Imagine finding a sword from the Viking Age that contains steel of a quality surprisingly close to some much later forms of high-quality crucible steel. Stamped into the blade is a strange inscription: +VLFBERHT+. More than 170 swords bearing variations of the Ulfberht name have been identified. They have become some of the most intriguing weapons associated with the Viking world. But what made them special? And were Viking swordsmiths really using a lost technology that modern metallurgists still struggle to reproduce? What was an Ulfberht? Ulfberht isn't the name of a particular sword design. It is a name or inscription associated with a group of Viking Age swords. The spelling varies between examples, including forms such as +VLFBERHT+ and +VLFBERH+T. The swords generally date from around the 9th to 11th centuries. They have been discovered across a huge area of Europe, particularly in regions connected with Viking activity and trade. Their distribution suggests that the name ha...
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