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Post by JGonzalez on Jan 20, 2015 14:12:34 GMT
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Luka
Senior Forumite
Posts: 2,848
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Post by Luka on Jan 20, 2015 17:22:00 GMT
I don't have time to read this now, but yes, this is something that people should be aware of when they talk about "viking swords". Scandinavians often hilted frankish blades with hilts of local style,but mostly copied frankish styled hilts and copied frankish blade shapes and construction techniques... I doubt many scandinavians could afford frankish blades, but most if not all scandinavian made blades tried to look as similar as possible to frankish blades except norwegian single edged swords. Only hilt types I can think of which are probably scandinavian development are B, C, F and G. Types with upper guard only with no pommel cap could also be local development. Relationship between B, C and H is interesting, I think no one really knows if H is development from simpler B and C or if B and C are simpler versions of H. I actually think type H might have appeared first in frankish lands and B and C are norse simplifications of it. It was often assumed H is a scandinavian type but it is too usual in frankish and slavic lands to be only adopted by Franks from Norse, I think Franks developed it. I think it is also not by accident that hilt types we are quite sure are scandinavian local hilts are most often found of locally made single edged blades.
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Post by Bryan Heff on Jan 20, 2015 21:54:11 GMT
I imagine that a lot of swords labeled as "Viking" are actually Frankish. And if I am wrong ( which is very common) why do we not see or hear of very many Frankish swords compared to the crap load of Viking sword finds, or so it seems to me. Is it related perhaps to Viking burial practices compared to the Franks?
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Luka
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Posts: 2,848
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Post by Luka on Jan 20, 2015 22:39:18 GMT
Well, Franks as Christians did bury swords a lot less than vikings, but we still have enough of their swords... Geibig in his book about development of medieval swords covers only swords found in german areas and there are quite a few of these "viking", actually frankish swords in his book...
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