Viking Sword Found on the Isle of Man

Posted by Martin R on May 9, 2008
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Members of the Manx Detectorists Society have found fragments of the hilt of a Viking Period display sword. It’s cast in bronze with rich Borre Style decoration (c. AD 850-1000) and silver wire frills. Though settled by the Norsemen from about AD 800 onward, the island has not previously produced very many any of their swords.

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Via BBC, 24HourMuseum and Manx National Heritage. Thanks to Greenman Tim of Walking the Berkshires and Dear Reader Eleanora for the tipoff.

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Comments

  1. #1 Tobias
    May 9, 2008

    Super find!
    However, Manx National Heritage states that: “This is only the 13th recorded Viking sword from the Island”. Could be that this is the first found by detectorists.

  2. #2 kontakt
    May 9, 2008

    Men av klingan finns inga spår. Antar att brons är mera beständigt än järn? (Om du ogillar kommentarer på svenska får du ta och säga åt mig.)

  3. #3 Martin R
    May 9, 2008

    The blade is such a large object that it is likely to have been found long ago without the aid of a metal detector. This is particularly so if the site is a ploughed field.

  4. #4 christina
    May 11, 2008

    Great, congratulations on this find, Manx. It’s good to see that legal detectoring is paying off in the good sense. More of that in the future.
    And check out what they are doing on Bornholm, probably one of the worlds best detector-associations:
    http://www.dbabornholm.dk/

  5. #5 Rob Farrer
    August 18, 2008

    FINDERS OF VIKING SWORD PARTS
    The sword was probably part ofa (10c)burial on boundary
    marker of ancient( ROYAL ESTATE)in N.W. of I.O.M. Was it
    a ceremonial sword carried at TYNWALD? The blade probably did not survive the local soil conditions
    From
    ROB FARRER&DAN CROWE

  6. #6 sly Parker
    March 6, 2009

    A Viking Sword would make a great addition to anyone’s medieval replica swords collection. The reason for is the Vikings people made a massive impact on the medieval war. So if you’re trying to build a replica swords collection or improving your old one, the Viking swords would be perfect fro you. You can get yours today at http://www.replicaswordsource.com.

  7. #7 JULIA
    May 13, 2009

    HOW LONG AGO WAS IT MADE?

  8. #8 Martin R
    May 13, 2009

    About 1100 years ago.