This seax was forged circa 1000 out of iron with silver and copper inlaid decorations. It was found on the Thames foreshore in London, England, and currently resides within the Museum of London. A silver plate hammered into the blade reads “OSMHND”, which most likely means “Osmund”, the forger’s name. This suggests that the smith is of Anglo-Saxon descent.¹ The word seax means “knife” in Old English, and the Saxons derived their name from this common weapon.²

The blade lacks a grip because they were made of perishable materials such as wood or bone. This specific seax design follows the “broken back” blade shape, which consists of a relatively long handle and sloping upper guard. As is common with “broken back” seaxes, the designs on the knife spine are partially in a herringbone style, which resembles the pattern-welded blades prevalent in Viking Age Europe.³ Pattern-welding is accomplished by overlaying thin sheets of patterned steel onto a softer iron core, granting the blade flexibility and thus an advantage in combat as they were less likely to break.⁴ 

Often these knives were much larger than this specific artifact, which only measures 13.6 centimeters, and were sometimes long enough to accommodate a two-handed grip. Smaller seaxes such as this were typically worn across the stomach and suspended from a waistband, as shown by this burial cross from Yorkshire.³

  At the time of this seax’s creation, much of England was a part of the Danelaw. This means that it was in a state of cultural flux and assimilation as the Norse integrated themselves into Anglo-Saxon territory. London, where this blade was discovered, bordered the Danelaw, so this seax could have originated from either side of the divide. Although its forger, Osmund, has an Anglo-Saxon name, the mutual influences of the Danes and English around this time blurred the once-sharp distinctions separating these two cultures.