Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt spotted the hilt of the early Viking Age sword while walking through a plowed field during a trip to a farm with his first-grade class.
Cultural Heritage of Inland/FacebookArchaeologists believe that the sword dates back 1,300 years, to the very beginning of the Viking Age.
A typical school field trip recently turned into a life-changing experience for a six-year-old boy in Norway. Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt was visiting a farm near Tingelstad with his first-grade class when he spotted something sticking out of a plowed field. He reached down to pick it up — and pulled a 1,300-year-old sword from the soil.
The weapon dates back to the early Viking Age, and young Henrik will soon be able to see his discovery on display at one of his country’s most prestigious museums.
How A Six-Year-Old Found A Viking Sword
In late April 2026, first-grade students from Norway’s Fredheim School took a field trip to nearby Rækstad Farm. The children were walking through a plowed field when six-year-old Henrik saw a piece of metal in the dirt.
He grabbed the object and discovered that it wasn’t just a small piece of debris — it was an intact sword.
Avisen Hadeland/FacebookHenrik stumbled upon the sword during a field trip to a local farm.
“This part was sticking out,” Henrik explained as he pointed to the sword’s hilt in a video posted by the Norwegian newspaper Hadeland. “It was rust and soil. So I thought I would pick it up and see what it was.”
Henrik showed his teachers what he’d found, and they immediately alerted officials at the Inland County Municipality. Archaeologists have since studied the artifact and determined that it dates back roughly 1,300 years, when Vikings still ruled the region.
Norway During The Early Viking Age
Experts believe the sword is from the earliest years of the Viking Age, during Scandinavia’s Merovingian Period. Little is known about this time in Norway, making the discovery all the more exciting.
The weapon is what’s known in Norwegian as an enegget, or a single-edged sword. Analysis is still ongoing, but archaeologists hope that X-rays and a closer study of the metal will reveal how the sword was constructed and who may have used it.
If the weapon does indeed date back to the late eighth century C.E., it was crafted just as the Vikings first began raiding the British Isles and mainland Europe. Most historians agree that the Sacking of Lindisfarne in 793 marks the official beginning of the Viking Age. During this infamous raid, Norsemen attacked a monastery off the coast of England, slaughtering monks and seizing sacred treasures.
According to English Heritage, Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York wrote at the time, “The church of St. Cuthbert is spattered with the blood of the priests of God, stripped of all its furnishing, exposed to the plundering of pagans.”
Cultural Heritage of Inland/FacebookThe enegget lying in the plowed field where Henrik spotted its hilt.
The raiders likely wielded weapons like the enegget found by Henrik to carry out their massacre. Further analysis at the Cultural History Museum in Oslo, where the sword will be held for now, may tell experts more about what this particular weapon was used for. But for now, archaeologists are simply thrilled about this rare insight into the life of the early Vikings.
The sword joins a host of other recent discoveries from the time of the Norsemen. Just weeks before Henrik unearthed the weapon, metal detectorists in eastern Norway stumbled upon the largest Viking coin hoard ever found in the country. And in 2024, archaeologists uncovered 1,100-year-old jewelry on another Norwegian farm.
What’s more, melting ice has revealed Viking treasures in Norway’s Jotunheim Mountains, and in 2017, a reindeer hunter discovered a 1,200-year-old sword of his own about 80 miles north of Tingelstad.
These artifacts join countless other relics that have been recovered over the centuries, revealing what life was like for the people who lived in Norway during one of the most fascinating periods in world history. As such, Henrik’s sword isn’t just an unexpected souvenir from a school trip — it’s a piece of his country’s cultural heritage.
After reading about the Viking sword that was unearthed by a schoolboy in Norway, see 11 more archaeological discoveries made by children. Then, discover the astonishing stories of 13 famous Vikings.
