A 6-year-old found a 1,300-year-old Viking sword

A 6-year-old named Henrik found a 1,300-year-old iron sword on a school field trip in Gran, a town in Norway's Hadeland region. He spotted the rusty piece of metal sticking out of the ground, and instead of being told to leave it alone, on account of tetanus, he showed it to his teachers. They contacted cultural authorities, who confirmed it was historic. The weapon is a single-edged blade known as a scramseax, sharp on one side to add weight behind the cut. It dates to the early Viking Age or possibly earlier, during the Merovingian Period, and may have been forged in France rather than Norway. Hadeland translates to "warrior land," which feels about right for a place that hands its swords to first graders. The blade has now been transferred to the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo for preservation.