VIKING SIDE KNIFE OR POUCH KNIFE, 879-1067 AD

Yorkshire, England. Just over 4 1/8” (4.16”) total length with tapered "whittle tang" which identifies these, as they were used without guards, mounted in a wood or antler grip. (See Leather Working Reverend and Inhabitat for similar examples with original grips).  Blade of a particularly thin slashing section with a straight back, curved at the point in the scramseax fashion. A slashing weapon, designed for throat-cutting, these were so esteemed by Vikings that it was these, rather than the larger scramseaxes, that were buried with the warriors. Virtually every old town in Cambridgeshire has a recorded Viking history. Ely Abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish raiders and Huntingdon was a staging place for Danish raids until 917, to mention two. Excavated and professionally conserved with Plexiglas display mount.