Names on viking swords were often an early type of acronym. The Viking runic letters also had word meanings. A name like GEOSVARD might mean " This sword is of great worth and brings valor to the bearer". +ULFBERH+T could have a meaning long ago lost, but the predominant supposition was that it referred to the steel ( as supported by the show). A fictitious meaning could be " This Sword is Made from Iranian Sword Steel". The name change could be " This Sword are Made in the style of our Iranian steel Swords". My suspicion on the spelling difference is that after the original Iranian source of supply was no longer available, they made them from the local steel. It was not the same steel, but the swords were made the same. The spelling was of unknown origin anyway, so it is just as probable that the change in lettering was to designate the change in material. Since there are no written records or dictionaries for the period all educated guesses are of equal weight.
I also found the side track on the steel being made by priests in France purely BS, and can't figure out why they inserted it, as they said they did not think it was a valid reason. Maybe it was to publicly dispel a rouge theory of some other metallurgist/sword antiquary.
On the "cross" meaning;
As the vikings mixed with the rest of the world, their alphabet became morphed into romanic letters. Some were similar to start with, and others chanced to look more like todays lettering. The rune GIBU ( and also NOT) was an "X" shape. The character meant different things depending on where it was in the word/phrase. It doesn't take much to morph this into a "cross" or "plus" shape. The gibu character was a common first letter on sword names. It often meant "This Sword".
While an "X" romanic character would be a good replacement for gibu, the sound was "G". They used almost no rounded letters, so they kept the crossed line shape for a good while before adopting the "G".
Stacy E. Apelt, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
