Famous Viking Swords: The Ulfberht, the Saga Blades, the Great Finds and the Types
Ask what the most famous Viking sword is and you get three different kinds of answer. There are the swords famous for their steel, the Ulfberht blades whose inscription was worth counterfeiting a thousand years ago. There are the swords famous from the sagas, Skofnung, Tyrfing and Gram, which may or may not have existed. And there are the swords famous because they survived, pulled from rivers and graves and now lying in museum cases in Oslo, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm. This article covers all three, then the types the Norse actually carried, how a Viking sword differs from the later longsword, and what a good reproduction of any of them looks like.
The Ulfberht: fame earned with steel
Between roughly 800 and 1000 AD a workshop, or a succession of them, in the Frankish Rhineland produced blades inlaid with the name +VLFBERH+T. About 170 survive across Europe, most in Scandinavia, and the best of them were made from crucible steel of a purity nothing else in Europe matched for centuries. That quality made the name a brand, and the brand was faked: many surviving Ulfberhts are period counterfeits with the crosses in the wrong place or the letters misspelled, made from ordinary pattern-welded iron. A second Frankish name, Ingelrii, appears on a smaller group of blades in the same tradition. Frankish kings tried repeatedly to ban the export of swords to the Norse, which tells you how good they were and how badly the Vikings wanted them. The Ulfberht guide covers the steel, the inscriptions and the fakes in detail.
The named swords of the sagas
The sagas were written down in Iceland two or three centuries after the events they describe, so their swords sit between history and legend. The ones that recur:
Skofnung, the sword of the legendary Danish king Hrólf Kraki, said to have been taken from his burial mound and to carry a healing stone in its hilt; it reappears in the Icelandic sagas in the hands of Skeggi of Midfirth and his descendants.
Tyrfing, the cursed sword of the Hervarar saga, forged by dwarves, which had to kill a man every time it was drawn and brought about three great evils.
Gram, the sword Sigurd used to kill the dragon Fáfnir in the Völsunga saga, reforged from the pieces of his father's blade. It is the ancestor of every broken-and-reforged sword in modern fantasy.
Legbiter, the sword of Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, who died in Ireland in 1103; the name suggests what it was known for.
Hneitir, the sword of St Olaf, said to have been carried at Stiklestad in 1030 and later kept as a relic.
Quernbiter, given by the English king Athelstan to his foster son Hakon the Good, and named for having cut through a millstone.
Gungnir, which sometimes appears in lists like this, is Odin's spear rather than a sword, and several other names that circulate online have no saga source.
The great finds and where to see them
The swords that survive best are the ones that went into water or waterlogged ground, where the silt kept oxygen away from the iron. The River Witham sword in the British Museum, the Thames finds, and the Gokstad, Birka and Hedeby grave swords are the standard examples. Two Norwegian finds stand out. The Sæbø sword, found in 1825, carries a runic inscription inlaid in the blade. The Langeid sword, excavated in 2011 from a grave in southern Norway, has a hilt wrapped in gold and silver wire and is among the finest late Viking swords ever recovered. The Ballateare burial on the Isle of Man and the Vreta Kloster finds in Sweden are the other ones you will see cited. The museums to visit are the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, the British Museum in London, the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm. Genuine Viking swords do come up at auction, at prices that reflect their rarity, and anything offered cheaply as an original is not one.
The types Vikings actually carried
The Viking sword descends from the spatha, the long cavalry sword of the late Roman army, by way of the Migration period. Through the 8th and 9th centuries the Frankish, or Carolingian, hilt style became standard across Scandinavia: a short guard, a one-handed grip and a lobed or brazil-nut pommel, often inlaid with silver or copper wire. The blade is broad, double-edged, fullered and slightly tapered, 70 to 90 cm long, with the whole sword weighing 1 to 1.5 kg; the fuller alone removes about a third of the weight a flat blade would carry. In 1919 the Norwegian archaeologist Jan Petersen classified the surviving hilts into 26 lettered types, and his letters are still how museums date a Viking sword. Type H is the most common find; Type S carries the elaborate decorated hilts; Type X, with its plain guard and broad blade, is the bridge to the knightly arming sword of the 11th century. Our spatha and seax article covers the ancestor and the companion knife, and the Carolingian sword guide covers the Frankish hilt.
Viking sword, longsword and the swords of kings
The two get confused constantly. A Viking sword is a one-handed cutting sword of the 8th to 11th centuries, 28 to 37 inches overall, used with a shield. A longsword is a hand-and-a-half sword of the 13th to 16th centuries, 40 to 50 inches, used in both hands against plate armour and without a shield. The one grew out of the other, but they are three hundred years apart. As for the swords of kings, Excalibur belongs to British Arthurian legend, not the Norse world. The real royal swords of the period are Joyeuse, the sword attributed to Charlemagne and used in French coronations, and the Sword of St Maurice used in the Holy Roman Empire. Our swords of kings article covers those.
Why a Viking sword was worth so much
A sword cost roughly what a farm cost, and most warriors carried a spear and an axe instead. What made a sword valuable was the labour in it: a pattern-welded core of twisted iron and steel rods, forge-welded and edged with harder steel, then hardened, tempered and polished, with a hilt that might carry weeks of inlay work. Swords were named, inherited, given by kings to bind loyalty, buried with their owners, and thrown into rivers and bogs as offerings, which is why so many of the finds come out of water. The forging guide covers how the blades were made.
Owning a reproduction
Every famous type above exists as a modern hand-forged sword. Our range includes the Ulfberht in Damascus at 38 inches, the Carolingian at 38 inches, Petersen Type S and Type H swords, the Gjermundbu sword and the 50 inch Viking King, all in 1095 high carbon or pattern-welded Damascus steel, with prices and construction stated on each listing. The Viking sword buying guide explains what to check before ordering, the Viking swords collection holds the full range, and the custom Viking sword builder lets you choose the steel, length and fittings. Owning a reproduction is legal in every US state.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous Viking sword?
The Ulfberht: Frankish blades of the 9th to 11th centuries inlaid with the name +VLFBERH+T, about 170 of which survive, the best made from crucible steel far purer than anything else in Europe at the time.
What are the legendary swords of the Norse sagas?
Skofnung, Tyrfing, Gram, Legbiter, Hneitir and Quernbiter are the ones with saga sources. Gungnir is a spear.
What is the best-preserved Viking sword?
The Langeid sword, found in Norway in 2011 with its gold and silver wire hilt intact, is among the finest. River finds such as the Witham sword survive well because the silt kept oxygen from the iron.
What is a Petersen type?
Jan Petersen's 1919 classification of Viking sword hilts into lettered types, A to Z. Museums still use it to date swords. Type H is the commonest find, Type S the decorated hilt, Type X the late broad-bladed form.
What is the difference between a Viking sword and a longsword?
A Viking sword is a one-handed cutting sword of the 8th to 11th centuries, 28 to 37 inches overall, used with a shield. A longsword is a hand-and-a-half sword of the 13th to 16th centuries, 40 to 50 inches, used in both hands.
Was Excalibur a Viking sword?
No. Excalibur is Arthurian legend. The best-known real royal sword of the Viking centuries is Joyeuse, attributed to Charlemagne.
About the author
Owen Juarbal is Director of Marketing and head writer at Battling Blades. He has been with the company since 2021 and writes or reviews every guide the team publishes. Read more about Battling Blades.
