Date:
Find-place: River Witham close to Monks Abbey in Lincoln, England
Original can be found: British Museum

Let us introduce the replica of the sword inspired by the sword found in the River Witham close to Monks Abbey in Lincoln, England.

Few information about the original:

The sword was found in 1848 in the River Witham during widening of its riverbed. Now it can be seen in the British Museum. Thanks to the sediment there was almost no corrosion on the sword.

The overall length of the sword is 91,5 cm, its blade is 77,8 cm long. The blade is more than 6 cm wide at the crossguard with wide fuller, that ends 8 cm from the point. The fuller is about 2,9 cm wide at the crossguard and, just as the blade, it gradually tapers towards the point. The fuller has pattern-welded inlaid inscription „+LEUTLRIT“ close to the crossguard. The final „T“ is inverted. On the reverse side of the blade is pattern-welded reversed „S“ set in a rectangle.

According to individual components we came to a conclusion, that the pommel, made out of two parts, was probably hollow. The trilobed upper part of the pommel and the upper crossguard are fixed together by two rivets. The lower and the upper crossguards of the sword are decorated with series of copper-alloy diamonds. The area around the diamonds is covered with silver. On the upper part of the pommel is the same decoration as on the upper and the lower crosguard. There are wide grooves between the trilobed pommel and the upper crossguard and same grooves are between individual lobes. These grooves were often supplied with twisted silver wires.

Our replica:
Our relica is adjusted for fencing. The blade was slightly narrowed to keep the overall weight of the sword. The sword does not have any decorations in comparison with the original, neither inscription on the blade nor decoration on the crossguard and pommel. If someone is interested in the replica including decorations, do not hesitate to contact us.

According to overall weight of the original sword, its proportions and the point of balance, we decided, that the pommel was hollow, therefore we included this fact into production of our replica. The working process and shots of the hollow pommel can be seen in the photo gallery. We managed to keep both the total weight of the sword and roughly the point of balance as it was on the original. The total weight rose a bit cause of the weight of the grip, that was not preserved on the original. Hope you like our replica. You can find the result in the photos section, where the making process is documented as well.

Description:
– double edge blunt blade
– overall length 91,5 cm
– blade 77,8 cm
– blade width 5,5 cm
– point of balance (CoG) 17 cm
– center of percussion (CoP) 54 cm
– wooden grip wrapped with linen thread and covered with leather
– weight 1,25 kg

Source:
Oakeshott, E (1991). Records of the Medieval Sword
Androshchuk, F. (2014). Viking swords: Swords and Social Aspects of Weaponry in Viking Age Societies. Stockholm.
Ian G. Peirce (2002). Swords of the Viking age
The British Museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=65088&partId=1