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Old 7th November 2019, 01:45 PM   #23
Ibrahiim al Balooshi
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
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I am quite fascinated in the study of this important weapons history which takes a bit of understanding since there are some strange languages involved such as OLD ENGLISH, WEST SAXON, NORTHUMBRIAN, (which I can understand quite well) OLD NORWEGIAN AND FRANKISH to name but few> I blame history teaching in the curriculum for this mess since I cannot recall a single fact from the Frankish period or the other language areas mentioned !! It wasn't taught.

I spent a few days searching in Beowolf this week as I was sure something would surface>>It didn't. ING means meadow but I think it carries a second meaning as a name perhaps the beginning of a makers name as Ingel points to the place ; ENGLAND. I cannot trace RII or RI... but logically could mean of England OR as suggested somewhere that the names VLFBERHT AND INGELRI may govern the middle range of Viking Swords and the later range> and I offer no idea why both names could appear on the same sword except where they may be overlapping periods .

This is not the name of the swordsmith since swords like this were being made for 300 years.

It is said they were Frankish weapons and spread through war and trade to other places. There is another school of thought which suggests that the Viking raids down the coasts of what is now the UK weren't actually Vikings PER SE... but were factions of breakaway nations from the Holy Roman Empire Warring nations around the Frankish Empire.

I found it interesting that the V at front of VLFBEHRT is its rightful spelling and that U only turned up in the I4thC pointing to counterfeit possibilities.

What is also interesting are the runes>

As well as sword names, and sword oaths, there was also a tradition of Vikings warriors inscribing runes on weapons, particularly swords. In the Icelandic Konungsbók, verse 6 of the Norse poem Sigrdrífumál teaches how to engrave runes on a sword to provide protection:

Heres a famous rune;

Sigrúnar þú skalt kunna,
ef þú vilt sigr hafa,
ok rísta á hialti hiǫrs,
sumar á véttrimum,
sumar á valbǫstum,
ok nefna tysvar Tý

Victory runes you must know
if you will have victory,
and carve them on the sword's hilt,
some on the grasp
and some on the inlay,
and name Tyr twice.

Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 7th November 2019 at 02:00 PM.
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