The oldest sword presented here is a Viking sword from the 10th century. It was excavated in 1969 in Fullerö at Gamla Uppsala (north of Stockholm, Sweden). The blade is bent in a c. 45° angle and corroded apart from a section on the upper half. LOA is 915 mm (36"), with the blade being 758 mm (29.8"). The width is 54 mm (2.1"). The grip length is 95 mm (3.74"). The total weight is 1154 grams (2.55 lbs.). The hilt is of Petersen type H and decorated with a simple geometrical gold (?) inlay. The interesting thing with this sword is that the blade is in pristine condition in the upper half of it. Here one has a very rare chance to study a Viking blade "as good as new". There's pattern-welded ("Damascus") steel in the fuller, going right to the edges of it, which can be seen here. The edges themselves are of plain steel and pretty sharp - sharp enough to cut paper after a 1000 years! This is a very well worth noting, as there has been some debate whether the Viking sword were all that sharp.

Photos by Peter Johnsson, reproduced with permission