Cutting edge

A staffer at the Army Museum in Białystok, Poland was diving in the Supraśl River in 2022 when he stumbled on a Viking relic dating from the 9th or 10th century.

Szczepan Skibicki found an early medieval sword in the sand under four feet of water.

“The sword is unique due to its form, shape, and the degree of preservation of organic material visible on the hilt. This is incredibly rare for artifacts of this age,” said Dr. Ryszard Kazimierczak of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Arkeo News reports.

The sword has been restored and is on display at the Army Museum.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Studio Japan LLC (WBSJL) has recalled 350 full-size replicas of a sword featured in the Harry Potter films.

The 34-inch-long sword of the character Godric Gryffindor was sold for 30,000 yen ($200; £158) apiece at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo: The Making of Harry Potter, which opened in 2023 in Tokyo, Japan, according to BBC News. They were sold from May 2023 to late April of this year.

The WBSJL has published a recall notice for the sword on its site, citing “a distribution issue in Japan” and requesting people who bought it to get in contact for “necessary action, including logistics and a refund,” BBC reports.

The notice followed a November letter to the company by Japanese authorities. The letter told the WBSJL that the swords were sharp enough to be categorized as an actual sword, according to BBC.

Under Japanese law, sword replicas that are sharp enough to be classified as swords under the Firearms and Swords Control Law must be registered with authorities — unless the swords are meant for training or decoration and cannot be sharpened, the BBC report said.