The Viking Norse Viking Ulfberht +VLFBERH+T Inscription is a Edged - European first produced in 817. It carries a scarcity score of 98/100 based on tracked survey data, with 11 active listings currently on the secondary market and a global benchmark price of $61,875.
This sword belongs to the Ulfberht typology, a group of pattern-welded, high-carbon-steel blades produced across the Frankish and early Viking-Age world and identified by the inlaid inscription +VLFBERH+T set into the fuller near the hilt. Dating to 817, this example falls within the early Viking Age and the Carolingian period, when Frankish smiths produced steel of unusually high and consistent quality for the time, likely worked from crucible steel obtained through long-distance trade, giving Ulfberht blades a reputation for superior strength and flexibility compared with contemporaneous European ironwork. Such swords circulated widely across Scandinavia and the broader Viking world through trade and raiding networks, and their consistent inscription has long been studied by archaeometallurgists as evidence of a distinct workshop tradition or trademark rather than the output of a single smith. Swords of this type rank among the most technologically significant edged weapons of the early medieval period in Northern Europe.