Eight-year-old girl in Sweden pulls ancient 1,500-year-old sword from lake while skimming stones

There was no immediate confirmation that Saga would be crowned ‘Queen of Sweden’, in an echo of the Arthurian legends of the sword in the stone and the lady of the lake

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This photo taken in July 2018 and released on October 5 2018 shows the pre-Viking era sword in Sweden. Photo: Jönköpings läns Museum via AP

Published: 2:32am, 6 Oct 2018Updated: 5:44am, 1 May 2020

An eight-year-old girl has pulled a 1,500-year-old sword from a lake in southern Sweden.

“I felt something with my hand and at first I thought it was a stick,” Saga Nevecek told the local Värnamo Nyheter newspaper. “Then it had a handle that looked like it was a sword, and then I lifted it up and shouted: ‘Daddy, I found a sword!’”

The find, made in July but announced only this week for fear it would trigger a summer stampede to the site at Tånnö on the shore of Lake Vidöstern, felt “pretty cool and a bit exciting”, she told the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

Saga Vanecek discovered a 1,500-year-old sword in a Swedish lake in July 2018. The discovery wasn't revealed until October 2018 to stop people from rushing to the location. Photo: Andy Vanecek

Despite intense speculation on social media, there was no immediate confirmation that Saga would be crowned “Queen of Sweden”, in an echo of the Arthurian legends of the sword in the stone and the lady of the lake.

Her father, Andrew, said in a Facebook post that the sword, estimated by experts from the nearby Jönköping county museum to date to the 5th or 6th century AD, before the Viking era, was still in the remains of its wood and leather scabbard.

He told VN he had been waiting impatiently for his daughter to come in from the water because the football World Cup final was about to start, but she was busy skimming stones. Then she stooped and held up the ancient weapon.