Man Finds A Viking Sword In His Garden – A Viking Grave Could Also Be Nearby – Scientists Say

Jan Bartek  - AncientPages.com - One never knows what can be hidden in the ground of one’s backyard. That’s what a man in Norway realized after noticing two rusty pieces of something sticking in the soil.  This prompted a curious investigation, and the man started digging in the garden’s potato field.

The sword is in two pieces, and very rusty and frail. It has now been sent to NTNU in Trondheim for further examination and conservation. (Photo: Kristin Vestly/Møre and Romsdal County)

“It was my husband who found it. He came into the kitchen and said ‘I think this is a part of an old Viking sword. I didn’t think so, I thought it just looked like an old rusty part of a plow,” Heidi Vike Grønningsæter said to the national newspaper VG.

“Grønningsæter lives in Møre og Romsdal, a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway.

As reported by  Science in Norway, “the couple disagreed on what the rusty pieces were and ended up storing them in their garage. And there they remained, for about two years, until it came up in conversation one day.

Grønningsæter and a friend were talking about the Viking Age, when she suddenly remembered the pieces in the garage. To settle the question, she uploaded a photo to the Facebook-page 'Archaeology in Møre and Romsdal'.

There may be more to come

County conservator Bjørn Ringstad, who runs the page, saw the photo, and immediately knew that Grønningsæter’s husband was right. This was definitely a Viking sword.

“You can see it on the hilt,” Ringstad says to VG.

Ringstad immediately got in touch with Grønningsæter, and the sword has now been sent to NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, for conservation and further examination.

And perhaps there is more to come, as where there is a Viking sword, there may be a Viking grave.

“We believe that when there is a sword, then there is a grave nearby. It’s highly likely that we may find more items,” Ringstad says.

Heidi Grønningsæter finds it all very exciting – including the prospect of an archaeological excavation in her garden.

“I’m really excited about what’s next, if they find anything else. I can hardly believe it myself,” she says to VG.

“This is all very special, fun, and exciting. I’m completely overwhelmed.”

Another sword for the Norwegian collection

“The sword looks like it’s from the early Viking Age, based on the shape of the part of the hilt that is still there”, Vegard Vike writes in an email to sciencenorway.no.

Vike is the Head Engineer of Archaeological Conservation at the Museum of cultural history in Oslo.

An expert on Viking Age weapons, Vike chances a dating of the object. Based on the remains of the hilt, he believes the sword may date back to ca 775-925.

The missing pieces of the sword may still be in the garden, Vike believes.

A typology of Viking swords by Jan Petersen, published in 1919, is still considered the go-to place for knowledge about these weapons.

County conservator Bjørn Ringstad runs the Facebook-page where Grønningsæter uploaded the photo of what turned out to be a Viking sword. It's the most exciting find so far which has been posted to the group. (Photo: Kristin Vestly/Møre and Romsdal County)

“To date, around 3000 Viking swords have been found in Norway – this is a doubling of Viking swords since Petersens dissertation was published,” Vike writes.

“So around 10-15 such swords found each year,” he writes.

No other country can boast of as many preserved Viking swords as Norway.

Most of them are from Viking graves, also the ones that are discovered by chance, like the recent garden find.

Viking graves in potato fields

Kjetil Loftsgarden, Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oslo, confirms that the sword most likely comes from a grave.

“You don’t just lose a sword”, he writes in an email to sciencenorway.no.

Loftsgarden is also the editor of the scientific journal Viking.

Other weapons and tools such as a knife, spear, axe, and shield might also be found in a grave with a sword.

There was great variation in burial traditions during the Viking Age, according to Loftsgarden. Some were buried in mounds, others in flat graves.

“These are traces of complex rituals, and it is difficult to find the reason for why some dead were cremated and others not. We find these variations within the same region, and even within the same burial field,” he writes.

The sword was found just about here, in a former potato field. Just nearby there is a small mound - perhaps this was once a grave? (Photo: Kristin Vestly/Møre and Romsdal County)

“Many of the remains of these graves have been damaged or destroyed by agricultural activities and modern construction during the past 200 years. And this is most likely what happened at some time in the potato field in Grønningsæter’s garden,” he writes.

Remains of the wealthy

So who could the sword have belonged to?

Although we have found many swords and traces of swords in Norway, there is reason to assume that only the higher echelons of each region owned a sword, according to Loftsgarden.

The fancier the sword, the higher the owner would be in society.

See also: More Archaeology News

Loftsgarden also reminds us that only a minor part of the population were buried with artifacts such as weapons, tools, or jewelry.

“Most people who lived during the Viking Age left no traces. As is so often the case, the poor of society are missing in our sources,” he comments.

Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com Staff Writer