A farmer who was collecting "garbage" in a field in Norway found a rare Viking sword. Photo

In Norway, a farmer and his son found a rare Viking weapon when they were cleaning an abandoned field on their family farm in the municipality of Suldal. The blade showed the outlines of inscriptions in the form of a cross and possibly letters from the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Oyvind Tveitane Lovra said that he decided to pick up some metal "junk" to throw away, and then realized that he was holding an ancient sword. The details were reported by the Archaeological Museum of the University of Stavanger.

Archaeologists Lars Segaard Serensen and Kim Thunheim said they had never seen such finds. Both experts were called to Lovra's farm to meet with the person who found the sword and take the rare artifact for registration.

"This is a very rare thing. The sword was the greatest status symbol in the Viking Age, and it was a privilege to carry it. We archaeologists don't often get the chance to experience something like this," explained Lars Serensen from the County Council's Cultural Heritage Department.

Archaeologists say that this is probably the first time such a sword has been found in Rogaland. On the blade, they found the outlines of inscriptions in the form of a cross and possibly letters. The weapon turned out to be a rare Viking sword, which archaeologists date between 900 and 1050. Slightly shorter than half of its original length, the well-preserved sword is about 15 inches (37 cm) long.

Its T-shaped handle is easily identifiable, and the end appears blunt and rectangular. Norwegian blacksmiths in the Viking Age were able to develop a long tradition of blacksmithing that had emerged long before the Viking Age. In addition, archaeologists studying the weapons of the Normans have found that sword imports were widespread during this period.

According to the Gulling Law, the oldest legal text in Norway, the sword was a mandatory weapon that free men had to carry when they came to a meeting. An X-ray examination of the artifact provided scientists with valuable information. The archaeologists x-rayed the weapon and were surprised to find an inscription on the blade.

The recent find could be the famous Vlfberth sword from the Viking or early Middle Ages. Sigmund Erl, a professor of archaeology at the University of Stavanger, explained that these were high-quality swords produced in the Frankish Empire (the territory of modern Germany) and marked with the name of the weapon maker. Researchers know about 170 such swords. Most of them were found in Scandinavia.

Swords with the Ulfberth inscription were widespread in Europe during the Viking Age. Vlfberth is a Frankish name that may have been used as a "trademark" on these swords. Such weapons have a particularly high carbon content, which makes them extremely durable.

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