Mid 11th-mid 13th century AD. A Western Middle Age iron sword of Oakeshott type XI or XII, with two-edged blade, gently tapering profile with round point, shallow fuller, parallel-sided straight lower guard (cross style 1), medium tang and disc pommel (type H) with chamfered sides; the flat blade, massive and long with battle nicks; it shows moderate corrosion along its length; it appears to be caustically cleaned; strong battle weapon, but well balanced in hand and beautifully proportioned. See Oakeshott, E. The sword in the Age of the Chivalry, Woodbridge, 1964 (1994); Dufty, A.R., European swords and daggers at the tower of London,London,1974; Oakeshott, E. Records of the Medieval Sword,Woodbridge, 1991; the sword belongs to the type of 'war sword', but its characteristic are such that it is not easy to determine if it belongs to the type XI or type XII of the Oakeshott's classification; one side is a good parallel to an English sword kept in the Tower Armoury (Dufty, 1974, pl.2, letter a), found in a peat bog near Newbury; as well as, with the specimen from Fornhams, Suffolk (Oakeshott,1991, p.62, type XI 9), both of type XI; from the other side the sword has all the characteristics of many swords of XII typology: quillons and pommel are identical to two swords excavated by Dr. Jorma Leppa-Aho in 1950, from late Viking graves, one having a crossguard identical to our specimen and the other identical pommel (Oakeshott, 1991, p.69, lett. V and VI); and another similar specimen is a sword (also a water find from a river or a lake in Denmark) in the Nationalmuseet of Copenhagen. Also the taper of the blade, points more to the nature of the XII typology. We should recall here the observations by Oakeshott about the classification of the swords when they present similar but difficult characteristics: there are so many examples of them, where the fuller is nearly or quite nearly three-quarter long, or where the hilt is of a clear early shape, or where the taper is very slight and the point rounded, or when the grip is longer or shorter than the standard 4” to 4.5” single hand length, that it is really difficult to categorise them to any of the types. 1.3 kg, 96cm (37 1/2"). From an important private family collection of arms and armour; acquired on the European art market in the 1980s, and thence by descent; accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato. The 'Knightly' sword derived, via the swords of the Viking and Migration periods, from the long iron swords of the historical Celts and from the Roman Spatha. Towards the end of the Migration period, broader and heavier blades predominated, and at some time about 900 AD, during the Viking period, a new type of blade came into use, better balanced and more graceful in form. These blades were of the same proportions as some of the old Celtic ones, 30 long from hilt to point and about 2 wide at the hilt; they taper more sharply than their immediate predecessors and their point of balance was nearer to the hilt, so one can wield them with greater agility and speed. From this last type of blade, with the development of which the well known bladesmith's workshop of Ulfberht has been tentatively associated, sprang the sword of the later Middle Ages (Oakeshott, 1964 (1994), pp.12-13").