Occasional swords and not least spearheads have been recovered in similar circumstances
suggestive of ritual deposition elsewhere in Scandinavia, for instance at Gudingsåkrarna
in Valstena parish on Gotland (Müller-Wille 1984 : 188 – 93 ). Here about 500 weapons
and weapon parts have come to light since the nineteenth century, most of them
spearheads or parts of spearheads and many of them damaged.
Ritualised and symbolic use of weapons in the late Iron Age and Viking Age is finally
supported by finds of miniature weapons or amulets, among them swords and spear-
heads less than 5 cm long. Their exact purpose and meaning are uncertain, and it has
been suggested that both groups are possible attributes of the pagan god Óðinn. How-
ever, they may equally well be magical amulets, intended to ward off evil forces against
which real weapons despite their efficiency in battle were powerless (Koktvedgaard
Zeitzen 1997 : 18 with references).
BIBLIOGRAPHYAndresen, K. ( 1993 ) ‘Dekor og innskrift på vikingsverd – hvordan ble det utført?’, Spor –
fortidsnytt fra midt-norge: 8 – 39.
Arbman, H. ( 1939 ) Birka. Sveriges äldsta handelsstad (Från forntid och medeltid 1 ), Stockholm:
Thule.
Arwidsson, G. ( 1986 ) ‘Schilde’, in G. Arwidsson (ed.) Birka II: 2. Systematische Analysen der
Gräberfunde, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Bernward von Hildesheim = M. Brandt and A. Eggebrecht (eds) Bernward von Hildesheim und das
Zeitalter der Ottonen. Katalog der Ausstellung Hildesheim 1993 , vol. 2 , Hildesheim: Bernward
Verlag and Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Blindheim, C. ( 1963 ) ‘Smedgraven fra Bygland i Morgedal’, Viking, 26 ( 1962 ): 25 – 80.
Creutz, K. ( 2003 ) Tension and Tradition. A Study of Late Iron Age Spearheads Around the Baltic Sea
(Theses and Papers in Archaeology N.S. A: 8 ), Stockholm: Dept. of Archaeology, University of
Stockholm.
Drachmann, A.G. ( 1967 ) De navngivne Sværd i Saga, Sagn og Folkevise, Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gads
Forlag.
Falk, H. ( 1914 ) Altnordische Waffenkunde (Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse.
1914. No. 6 ), Kristiania: no publ.
Geibig, A. ( 1991 ) Beiträge zur morphologischen Entwicklung des Schwertes im Mittelalter. Eine Analyse
des Fundmaterials vom ausgehenden 8. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert aus Sammlungen der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland (Offa-Bücher 71 ), Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz.
Graham-Campbell, J. ( 1980 ) Viking Artefacts. A Select Catalogue, London: British Museum.
Grieg, S. ( 1947 ) Gjermundbufunnet. En Høvdingegrav fra 900 - årene fra Ringerike (Norske Oldfunn
8 ), Oslo: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.
Hallinder, P. ( 1986 ) ‘Streit- und Arbeitsäxte’, in G. Arwidsson (ed.) Birka II: 2. Systematische
Analysen der Gräberfunde, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Horn Fuglesang, S. ( 1980 ) Some Aspects of the Ringerike Style. A Phase of 11 th Century Scandinavian
Art (Mediaeval Scandinavia. Supplements 1 ), Odense: Odense University Press.
——( 2000 ) ‘Skriftlige kilder for karolingisk våpeneksport til Skandinavia’, Collegium
Mediaevale, 13 : 177 – 84.
Iversen, M. and Näsman, U. ( 1991 ) ‘Mammengravens indhold’, in M. Iversen et al. (eds) Mammen.
Grav, kunst og samfund i vikingetid ( Jysk Arkæologisk Selskabs Skrifter 28 ), Højbjerg: Jysk
Arkæologisk Selskab.
Jakobsson, M. ( 1992 ) Krigarideologi och vikingatida svärdstypologi (Stockholm Studies in
Archaeology 11 ), Stockholm: Dept. of Archaeology, University of Stockholm.
–– chapter 15 : Viking weaponry––