The Snartemo Sword was excavated from a Norwegian tomb in 1933. The burial dates to about 550 AD. Besides the sword, the tomb contained other weapons, tools, and a Roman glass cup.
The sword is unique; no others so fine survive from Scandinavia in that period, and the gold decorative plates contain unique elements. According to the
Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo,
We find mythological figures connected to Odin and the ruling ideology of the time. The ring on the hilt likely symbolizes an oath between the chieftain and his loyal men.
The sword also had an interesting history in the twentieth century. The sword has a band of swastikas, which, for some reason, are not shown in any photograph at the museum web site. This caught the interest of the Nazis, and they sent men to appropriate it and bring it back to Berlin. But it had been hidden in a cave during the German invasion, and it remained hidden. The museum offered to make the Germans a replica to take back with them, and they agreed, so it was made; in the museum, the real sword and the fake are sometimes displayed side by side.
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