Ulfberht swords

Ulfberht is the name given to a group of a medieval swords, dated to the 9th to 11th centuries. The swords characteristically have blades inlaid with the inscription +VLFBERHT+ (and variants). The inscription is a Frankish personal name and became the basis of a trademark of sorts, used by multiple bladesmiths for several centuries.

The first systematic study of this type of sword is the one by Lorange (1889). There are about 170 extant Ulfberht blades, about a quarter from Norway alone.

The swords are at the transitional point between the Viking sword and the high medieval knightly sword. Most have blades of Oakeshott type X. They are also the starting point of the (much more varied) high medieval tradition of blade inscriptions. The reverse side of the blades are inlaid with a geometric pattern, usually a braid pattern between vertical strokes. There are also numerous blades which have this type of geometric pattern but no Vlfberht inscription. Ulfberht swords are found throughout Europe, most numerously in Northern Europe (especially in Norway). They most likely originate in the Rhineland region of Germany (i.e. in Austrasia, the core region of the Frankish realm, later part of the Franconian stem duchy), but were clearly sought-after, prestigious artefacts in Viking Age Scandinavia. Three specimens were found as far afield as Volga Bulgaria (at the time part of the Volga trade route). The prevalence of Ulfberht swords in the archaeological record of Northern Europe does not imply that such swords were more widely used there than in Francia; the Germanic pagan practice of placing weapons in warrior graves greatly favours the archaeological record in such regions of Europe that were still pagan (and indeed most of the Ulfberht swords found in Norway are from warrior graves), while sword finds in from continental Europe and England after the 7th century are mostly limited to stray finds, e.g. in riverbeds.

The original Ulfberht sword type dates to the 9th or 10th century, but swords with the Ulfberht inscription continued to be made at least until the end of the Viking Age in the 11th century. A notable late example found in Eastern Germany, dated to the 11th or possibly early 12th century, represents the only specimen that combines the Vlfberht signature with a Christian "in nomine domini" inscripition (+IINIOMINEDMN). Ulfberht swords were made during a period when European swords were still predominantly pattern welded ("false Damascus"), but with larger blooms of steel  gradually becoming available, so that higher quality swords made after AD 1000 are increasingly likely to have crucible steel blades. The group of Ulfberht swords includes a wide spectrum of steel and production method. One example from a 10th century grave in Nemilany, Moravia, has a pattern-welded core with welded-on hardened cutting edges. Another example appears to have been made from high-quality hypoeutectoid steel possibly imported from Central Asia.