Viking Woman's Knife

[sjaqua]

Yesterday, while doing a bladesmithing demo at the Poppy Festival, in Lancaster Ca, I made a knife and realized I was calling it a historic pattern without any documentation. It's one of those things you know you have heard, but can't find the sourch for.

In any case, does anyone have any source material on a Viking Woman's Knife? One catalog site http://www.northerner.com/products/scg-s74.html lists it as a.....

"Women knife from the Viking Age. Found at excavations in Birka (Birka, outside Stockholm in Sweden, was a big Viking town and one of the largest Viking trade centers) . Viking Age, AD 800 - 1050."

It is also found on another catalog site with somewhat less of a reference http://www.jelldragon.com/vik_ironwork.htm "

If someone could point me to a book covering the Birka viking dig, that shows what was found, that would be great. I would much rather have the original source material then someones catalog.

[J.Arthur Loose]

I'll poke around, Scott,

But I bet any small utility seax would have done the job....

[sjaqua]

Thank You for taking a look Jon.

I want to document this specific knife, because it makes a great demo project. With it's integral handle I can make the whole knife from start to finish right in front of everyone.

[Roger Gregory]

You like to set a few difficult tasks Scott

I just assumed that I'd be able to go off to my bookshelves and find a handful of examples of one-piece forged knives as carried by Viking and Anglo-Saxon women. No such luck.

One book is sure to contain something:
Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age (Boydell Press. Woodbridge. 1991
If I can find my copy I'll let you know what's in it! I need to tidy up.

Everything else I have found points to scissors and small sickles but no definite examples of knives carried by women. All the examples I have seen have been based on grave goods though....

I'll keep looking.

Roger

[sjaqua]

I received this reply from the Viking Answer Lady, www.vikinganswerlady.com .

I actually have one of these that I bought at one of the museum gift shops
in Sweden, where it was billed as a replica of a knife from one of the
women's graves on Birka.

The Birkamuseet (http://www.raa.se/birka/), part of the
Riksantikvarie?mbetet in Stockholm (http://www.raa.se/) is the museum which
has most of the artifacts from Birka.

The archaeological information from Birka appears in the series Birka,
Untersuchungen und Studien. There's supposed to be a "small finds" volume
out soon that will include small iron artifacts such as knives. The volumes
listed below have all the finds, with more analysis in the 1980's volumes.

Birka, Untersuchungen und Studien I:1-2. Arbman, H., Die Gr?ber. Text &
Tafelbd. 1943, 1940.
Out of print

Birka, Untersuchungen und Studien II:1 Ed. Arwidsson, G., Systematische
Analysen der Gr?berfunde. 1984. - Inneh?ller I:1-2 i mikroficheutg?va. ISBN
91-7402-151-6.

Birka, Untersuchungen und Studien II:2 Ed. Arwidsson, G., Systematische
Analysen der Gr?berfunde. 1986. ISBN 91-7402-169-9.

Birka, Untersuchungen und Studien II:3 Ed. Arwidsson, G., Systematische
Analysen der Gr?berfunde. 1989. ISBN 91-7401-204-0.

If you have a college library in town, you should be able to find some or
all of these there. Even if you can't read them, the diagrams and
illustrations will be useful.

I've just finished flipping through the various musem catalogs I have ("From
Viking to Crusader" being the best) and thus far I haven't located the
curled-back type of self-handled knife you're looking for. Most of the
Viking knives look remarkably like the knives in my kitchen drawer, with a
few even being "folding" or "jack-knife" style.

I'm attaching a zip file containing two photos from the World of the Vikings
CD-ROM showing the typical knife style, and one of the folding knives, both
from York, U.K. Also see the link below for a different Anglo-Scandinavian
folding knife design.

Viking Age "jackknife"
http://www.mathomhouse.com/regia/ref...dingknife.html

I will keep looking... I don't have the Birka series here at home, but next
time I'm at the library I'll see if I can check again for this style knife.

One more source you might check is Darrell at the Wareham Forge
(http://www.warehamforge.ca/) - he's been involved with the reproductions
for the Viking village at L'Anse aux Meadows, and he may know exactly which
reference you need.

If anyone has access to these books and can read Swedish......(sigh!)

[Roger Gregory]

I should have remembered The Viking Answer Lady, she's pretty ####ed good isn't she?

Roger

[Jerry Oksman]

Scott, there's a few swedes who post over at the display forum and might be able to help you out. I also have a friend in Boston (I am in NYC) and she helps Jonny Walker Nilsson at the NY shows. She might be able to help you in the translating, but I doubt she has the books. Let me know!

