The Viking Sword
Contrary to popular misconceptions, the ostensibly primitive Norse were actually among the worlds best metalurgists. 500 years before the invention of the Barcelona (water powered) Hammer and water powered bellows made consistantly high quality carbon steel widely available to swordsmiths throughout Europe and the Mediterranian, the Norse were making weapons which were possibly superior to those made at any time, anywhere else in the world, before or since.
Using a technique now called 'pattern welding', they combined the tiny available billets of hard (and therefore potentially sharp) but brittle high carbon steel with soft but flexible and resilliant low carbon steel or iron. They actively sought the purest sources of iron including from ancient meteorite. This allowed the viking smiths to forge weapons which were both capable of maintaining a razor edge and extraordinarily flexible. Norse swords were so supple that one could bend a blade up to 6 inches and have it return to true without damaging it. The "pattern welding" process, similar in effect and appearance to Indian Wootz (or "Damascus") steel, also produced swords which were so sharp that according to Viking Sagas, one method of testing these weapons was to place one hilt first in a cold stream, and float a hair down to it. If it cut the hair, it was considered a good sword.
Some historians have speculated that as with Wootz steel, Viking Pattern Welded swords may have also included trace elements of rare metals such as Vanadium which through subtle effects at the molecular level can vastly strengthen cementite (iron / carbon molecules). It is also known that by using bone as a source of carbon for smelting iron, the Vikings were adding phosphorous, another chemically significant trace element, to their steel.
A modern reproduction of a Pattern Welded Viking Sword by knifemaker Ken Cashen
By the later tenth century this technology was lost, and when old pattern welded swords were found by Vikings in later years (often looted from the old barrows of their ancestors) they were believed to be magical, and to have been made by giants or trolls. When they recognized the pattern welded or Damascus pattern in a sword (which only happend when the sword was rapidly changnig temperature, such as after being thrust in the snow and then warmed by ones breath) they called the pattern they saw "the wyrm in the blade" or "the serpent in the blade"
It is also perhaps counterintuitive that traditional Norse or 'Viking' swords were extraordinarily supple and light weapons. Made with a deep fuller to reduce weight (no, that isn't a "blood groove" people) most Viking Swords weighed under 2 and a half pounds. Some weighed as little as just over 24 ounces. This is a good thing since typical Viking Swords had very small single hand grips even though they were generally between 34" - 39" long.
Viking Swords were normally used in conjunction with large shields, and they are excellent weapons for this purpose, (as is our padded viking sword sparring weapon!). Most Viking Swords lacked sharp points and were too flexible to be good for thrusting, especially through hard armor or bone. These were primarily cutting and slashing weapons, though no doubt in a pinch they could be used to thrust.
An exquisite reproduction of a 10th Century Viking Sword from Arms and Armor Inc.
Pattern Welding in Viking Swords
Ornate Gold Hilted Viking Sword found at grave site in Denmark
Viking Answer Lady - fantastic resource for Academic Viking Information of all kinds.
Viking Weapons from the British Museum
