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Anne STALSBERG, Oddmunn FARBREGD
been found in Norway, it is also explained why so many Vlfberht blades have been
found there 3 .
When working on the article I sought the advice of my retired collegue Oddmunn
Farbregd, who for several years has been studying the Vang cemetery, the largest late
Iron Age grave field in Norway, where Viking Period weapons also have been found.
He kindly agreed to write, as part 2, about the sword finds from the cemetery Vang as
a highly relevant and illustrative case study.
1. The sword finds (Anne Stalsberg)
More Viking Period swords have been found in Norway than in any other
European country, - more than 3 000, three thousands. It is a a riddle why so many
swords have been found in graves in this sparcely populated country, far north, with
rather sparce nature resources, a tough nature and tough climate. Even to-day only 3.5
% of the country's area of 323 802 square kilometers are cultivated agricultural land.
„More than 3000 swords” is a formidable number, but how formidable it really is,
can be estimated only when compared to the number of finds from other European
countries. At this point researchers face problems, since it is difficult to find out
exactly enough how many swords have been found in the different countries. With
reservations, however, some numbers help throwing the large number of Norwegian
swords into relief. 4
The German archaeologist Alfred Geibig in his Katalogbeilage of
Kombinationstypen 1-19 refers the numbers of swords found in European countries,
based mainly on relevant main literature 5 , but his numbers are obviously too small.
For example he quotes only 267 swords from Norway, obviously unaware that
information about all swords found in Norway is accessible as the catalogs of the
Norwegian archaeological museums have been published since at least 1866 (first in
the yearbooks of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments
(Foreningen til norske fortidsminnesmerkers bevaring), and later in the yearbooks of
the museums.
Geibig's list of swords makes the real Norwegian number far too large in relation
to finds in other countries. According to more recent information from colleagues and
other sources it has been possible to find these numbers:
-Sweden - ca. 700 swords 6
-Denmark - close to 80 swords (information from colleagues)
-Ireland - 90 swords 7
-Poland - 220 swords (personal communication 2010 from Piotr Pudlo)
-Russia - 47 swords
3 cf. Stalsberg 2005; 2009
4
5 Geibig 1991, Katalogbeilage.
6 Martens 2003, p. 52.
7 Walsh 1998, p. 225. The relatively large number of swords in Christian Ireland is explained by the
number of Vikings there, especially from Norway.