Sverd

"For the Norwegian musician, see Steinar Sverd Johnsen."

A sverd is an Anglo-Saxon term meaning “sword.” The type of sword this is typically referred to is one that emerged during the 8th and 9th centuries and is known to have been used in most Viking cultures.

Definition

The sverd is a double edged slashing sword that measured around 38-42 inches in blade length and was primarily used with one hand leaving the other hand free to hold a shield. Made of woven rods of iron and steel, the sverd was rugged and flexible at the same time. Also, the sverd was one of the few swords at this time able to keep its long straight blade due to introduction of carbon into its crafting by using a unique bonding process.

More so than the blade, the sverd’s distinctive hilt was its greatest characteristic. Viking warriors fortunate enough to possess one of these swords held them in high esteem. Much like samurai and their katanas, the possession of a sverd was a sign of social status and the ownership of one denoted nobility and wealth. Like most of their jewelry, the hilts and pommels of these swords were intricately engraved with animal and tribal designs. The majority of the decorations would reside on the end of the handle in what is known as a “flower” or “lobed” pommel and cast in a precious or decorative metal.

History

A later cousin of the spatha, the sverd is a much longer weapon usually measuring from 38-42 inches while the spatha was only known to have reached 25 inches. It would later be replaced by the longsword as the single handed melee weapon of infantry in Europe around the 10th and 11th centuries. Though found in numerous village sites these swords were not the mainstay weapon of most Viking warriors. The typical Viking carried a distinctive axe as their primary hand weapon known as the bearded axe. For some two hundred years Anglo-Saxons possessed the longest and sturdiest swords in Europe and parts of Asia which they used to great effect against those unlucky enough to be seen as wealthy enough for conquest.

While also great tools of battle, sverds were also passed down from generation to generation as family heirlooms. The older and more battles a sword had been in the greater its value in many cases. Sverds were often given names reflecting past exploits or battles such as ‘Gramr’ (fierce) or ‘Fotbitr’ (legbiter). In some cases this would make them famous to the point that swords’ names were sometimes better known than the men that carried them since most sverds would long out-live their original owners.

At the end of the 9th and start of the 10th century, the influx of cultures mixing with Vikings, Normans, and Scandinavians caused the exchange of smithing techniques to spread and their method of sword-making to reach further until the very conquest and expansion of the Viking led to birth of the longsword by European blacksmiths building on the Viking methods. By the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the majority of infantry that possessed swords went to battle wielding a medieval style longsword.

How they were made

One of the most distinctive parts of the sverd was its creation. Its predecessors, the gladius and spatha, were reliable to a degree but lacked the reach the sverd had. Up until the 8th century the technology, or rather the knowledge, of how to make a longer sword that wouldn’t break during the rigors of battle was still a mystery. Who developed this technology is lost to time, yet the knowledge of the process was preserved. The start of the sword making process was the dividing of iron shavings into small bits the size of a kernel of corn. These shavings were then fed to domesticated ducks kept in a nearby pen. Somehow during the digestive process, the iron shavings within the ducks were bonded with carbon (possibly a combination of stomach acid and enzymes). Upon expulsion of the shavings from the duck, the carbon-laced pieces were collected and hammered together to make primitive carbon steel rods. These rods were then twisted with iron rods and hammered into a long, durable blade. The tangs on these swords were thick and solidly built handles ensured these weapons would not break mid-battle.

Surviving sverds are fairly numerous in Scandinavia and parts of Russia, the most lavishly decorated being in burial mounds. The majority of their blades still intact, the method by which the Vikings created these swords not only ensured their survival through countless battles, but also the wear of time across a thousand years.