8th-9th century AD. A double-edged iron sword of Petersen Type A with a tapering blade showing traces of pattern-welding, battle nicks to both edges; boat-shaped lower guard and tapering tang, boat-shaped upper guard attached to the pommel with a pair of rivets. See Lorange, A.L., Den Yngre Jernalders Svaerd, Bergen, 1889, pl.I, fig.3a-4a, 2d, swords from Hellebt, Viks, Holden and Hevne; Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919, fig.52; Oakeshott, E., The Archaeology of Weapons, Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry, Woodbridge, 1960 (1999); Peirce, I., Swords of the Viking Age, Suffolk, 2002, pl.III (swords in the Bergen Meum), pp.28-29. 827 grams, 84.5cm long (33 1/4"). Acquired 1971-1972. Property of a London, UK, collector; from his father's collection. Apanied by an archaeological report by military specialist Dr. Raffaele D’Amato. Apanied by a positive metal test number HM1463 from an Oxford specialist. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is apanied by AIAD certificate number no.11070-183789. The pattern-welding was particularly exquisite in such weapons, and had proper names in the Viking language. According to Oakeshott (1960 (1999), p.151): 'The decoration is called Mal or Moel, but it was really ed far more often in describing the blade of a sword... There is frequent mention of the wave-sword (Vaegir in Old Norse and Waegsweord in Old English), but even more obscure seemed the descriptive terms for certain blade-patterns: Blood-eddy, for instance (Bloida), or Ann, which is an old Norse word for swathes of mown corn (the same word as the Middle High German Jan"). Of a more robt character are two other terms occurring in a poem as features or parts of a sword: Blodvarp and Idvarp. This could (and probably does) refer to a style of pattern-welding where the pattern is made up of long parallel stripes running lengthwise down the blade.'