viking swords, wire wrapped grips?

[Steve Bivans]

I was reading in Ian Peirce's "Swords of the Viking Age" about sword, 1887, 2-9 1, pg. 104-5. The sword has wire wrapped around the tang, he says there are other good examples in Scandinavia, but doubts whether the wire was the intended covering.

My question is: Does anyone know of evidence that any Viking swords had wire wrapped grips, especially during the Viking age, 8th- 10th century? If there are such swords, where would I find documentation for them?

thank you, Steve Bivans

[Jeffrey Hull]

I have read that Pierce-Jones-Oakeshott book too, and several other sources describing and illustrating Viking Age swords.

I would say Pierce is right about the grips not being wire-wrapped totally. I would guess that some swords of that time and ethnos had "wire" ferrules sometimes instead of band-ferrules at the ends of the grip proper. So maybe that accounts for the wire.

I think that the wire-wrapped sword-grip arrived prolifically with the advent of heavier plate armours and the resultant increase of emphasis upon the half-swording fight. The need for a grip which can withstand frequent Mortschlags and so forth I think brought this about.

In any case, artifacts show that the hey-day of wire-wrapped grips was later than the Viking Age.

Good luck,

[Aaron Pynenberg]

I do not have any expirence with yielding a sword equipped with wire grips, the little I have would lead me to think it would be hard to maintain my grip on it, due to sweat, blood etc... is this the case or is it just a matter of getting used to it?-

It does seem as though it would be really quick in the hand- ?

[Jeffrey Hull]

Yeah, I guess I should add: Who is to say that those swords never had wire-wrapped grips?

So if someone found it worked to his vantage in modern practice, then cool.

It just seems historically it was not known widely for that time and ethnos of sword.