Christmas comes early to the Yorkshire Museum

This late Viking style sword has just been given to the Yorkshire Museum. It was found in the River Ouse at Cawood is one of the most significant swords ever found in North Yorkshire. Its design is a mixture of late Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking) and early medieval features and this gives it an exciting and interesting place in the development of sword design.

On either side of the blade there is an inscription made up of capital letters. They most likely represent initial letters of a number of Latin words that would make up a saying of some importance to the owner.

The sword was allocated to the Yorkshire Museum through the Government’s ‘Acceptance in Lieu’ programme whereby items considered to be national treasures are gifted to museums to offset some inheritance tax that would otherwise be due from the owner. This is the first such allocation that has ever been made to the Yorkshire Museum.

Described in the big book of swords as of “outstanding importance”. It is probably made by the same hand or ‘workshop’ as a near identical sword in the Oslo Museum which is dated to A.D. 1100.

We will be working with the Cawood Castle Garth local history group to discover more about the sword and its discovery.

Info. by – Andrew Morrison

YORYM : 2007.3086

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