10th century AD. An elaborate Petersen Type L or O variant double-edged sword; the straight blade pattern-welded tapering from a width of about 5cm at the cross-guard; the point is still well preserved; both cutting edges show strong traces of employment on the battlefield with battle-nicks along their length; the tapered fullers, are 2cm at their origin adjacent to the cross-guard, and are still well preserved running from their largest width of 2.5cm to 1cm at the lower extreme end where they run to about 9cm of the point; the blade goes straight into the cross-guard with a broad and long tang, befitting such a fine blade; the boat-shaped cross is 5cm wide; its rounded ends are highly decorated with silver inlaid, onto which intricate whirling interlaced patterns are traced, and curve gently towards the blade; the massive pommel has a curved base-element and five lobes, decorated with the same silver inlaid patterns visible on the lower guard; the pommel knob, decorated in the same way, is attached to the pommel guard through rivets. See Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingesverd, Oslo, 1919; Oakeshott, R.E., The Archaeology of the weapons, London, 1960; Peirce, I.,Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002; ?abi?ski, G., Viking Age Swords from Scotland, in Acta Militaria Mediaevalia III, Kraków, Sanok, 2007, pp.29-84; the sword finds parallels in various similar Viking age specimens of L variant; two very similar swords have been published by Peirce (2002, pp.77-81), both preserved at the British Museum; one of these is the famous Witham sword (Oakeshott, 1960, p.134); from the other side the combination of the curved guard with the five lobes seems to design an evolution of the pattern of variant O, like the sword of Oslo University (from Vestre Berg, Løiten parish, Akershus, Norway, see Peirce, 2002, pp.87ff.), or more evidently like the Gunnarsby (Rygge, Smaal) sword (Petersen, 1919, fig.105"). Petersen includes in the second group of O type eight swords exemplars, all having like our specimen, hilts covered in silver plates. 1.3 kg, 91cm (35 3/4"). From a North West London collection; previously acquired in the 1980s; accompanied by an archaeological report of military specialist Dr. Raffaele D’Amato. Most probably our specimen is a river find, like most swords of this type. The most remarkable part of this sword is the magnificently decorated hilt, the result of fine craftsmanship. The very fine state of preservation suggests that this sword was protected by Glødeskall, a compound of iron and oxygen created when an iron object is subjected to intense heat, able to provide some protection against corrosion, by means of the shell (skall) or skin which the process forms around the object (Peirce, 2002, p.36, n.2"). The hilt of type O swords, especially their beautiful five-lobed pommels and cross-guards, were usually completely covered in a brilliant copper alloy or silver. The decoration of the guard is very similar to a sword of type O auctioned in 2013, and, owing to its lavish decoration, combining Roman and Norse elements, was said to belong to the Varangian Guard. Moreover also our specimen, like the one auctioned in 2013, has a pommel made of ferrous metal, rather than the copper alloy more commonly used for the hilts of type O. The only known type O Viking sword from Scotland is from Eriskay, generally dated to 900-950 AD, and has a pommel and a cross piece made of an iron core covered of bronze (?abi?ski, 2007, p.63"). This is typical of the swords of the second group O, in which the guards are made of iron with a cover of silver plates, exactly like our specimen. The silver plates are decorated with animal ornamentation and with a more ordinary twined band, like here, in a sword auctioned in 2013 and the Gunnarsby sword. Unlike the sword auctioned in 2013, the blade inlay is entirely typical for the proposed 10th century dating. The decoration is akin to the Hiberno-Norse style, which is the most commonly identified regional attribution of the Type O hilt group.