Here’s another
informative article from the National Museum of Ireland. This article specifically
mentions the world famous sword blades of the Frankish blacksmith Ulfbehrt, who
signed his blades just below the haft. For those with an interest in these incredible
pattern welded blades, made over 1000-years ago by a blacksmith in present day southern
Germany, I have included a link, Viking sword, for your further
reading pleasure. This link will take you to the web page for Hurstwic, where
you will find everything you ever wanted to know about the Viking sword, and
much else. (Ed.)
***
Although
the Treasury includes a number of Viking objects, this exhibition explores the
Viking Age in Ireland in greater detail. The first recorded Viking raids on
Ireland took place in 795 AD, when islands off the north and west coasts
were plundered. Later on, Viking fleets appeared on the major river systems,
and fortified bases for more extensive raiding are mentioned from
about 840 AD. The principal targets of Viking raiders were
monasteries, which could supply loot and slaves. Among the exhibits on display
is a replica of a Viking fishing vessel that is similar in most respects to
larger Viking warships. The original was found with a larger vessel in a boat
burial at Gokstad, Norway. Timbers from Viking ships have been found in
Ireland, as have sketches of ships on planks, model or toy ships in wood and
lead fishing weights in the shape of ships.
Ninth-Century
pagan Viking burials at Kilmainham and Islandbridge, Dublin, contained the
personal possessions of the deceased. Warriors were interred with long swords
of a type vastly superior to native Irish swords, and the presence of weights,
scales, purses, tongs and hammers suggests that some of the dead were merchants
and blacksmiths. Oval brooches of typical Viking type worn in pairs by women
have been discovered alongside other finds such as a whalebone ‘ironing board’,
spindle whorls and bronze needle case, demonstrating that Scandinavian women
were also buried in the cemetery.
While
towns were established by Viking settlers in the 10th Century, Irish society
was overwhelmingly rural, and a mixed farming economy was practiced in the
countryside. Ballinderry crannog, Co. Westmeath, the homestead of a
prosperous Irish noble, provides a picture of life in a rural settlement
between the late ninth and early 11th Centuries.
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Photo from Hurstwic.org |
A
Viking
sword obtained by trade or as loot is the finest surviving example from
Ireland. It has a silver-mounted handle and an elaborate pattern-welded blade
inlaid with the name of the sword-maker 'VLFBEHRT', whose blades were exported
from the Rhineland during the Viking Age. Other exceptional objects from
the same site include a silver kite-brooch, a bronze hanging bowl, a
wooden bow and a decorated wooden gaming board that may have been used to
play the Viking war game Hnefatafl. Most finds from Ballinderry and other
native sites reflect everyday activity and include tools used in spinning,
weaving and sewing, shoes and other leather items, and tools and utensils of
wood, iron and bronze.
Dublin,
Limerick, Waterford, Wexford and Cork trace their origins to the Vikings. New
trade routes into the rich markets of Byzantine and Muslim central and western
Asia were opened up by Viking traders, who amassed silver coins and bullion
that were melted down later to make a variety of brooches and arm-rings. The
range of personal ornaments found in Dublin reflects the wealth and trade
contacts of the city, which produced objects of amber, glass, jet, bronze,
silver and gold. Bronze ringed pins and stickpins were produced in great
numbers in Dublin, where high-quality metalworking was concentrated in the
Christchurch Place area. The discovery of motif-pieces adjacent to this
area shows that the production of these patterns was in some way related to
metalworking activity.
Houses
in Viking Age Dublin had walls of post-and-wattle, which were probably
daubed with cow dung or mud.
Wood
was used in house construction, ship building and furniture making, and was
also used to make domestic utensils such as bowls, plates, cups and barrels, in
addition to toys and board games. Wooden handles were fashioned for iron tools
made by local blacksmiths, who also made hinges, hasps, locks, keys and harness
fittings, while implements such as shovels and weavers’ swords were sometimes
made of wood.
By
the end of the 10th Century the Vikings in Ireland had adopted
Christianity, and with the fusion of cultures it is often difficult to
distinguish between Viking and Irish artefacts at this time. The term
Hiberno-Norse is used to describe the culture of the inhabitants of the Viking
towns in the 11th and early 12th Centuries. Irish art was strongly
influenced by the later Viking Ringerike and Urnes styles, present on
ecclesiastical metalwork of the period such as croziers, bell shrines and book
shrines. Important reliquaries of the 12th Century include the
Cross of Cong, a processional cross made in the 1120s by order of the
high-king of Ireland Turlough O’Connor to contain a relic of the
True Cross.