Research about viking age swords is nothing new but for a long time the main focus have been different aspects of typologies which have evolved since early 20th century. During the last 30 years the still growing communities of Viking reenactment have shed new light upon the fighting skills of pre Christian Nordic societies. With developing knowledge of ancient metallurgy and understanding of swordsmithing we might have new ways to interpret the swords found originating in the 8th to 11th centuries. In this paper the author will be making an attempt to assess and analyze swords on Gotland to uncover whether they were made as practical fighting weapons or merely symbols of social status and power, or both.The main source of information regarding the swords found on Gotland comes from the extensive catalogues Die Wikingerzeit Gotlands I-II by Lena Thunmark-Nylén 1996, 1998 and Viking Swords by Fedir Androshchuk 2014. For a deeper understanding of the materials used in sword- and weaponsmithing, information from metalurgically examined specimens presented by Lena Thålin Bergman will be used as cross reference.

Beyond the vicinity A study of swords in the mountain region of Jämtland County during the LateIron Age and a discussion of their interpretation. This bachelor thesis discusses the function of swords found in the mountain region of Jämtland County during the Late Iron Age. It focuses on the discussion whether the swords found in the mountain region can reflect on resource utilization in the mountain region during the Late Iron Age from a socioeconomical perspective. The thesis also brings up difficulties in the intrepretations whether or not the swords in the mountain region should be defined as a grave, because of the lack of human remains in some of the sites in the mountain region containing swords. The data used in the thesis is mainly processed in GISand Microsoft Excel and is discussed on a critical basis. The results are presented as maps showing spatial relations between the collected data. The presence of swords in the mountain region can be seen as evidence of more widespread resource utilization of the mountain region in Jämtland County.

This thesis deals with the famous Ulfberhtswords ​​that were created in Europe during the 9–12th century. In the thesis, several researchers' own research on Ulfberhtswords  ​​and their results is addressed. The focus of the thesis is put on the swords that has been found in northern Europe and how the manufacturing technology for Ulfberhtswords ​​came to northern Europe. The result in the thesis is that Ulfberht sword has a long history of forgery and crushed blades. The falsification of Ulfberhtsword was widely spread across the north and almost all the swords found in Nordic graves are fakes. The Nordic smiths began to manufacture Ulfberhtswords at about the same time as the genuine Ulfberhtswords ​gained a reputation.

This study was made with the express purpose to shine a light on how we use the present to understand the past. My focus was directed at how the view on gender during the last couple of hundred years has influenced how we construct arbitrary gender norms for a Scandinavian bronze age society. To complete this study, I looked at the Swedish gravemound “Hågahögen”, on the outskirts of Uppsala, and compared it to three Danish mounds with similar properties. Hågahögen consists of the cremated remains of one, or possibly two, individuals who have been interpreted as male due to the presence of a sword in the grave. The Danish graves are all located on the Danish mainland, known as Jutland, and are called Egtved, Borum Eshøj and Trindhøj. Due to the extraordinarily well-preserved remains in these graves they proved to be an excellent counter to Hågahögen. Because of this the biological sex of these individuals are not in question, therefore I could use them to compare various arguments and how their sex was being portrayed. My sources consisted of various articles, archaeological textbooks, reports and popular science books. My results show that graves that contain males are generally valued higher than those that contain females. Power is more often attributed to the male remains while the females are often seen as objects to empower males. The women I studied were either seen as mothers, wives or sexual objects. The men were seen as chieftains, kings, ritual masters or they weren’t described in enough detail to conclude a role for them. The individual in Hågahögen was given masculinity because of the sword in the grave, but also due to the implied sway and power over those who built the grave after their death. That sort of power is rarely seen as a feminine trait, therefor it was impossible for the archaeologists of old to see the occupant of the grave as anything other than male.

