English News in Levels

Six-Year-Old Norwegian Boy Pulls 1,300-Year-Old Merovingian-Era Sword From a Plowed Field on a First-Grade Field Trip

First-grader Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt of Fredheim School in Innlandet, Norway, picked up what he thought was a strange piece of iron while exploring a recently plowed field outside Brandbu (Gran municipality) on May 11, 2026. The 'iron stick' turned out to be an almost intact single-edged sword roughly 1,300 years old, dating to the late Merovingian or earliest Viking Age (circa 700 AD). Archaeologists at Innlandet County Municipality and the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo confirmed the find this week; the sword has now been transferred to Oslo for conservation and study. The Gran district had already produced two earlier Merovingian-Viking finds in 2024 and 2025, and county archaeologists say the new sword may indicate a previously unrecognised burial or cult site beneath the field.