Sword Guard
The reason why this guard is not attached to a sword may also be interesting. When a Nordic pagan was buried, his possessions were often placed in the grave with him and sometimes were destroyed or “killed” so the objects could enter the afterlife with him.[3] It is possible that the sword was broken apart in order to “kill” it and the guard was stolen, lost, or saved by his loved ones. It is also possible that the rest of the sword was made of richer materials and the upper guard was discarded in favor of a more impressive version.
The guard is a hollow cast copper alloy. On one side of it, there is evidence of some sort of coating made of tin or silver. However, the coating is too degraded to make out any sort of style. There is also scarring from where a pommel had once been.
The sword is of typical viking style having a date range of the entire Viking age, 750 ce. to 1100 ce. However, the sword was found in Yorkshire, the site where the micel here or Great Army first began its invasion. This suggests that the sword was used by a warrior during the Scandinavian invasion and occupation of England from 850 ce. to 950 ce.