The inland of northern Scandinavia has received more attention in archaeological research in recent years than before. This has among other things resulted in a better understanding of the trading systems within Iron Age Scandinavia and highlighted the importance of raw materials produced in the boreal regions. A significant part of the iron, antler and furs used in central agricultural areas like the Mälaren Valley during the Iron Age originated in northern Sweden. This indicates that central places to the south were dependent on products from the forested areas of the north, and that the two probably would have developed differently without this relation. The aim of this study is to perform a spatial analysis of swords found in northern Sweden to better understand the contacts and trading systems within the region during the middle and late Iron Age. This is based on the hypothesis that the swords indicate places with important functions, and that they are especially prominent in areas which controlled the trade of products like iron, antler, and furs. The results of the study show that swords are most frequent in agricultural areas by the coast connected to the largest rivers, where these raw materials were mainly transported. This pattern is apparent in all represented periods of the Iron Age except for the Vendel Period from which most swords have been found in outland locations far from the coast. This indicates that the Vendel Period differs clearly from other periods of the Iron Age in northern Sweden, concerning how the inter-regional trade was performed.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the deformed Viking swords as seen in the historical Swedish province of Uplands during the Late Iron Age.Three sites have been selected for their concentration of deformed and fragmented swords,as well as other phenomena that are part of the phenomenon. Birka,Kiplingeberg and Söderby are the three choose parts of Upland chosen for the similarities and difference of the swords appearing in cremation graves. To get a deeper understanding of the phenomenon beyond “killing of an object”, the theoretical perspective of charismatic objects, personhood and ritual theories have been used to approachthe swords.This will allow the essay to address the question of why different forms of swords appear and discuss who the form was for.

SWEDISH DEFENCE POLICY AFTER THE COLD WAR This essay is about Sweden's shift from strong territorial defense to disarmament with the defense decisions of 1996, 2000 and 2004. During the Cold War, Sweden had pursued a policy of neutrality aimed at staying out of the conflicts between the great powers. The country's defenses were focused on facing a possible invasion and preventing occupation. The Swedish Armed Forces were built up with a strong domestic defence industry which also benefited Sweden as an industrial nation. The strategy was based on the marginal doctrine where the intended aggressor was the Soviet Union.   However, the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s dramatically changed the conditions for Sweden's security policy. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 significantly reduced the threat of a military confrontation between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, and this led to a renewed discussion within both the political and military spheres. The defence decisions around the turn of the millennium represent a turning point in Sweden's modern history when it comes to security policy and defence. The purpose of this essay is to study the process behind the decisions and specifically look at the motives of some of the decision-makers, both military and political. The essay takes its methodological basis in oral history in the form of protocols from a witness seminar. The result of the study is that the combination of the geopolitical changes in the world around us and the new stricter economic budget frameworks together seem to have led to decisions that in the end were more extensive than what possibly was intended when they were made. / SVENSK FÖRSVARSPOLITIK EFTER KALLA KRIGET Den här uppsatsen handlar om Sveriges omsvängning från starkt territoriellt försvar till nedrustning i och med försvarsbesluten 1996, 2000 och 2004.  Under det kalla kriget hade Sverige fört en neutralitetspolitik som syftade till att hålla sig utanför stormakternas konflikter. Landets försvar var inriktat på att möta en eventuell invasion och förhindra ockupation. Det svenska försvaret byggdes upp med en stark inhemsk försvarsindustri vilket också gagnade Sverige som industrination. Strategin byggde på marginaldoktrinen där den tänkta angriparen var Sovjetunionen.  Det kalla krigets slut i början av 1990-talet förändrade emellertid förutsättningarna för Sveriges säkerhetspolitik dramatiskt. Berlinmurens fall 1989 och Sovjetunionens upplösning 1991 innebar att hotet om en militär konfrontation mellan de två supermakterna, USA och Sovjetunionen, minskade väsentligt och detta ledde till en förnyad diskussion inom såväl den politiska som militära ledningen rörande vilken linje som var rätt för Sverige fortsättningsvis. Försvarsbesluten kring millennieskiftet utgör en vändpunkt i Sveriges moderna historia när det kommer till säkerhetspolitik och försvar. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera processen bakom besluten och specifikt titta på vad några av beslutsfattarna, både militära och politiska, hade för bevekelsegrunder för besluten som togs. Uppsatsen tar sin metodologiska grund i muntlig historia i form av protokoll från ett vittnesseminarium. Resultatet av studien är att samverkan av de geopolitiska förändringarna i omvärlden och de samtidiga striktare ekonomiska budgetramarna verkar ha lett till beslut som i slutändan blev mer omfattande än vad som verkar varit avsikten när de fattades.