Search the Community

I am trying to help solve a mystery about a type X viking sword unearthed fairly recently and in possession of a fellow just down the road from me. It was found in situ with the remnants of the scabbard and belt and the bronze and iron are all that was left when excavated. The brazil nut pommel is firmly in place, but there was no sign of the lower crossguard. In doing some research, I have found several other type X viking swords from the late viking period which are also missing their lower cross guards, but which have the brazil nut pommel firmly in place. When I had originally seen those swords, I had assumed that they probably had a bronze cross guard that broke off at some point in its past, but with this sword having been discovered with even the very thin bronze chape of the scabard intact (albiet in 2 pieces) it's fairly certain that this is not the case. I'm wondering if anyone had any insight. Here's the sword, only the two largest pieces have been stabilized with electrolysis, as my friend who is doing the conservation work on it fears to do anything with the smaller shards from further down the blade because nothing would probably come out of the tank at all. Here are two swords catalogued in Dr. Alfred Geibig's 1991 book on 8th to 12th century swords So it's apparently something common enough for there to be several good examples completely missing the cross guard, even in very good states of preservation. Right now I am just at a loss as to the why, was it an organic crossguard that didn't survive? perhaps bone or antler? I dont know that I've ever seen a brazil-nut pommel viking era sword with one though. In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to talk the current owner of this sword into selling it to me, but have not yet broached that subject with them as of yet.