[Don Halter]

I found lots of web sites where someone has made a reproduction piece...and they all reference Birka in very broad terms. I found some Sweedish sites with tons of neat artifacts and such...but not the knife in question! There were a few that I thought would have it, but they were in sweedish, so I'm not sure I looked in all the right places!

I have about 6 books with Viking stuff, but none had it either. I have one more book on knives that seems to be missing, but I doubt it has anything from Viking finds in it.

[Jan Dox]

Last summer I visited a Viking camp, It was a Flemish Viking reenactment group together with a group from a Swedish village.
I don't know the name anymore.
A lot of the women wore these knives in pouch type sheats.
They showed a lot of arts and crafts, including a small forge with two hand-powered bellows. One of the "Vikings" had forged knives (from suspention springs of an old Citro?n 2HP car) for sale. (he still had a lot of work getting his edges good ).
The knives had blades between 1 and 2.5" . OAL as I recall about 6" maximum.
They demonstrated training and fights with long and short seaxes, swords and axes, served typical foods and beer , so it was an enjoyable afternoon with the family this summer.

Jan

[Jlott]

many historical impliments were of regional and sometimes
geographic nature... it is entirely possible that this stlye of knife
was created in a region by a certian smith or weapon maker...
however.. in searching the BRITISH MUSEUM..THE FRENCH NATIONAL MUSUEM..AND THE GERMAN MUSEUM... NO OTHER
knife if this type is exibited or cataloged as being housed in their
collections... this style of knife is however... EXTREEMLY DISTIRBUTED AMONG THE COLONIAL AND FUR TRADE ERA RE-ENACTORS.. AND IS WIDELY USED AS A KITCHED KNIFE.. by many
reeactors during those eras... in fact... DURING THE ROMAN TIMES, THEIR PLOW.. SOLD WIDELY AROUND THEIR TRADING REGIONS AT HOME AND ACROSS THE SEAS.. VERY GREATLY RESEMBLES THIS KNIFE....also.. one has to be carefull with
items that are found in sites of historical use... as there are
endless documented times of an item being found in an ancient site and then it comes to light that the sight has been used by
thousands over them centuries.... im sure that the original of this knife..if you look at the examples of what was being produced then in the way of quality and design...THAT THIS TYPE OF KNIFE SIMPLY LENT ITSELF TO BEING THE EASIEST FOR THE SMITH TO CREATE FROM A PLAIN BAR OF METAL..THAT IT COULD ALMOST HAPPEN BY DEFAULT... MY POINT.. I WOULD TAKE VERY LIGHTLY THE TAG OF "VIKING WOMENS KNIFE" BEING GIVEN TO IT...
AFTER LOOKING THRU THE WEB AT WHAT VIKING WOMEN WORE AND USED.. MOST KNIVES WERE ACTUALLY MUCH MORE SOPHISTICATED THAN THIS... THEY WERE OF FINE STONE AND
METAL AND DESIGNS... EVEN THEIR KITCHEN KNIFES...

[J.Arthur Loose]

...I'm guessing that at some point a similar knife was found in a Viking Age woman's grave since it seems to be a common attribution.

I'm still looking too. I found a similar chopper on the Frojel site. Those artifacts are described as from women's graves.

[sjaqua]

Jlott,

The example I had seen is listed as being from a specific site in Sweden. So I'm not surprised you didn't find it in any other collection. As for the artifact being from another era, I'm pretty sure it was closely associated with a womans grave goods.

I am in touch with someone that has the Birka 2 series of books. He has sent me chapter headers and I have selected three chapters that seem to hold some promise. I'll let you know what I find.

So many 2nd hand sources quote this style of Viking Knife, that I continue to hope that there is some primary documentation around.

[Jlott]

I read your footnotes.. however when all the major musuems
of the reigon have no examples from over 125 years of collecting
viking artifacts from those areas..that should be an eye opener..
that type of knife is typically known today as a "blacksmiths knife"
and you will find almost identical knives in any major culture that
existed in antiquity... india..pakistan..persia, even japan all made
this type of knife... simply because it is as i said.. a natural event
to pound a bar or rod into this shape when trying to forge a crude cutting instrument... i wish you well in your quest...
the sumarians predated the vikings by 10's of thousands of years.. and their ceremonial or dress blades were
almost identical... good luck ! jl

[sjaqua]

Well, the search didn't pan out. I had a chance to look at the Birka Volumes, weekend before last. The Birka II books come with the photo plates from Birka I on microfiche. After looking at those plates, I can find no such knife.

Now what really bothers me, is the number of Museum stores trying to sell knives just like this as being Viking womans knives.

In any case, for now, it's just a blacksmiths knife. If I come across any new information, I let everybody know.