Sword from the State Historical Museum, 10th century
An ancient sword with Ingerli's mark, found in 1899, was broken in half already in antiquity. In this form it has been kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. And once it was even published as fragments of two different swords, but then the truth triumphed.
This sword dates back to the 10th century. Its total length is 94 cm, with 77 of them on the blade. The width of the blade at the crossguard is 6. Such a good, solid, cutting sword.
- The hilt is 17 cm high, the shaft of the hilt is 2 cm wide.
- The crossguard is 10,2 cm wide and 1,8 cm high.
- The tip is 8 cm wide and 5 cm high.
Sword from Lvov museum, 12-13 century
In general, cleaning the sword is an incredibly responsible thing to do, because done in haste it can ruin all the sword's decorations. In this case, you should not hurry.
"In order to clean the entire surface of the sword,
English sword master Ewart Oakeshott says in one of his books, "It took many months of work.
"It took many months of work. The rust that covered the sword was loose and dusty, but beneath it was a dense dark layer. The black patina was as hard as flint, so I was only able to remove it from one side of the blade. On the tip and crosspiece, where the metal was softer, it was much easier to remove, but it came off only partially.
.
Similar story happens with almost every ancient sword, and this beauty from the Lvov museum was no exception.
So here it is. Out of 20 swords, 14 of them had stamps. It was a very different one, and not all of them were fully preserved. But when after clearing one of the blades the letters elrii appeared on it, it became clear that the full inscription read as follows: "Ingelrii".
The sword's parameters are as follows:
- The length of the overall 87.7 cm, the length of the blade 75.2 cm, the length of the hilt 12 cm.
- The width of the blade is 4,5 cm at the widest point at the guard.
- The crossguard is 17 cm long and 1.1 cm high.
- The width of the handle shaft is 2 cm.
- The dimensions of the tip are 7.6 cm by 3.3 cm.
Sword from the village of Monastyrishche, 10th century.
And finally, an ancient sword from the village of Monastyrishche in the Orel region - the most appetizing of all. Unfortunately - as is often the case with ancient swords, it is not completely preserved. Part of the blade and the base of the tip are lost.
The only letters we were able to read verbatim on it are the letters nred. It is believed that this is an abbreviation of the name Ingelred, a relative of the word Ingelrii. According to another version, nred is a fragment of the word Inredgerilt, comparable to the form Ingelrilt
The sword is decorated with silver notches on the crossguard and the tip, as well as engraved patterns of intertwining ribbons. The ribbons intertwine two pairs of paws and a pair of animal muzzles, so beloved by the Vikings as decorations.
And before finishing the article with the sizes of the sword from the Monastery, I promise to continue the started topic with stories about the stamps of CEROLT, GICELIN, LEUTFRIT and so on. So subscribe to our site news via email and you won't miss any new articles!
Now the dimensions.
- The length is 61 cm overall, with 47.7 cm for the blade, since, as mentioned, it is chipped.
- The width of the blade at the base is 5.8 cm.
- The crossguard is 12.5 cm wide and 2.8 cm high.
- Handle - length 13.3 cm, width of the stem 1.8 cm,
- Head: width 9,4, height 4,3
You can see this ancient sword in the Hermitage.
Sword from the burial mound at Gorka Nikolskaya, South-East of the Ladoga Region, 10th century
This sword is now stored in the National Museum of Finland - such are the vicissitudes of the history of the states. It was discovered in 1877 in a mound and dates back to 950-1000 years.
Its total length is 84.5 cm.
Since the blade of the sword is torn off, we don't know its length, but we know the exact length of the hilt - 15,5 cm. The width of the blade at the crossguard is 5,8 cm.
- Crossguard. It is 16 cm wide and 1 cm high.
- Handle. The width of the shaft of the hilt is 2,2 cm.
The tip is 9 cm wide and 5 cm high. Unfortunately, it was not possible to keep it together with the sword, so in the photo from the museum in Finland it is hand-drawn.
