Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• The Rold Treasure, which features six gold bracelets weighing a total of 1.7 pounds, was just discovered in Denmark.
• The Viking Age gold was sticking out of a field, leading to its discovery.
• This is the third-largest gold find from the Viking Age ever recorded in Denmark.

A local man was taking a walk along a road through the woods near Rold (on Denmark’s Himmerland peninsula) when he spotted something unusual: two metallic objects glinting in the topsoil. He crouched down, scraped away the dirt, and pulled out two heavy gold bracelets—no metal detector required.

He could have pocketed them. Instead, he carried the objects to the Museums of North Jutland and placed them on the counter for danefæ assessment—the Danish legal process for evaluating treasure finds of national importance. Museum staff took one look at the thick, gleaming bracelets and knew immediately that these were solid gold arm rings from the Viking Age.

Later that same day, archaeologists rushed to the spot where the rings had been found. Sweeping the area with metal detectors, they located a third bracelet almost exactly where the first two were discovered. Then, about 50 feet away, their detectors buzzed again, and the team unearthed three more gold arm rings stacked neatly on top of one another.

All six bracelets were fully intact, weighing a combined 762.5 grams—roughly 1.7 pounds of solid gold. The collection, now called the Rold Treasure, ranks as the third-largest Viking Age gold hoard ever recorded in Denmark. It is surpassed only by the Tissø ring (found in West Zealand in 1977) and the Fæsted Hoard (found near Ribe in 2016).

“It is a truly unique find,” said Torben Sarauw, cultural heritage manager and archaeologist at the Museums of North Jutland. “We have simply never seen anything like it before here at the museum.”

The bracelets all match known Scandinavian styles from the Viking Age, but such objects were more commonly made of silver, not solid gold. “Gold in the Viking Age was concentrated among the absolute elite of society, and that is precisely why finds of this type are extremely rare,” Sarauw said. “The fact that two gold bangles were found in the upper layers of the soil and without the use of a metal detector, and that four others subsequently turned up during an archaeological investigation of the area, makes the find quite extraordinary in a Danish context.”

The bracelets’ surfaces alternate between twisted gold and smooth shapes, which Sarauw said testifies to the highly specialized goldsmith’s craft, adding to the value of the find. Three of the bracelets were created by twisting two rods, and one is inlaid with thin gold wire, including a knob-shaped closure. The others are smooth bracelets with solid gold rods or wires. Several included characteristic wrapped closures, known as running knots, in different styles. One of the bracelets, however, has a different look, with a flat-hammered style and joined ends decorated with a zigzag pattern of triangles.

The Rold Treasure has been dated to between 900 and 1000 C.E.—the period during which the Danish region began uniting into one kingdom under Harald Bluetooth. Not surprisingly, gold bracelets signified power, wealth, and political connection. Museum experts said that the newly discovered bracelets may have belonged to the emerging Danish monarchy in the 900s.

Finding all six arm rings fully intact adds an extra layer of intrigue to the discovery. “When such rings were laid down together, it is often interpreted as a deliberate deposit either to secure values in troubled times or as part of rituals, the full meaning of which is difficult to determine today,” Sarauw said.

Archaeologists believe that the bracelets may have been a valuable gift with strong symbolic meaning, and that they were certainly associated with high social status. Although it would have been unusual for the time, the bracelets may even have even been used as payment for a land tax.

Museum experts said that all of the gold was recovered from the private field in which the hoard was found, and that they hope to exhibit the bracelets at the Aalborg Historical Museum, which is close to the site where they were discovered. The Danish National Museum may continue to investigate the Rold Treasure, looking to unearth more details about one of Denmark’s most fascinating Viking Age gold finds.