A Viking Period Sword from Skäckerfjällen with a Decorated Antler Grip

Swords with decorated grips made of antler seem to have been rare in Viking Period Scandinavia. In his comprehensive and very valuable 2014 monograph Viking Swords, Fedir Androshchuk lists only one sword found in present-day Sweden with a preserved antler grip. This is a type V sword from an inhumation grave excavated in the early 20th century at Rosta in As parish, Jamtland. The grip seems usually to have been made of wood, which may have been wrapped with leather, linen or woolen ribbons. There are also decorated copper alloy grips and grips wound with silver or gold wire. However, when working through the museum collections of Viking Period grave finds from Jämtland in The Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, I discovered another one: a previously unidentified decorated antler grip belonging to a probably somewhat earlier type M sword (SHM 33463). This sword is from a cremation grave, and so only small fragments of the grip survive. Sword type M belongs to the Middle Viking Period (Androshchuk 2014, p. 171). The decoration on the grip consists of interlace on a crosshatched background.