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Illerup Swords with Special Patterns |
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Palmette Patterns |
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Illerup Ådal
produced more thant 400 well-preserved swords, some with rather unusual patterns. Some of those are shown here. There are
far more swords with "normal" patterns, however. Get the books if you want to see them all.
First we look at swords with a "palmette" pattern.
Palmette is the expression for a motif in decorative art that resembles the fan-shaped
leaves of a palm tree. It's roots go back to the ancient Egyptians. We also find it on several pattern-welded Illerup swords
and on a few swords from other regions.
One picture tells more than a thousand words: |
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Drawings of an Illerup sword "SAFG / RNU4" with Palmette pattern on one side;
palmette, herringbone and stripes on the other side
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| What (parts of) the blade look like today (front / back) |
| Source: Illerup
Ådal; Vol. 11, 12. Also for all other pictures in this module if not otherwise noted. |
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Below is probably the real sword. With luck, you can
find it in the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus; Denmark. You won't
see much, however, because the present custom in museum exhibits is to keep things in the dark. |
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| Sword with a palmette pattern |
| Source: Photographed in the
Moesgaard museum, 2015 |
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These pictures, like pretty much all of what follows, are taken from the "official"
records of the diggings in Illerup (and elsewhere), a series called "Illerup Ådal". These very scholarly (and very hard to read) books contain drawings
of about every sword unearthed in Illerup, some photographs, in-depth descriptions, and long essays about this and that,
including the making of pattern welded swords. |
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However, the books carefully avoid to mention how the special patterns
shown here were made. I do not know it either; what I know (or guess) is given right here. |
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The pertinent data of the sword shown above are:
- Sword identifier: "SAFG / RNU4"; single find
- Type: Woerden-Bjaers. More about that
in the "Sword Types" link
- Descriptions on pp. 142 (11); 167, 202, 213, 224, 232 (12)
- Asymmetric blade. One side with two broad fullers; the other side planar. Three (illegible) stamps. Parts of the hilt
were also preserved.
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The side with the four fullers sports 4 stripes with palmettes on the whole length.
The two fullers on the other side show a palmette pattern and a herringbone pattern; both change to a stripe pattern further
down the blade.
Maybe the smith ran out of palmettes, maybe the customers wanted it this way - we will never know
With this first example we also encounter a few more puzzles. The sword is asymmetric. Two fullers versus two, different
patterns. Why?
Three stamps to mark the producer? Or what else? |
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Good questions but the main question is: How are palmettes made?
I have given this a lot of thought and I spend a lot of time searching for an explanation in the literature - without a
positive result. Finally I remembered my own advice: "Listen to the smiths",
or even better, ask them. I asked Patrick Bárt how to make
palmettes and his reply was short. "I's a kind of mosaic
damast". At first I didn't understand what he menat but somewhat later I got it. The result can be found in this module.
Let's look at a few more "palmettes" |
© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)
With frame
Books and Other Major Sources