rather vaguely called 'Pilzformige (mushroom-shaped)' by German archaeologists, all fall neatly into the first category of the typology of swords which Oakeshott presented in 1960. Oakeshott began his typology where Petersen left off, with X - number Ten. At the same time Oakeshott renamed the 'Pilzformige' or mushroom pommel as 'of tea cosy form'. In the quarter-century which has lapsed since the name given by Oakeshott this pommel form, it is pleasant to find that in fact the name has been very generally adopted. So, Type X is the 'typical' of Viking sword with its great variety of hilt-forms and styles; and it goes on into the 12th century. Of course, many very old blades continued in use, re-hilted according to changes of fashion, as long as the sword was used.