A 1100 year-old Viking sword has been pulled from an Oxfordshire river in a rare discovery unearthed by a magnet fisherman. The weapon was found in the River Cherwell last year and has now been confirmed to date back to between 850–975 AD. [1150×640]
by Party_Judgment5780
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Trevor Penny was searching for lost and discarded objects in the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire when he made the discovery. The magnet fisher had been down on his luck that day and only pulled scaffolding poles from the water, he told Live Science in a message on Facebook. When Penny lugged out the sword, he didn’t immediately recognize what it was.
“I was on the side of the bridge and shouted to a friend on the other side of the bridge, ‘What is this?'” Penny, who is a member of Thame Magnet Fishing Facebook group, recalled in the message. “He came running over shouting, ‘It looks like a sword!'” Penny immediately uploaded images of the sword to Google to try to identify it. “Whatever photo angle I tried was coming up with Viking sword,” Penny said. The magnet fisher then contacted the Oxfordshire county liaison officer responsible for recording archaeological finds made by the public, and took the sword to be examined by experts. The sword, only provisionally dated until now, has been authenticated as Viking and estimated to date as far back as 1200 years ago.
The weapon dates to a period when Vikings, who were originally pagans from Scandinavia, traveled to the British Isles to plunder, conquer and trade with the ruling Saxons. The Vikings set foot on British soil in 8th Century AD, having raided a monastery on Lindisfarne, an island off Britain’s northeast coast, in 793 AD. Similar raids in Britain occurred for several centuries and escalated after 835 AD, when larger Viking fleets started arriving and fighting royal armies. British kings gradually reconquered territory seized by the Vikings throughout the 10th Century AD, and unified what was a patchwork of kingdoms into a new realm called Englalond.
Viking incursions and periods of rule continued until 11th Century AD, but Viking Age ended following the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 AD, with the defeat of King of Norway, Harald III Sigurdsson, by the Saxons. The newly discovered Viking sword is at the Oxford museum and may eventually be put on display. “The officer said it was archaeologically rare to find whole swords and treasure of historical importance still intact,” Penny told “There was a little dispute with the landowner and the rivers trust who don’t permit magnet fishing. The latter sent a legal document saying they wouldn’t take action on the condition that the sword was passed to a museum, which I had done.”
“Sveltnic, damn it, stop the boat, my sword fell out!”
Wonder if it’s an Ulfberht 🤔
Every time I hear about weapons being found in water, I think of the heartbroken warrior who lost it over the side of a boat.
“Ragnar, where is your sword? The raid is about to begin.”
“Uh…”
“Did you try to stab a fish and drop it into the river again?”
“No…it was Odin.”
“Odin?”
“Yes. He called it up to Valhalla. He said I am so strong that I do not need a sword. He has that much faith in me.”
“Freaking Ragnar, I swear to gods…”
I’m so jealous of the Europeans where they can just go to some random river and haul up ancient treasures 😂 Australia hasn’t got anything like that haha.
Would you all agree the handle/grip seems quite small? I imagine Vikings would have large strong hands compared to modern people regardless of height.
Awesome.
The handle is so tiny…