Ethnographic Arms & Armour

From Finnish newspaper "Iltalehti" 17/4

"Metal detectorist Michael Finnberg's pulse soared when he realized he was holding a Viking-era sword.

- At first I thought it was an old door hinge, until I saw a blood trail and realized it was a sword blade, he describes his discovery.

The Finnish Museum Agency has confirmed that the sword originates from the Viking Age. The Viking Age was lived in the years 800–1050 after the start of the countdown.

- After all, it's always an unreal feeling. Your hands start to shake and you get excited when you discover new history. It's always wonderful when we get more ancient remains on the map of Finland, Finnberg enthuses.

The sword was found in Salo in a place that Finnberg had planned to investigate for a long time.

- Now we asked the land owner for permission to investigate, and we didn't gather around to investigate the area for a long time, when the metal mesh already started beeping.

Finnberg is an experienced metal detector. He has been exploring the terrain with a metal detector for seven years, and this was not his first sword discovery. Earlier, he says that he found two swords from the Iron Age.

Although according to Finnberg's assessment, the Finnish Museum Agency receives a lot of notifications about Iron Age objects, sword finds are not everyday.

- There are still surprisingly many of them in Finland. Although there has been a rich Iron Age here, it is still a rare find. Not every searcher will find a sword, he estimates.

A treasure trove of Viking swords
Finland could be described as a treasure trove of Viking swords, as there are already more than 400 discoveries from that period. More Viking swords have been found only in Sweden and Norway. This challenges the perception of our country as a poor remote region of the Viking Age.

The background of the abundant finds is probably the increased enthusiasm for the hobby of metal detecting in recent years.

During the Viking Age, when the body was cremated, according to the deceased, his equipment and weapons were placed on the pyre. Most of Finland's Viking swords have been found in cremations. According to Finnberg, swords are sometimes preserved very well due to fire patina, but the sword found now was badly covered in rust.

The dreaded weapon
The Viking sword was a feared and effective weapon. However, during the burial, the swords were broken and bent because it was believed that the deceased would be able to use them against the living. The sword found by Finnberg was no exception, as it had been bent and the hilt and pommel had been removed.

- Most likely, the detached parts are in that same grave, or somewhere else nearby, Finnberg suspects.

The most legendary Viking swords are marked with "ulfberht" on the hilt of the sword. 170 swords with this inscription have been found in Europe, of which the second most have been found in Finland. The writing on the sword found by Finnberg was impossible to find because of the rust. He says he is waiting for the sword to undergo more detailed examinations, such as X-rays, to determine whether it is a rare ulfberht sword.

The sword was found in Salo on Monday 17.4. MICHAEL FINNBERG