Ulfberht Sword

Origins

In the ninth century the best swords in northern Europe came from the Frankish kingdoms of the Carolingian emperors, whose Rhineland workshops made blades in quantity. The Franks tried to keep them out of the hands of their enemies: capitularies of Charlemagne and his successors forbade the sale of swords and armor to the Vikings and Slavs. The bans failed, and Frankish blades went north by trade, as gifts and as plunder. Among them was a group inscribed in inlaid iron with the name +VLFBERH+T. The name is Frankish, and it was probably the mark of a workshop or family of smiths rather than of one man, since the swords were made over some two centuries. About 170 are known, most from Norway and the rest of Scandinavia, and a few from as far away as Russia and Spain.

Design & Construction

Ulfberht blades are typical swords of the Viking Age: double-edged, about ninety centimeters long, with a wide fuller down the middle to lighten the blade and a rounded or slightly tapering point, fitted to hilts of the types classified by the Norwegian archaeologist Jan Petersen — a short crossguard and a lobed or rounded pommel. What makes some of them remarkable is the metal. The British metallurgist Alan Williams analyzed a number of Ulfberht blades and found that some were forged from steel with a high and even carbon content and very little slag, a quality he compared to crucible steel made in Central Asia and the Middle East. Whether such steel was imported along the trade routes of the Volga or made in Europe is still debated. Other Ulfberht blades are ordinary iron, and some carry the inscription in the form +VLFBERHT+, with the crosses placed differently or letters misspelled; these are generally thought to be copies, made because the name sold swords.

Combat Use

A sword was the most expensive weapon a Viking warrior could own, and a fine blade was a mark of status, handed down through a family and given names in the sagas. In battle it was used one-handed, with the Viking Round Shield on the other arm, alongside the spear, the Viking Battle Axe and the Dane Axe. The superior steel of the best Ulfberht blades would have given them an edge that held and a blade that bent rather than broke — a real advantage in a fight. Such swords were carried by the Vikings on raids across Europe and by professional war bands such as the Jomsvikings.

Legacy

The Ulfberht swords became widely known through a 2012 television documentary, and their steel has been the subject of much research since. They stand between the Roman Spatha of late antiquity and the knightly Arming Sword and later Longsword of the high Middle Ages. Original blades are held in museums in Norway, Germany and elsewhere, and modern smiths have made replicas using crucible steel to test the theories about how they were forged.