In Vienna, a sword of unparalleled beauty is preserved. Hungarian tradition considers it the Sword of Attila, but in the display cases, it is presented as Charlemagne's sword. Medieval German tradition also knew it as the avenging sword of the Scourge of God.
Early saber?
Archaeologists believe that the sword could not have belonged to Attila, as they argue that the saber could only have been made in the 10th century. Therefore, many have identified it as Géza's sword. Archaeologists found a very similar artifact in the Nyírség region, in Geszteréd, where a saber emerged that shows kinship with the Sword of Attila. This could have been used by Árpád's Hungarians as early as the beginning of the 10th century. However, new archaeological findings from the steppe region date the saber's development to centuries before the early 10th century, and such magnificent sword finds are known from the Caucasus much earlier. We cannot rule out the possibility that a special weapon existed among the Huns, which only the great khan, notably Attila, could have wielded. Especially since not only Hungarian but also German tradition stubbornly insists that the artifact displayed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna once belonged to the Scourge of God.
Ancient Records
From old medieval chronicles, we learn that the sword was taken abroad from the treasury of our king Andrew I. The widowed queen, Anastasia, gifted the Sword of Attila to Otto of Nordheim, a Bavarian duke, in 1063, hoping that with this magically powerful weapon, her son, Solomon, could reclaim the Hungarian throne. However, Otto did not keep Attila's weapon and passed it on to Margrave Dedo or Dedi, whose son fatally wounded himself with it. After these events, Henry IV took possession of the beautiful sword and gave it to one of his loyal men. Leopold of Herzfeld's annals recorded that the sword caused another tragedy. In 1071, the king's loyal man, the sword's owner, fell off his horse and impaled himself on his own blade. The Germans considered this new incident an ominous sign and began investigating its origin. They discovered that this sword was carried by Attila to the Catalaunian Plains. They believed this masterpiece was an instrument of divine wrath, sent directly by the heavens to the great Hun king. The Germans only referred to it as the "sword of vengeance" and, instead of using it, placed it in the treasury. Until 1794, it was kept in Aachen along with the German coronation regalia, and in 1801, it was moved to Vienna with the justification that the saber was, after all, a Hungarian work. Since then, it has remained one of the most beautiful pieces in the display cases, a symbol of our Hun heritage.
Source: Alfahír http://alfahir.hu/bossz%C3%BA_kardja-20120206
