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The ARN movies

Tempelriddaren poster 

Albion Europe has supplied more than 200 swords, daggers and sheaths for the film version of Jan Guillou’s novels about Arn Magnusson. On these pages you can read more about how this all went off—from the first meeting with the film company to the final delivery, about Peter Johnsson, who did all the research and designing of the swords, and about the way an Albion sword is produced.

Making the swords for ARN

The producers of the Arn films wanted to be as historically accurate as possible in their choice of weapons for the films, so Søren Niedziella of Albion Europe brought them together with Peter Johnsson, the well-known author, researcher and designer for Albion Swords. Since Albion would need to produce almost 200 hundred swords, daggers and scabbards for the film in a matter of a few months, the designs needed to be developed and approved quickly. Typically, it takes at least a year to design a new Albion sword model, put it into production, and offer it to the public for sale.

Peter Johnsson - Swordsmith and researcher

Peter Johnsson has documented over 100 medieval swords in private collections and museums across Europe. The scattered remains of past ages have always held a strong attraction for Peter. When, as a child, his parents took him to visit museums, the experience left him mesmerized. The thought of what the fragments of past times might have been witness to stirred his imagination. As many other kids, he felt that armouries, with their dark and suggestive atmosphere, were especially exciting.

How a sword is made at Albion

Our goals and aspirations We strive for something more than mere visual resemblance to the historical weaponry in the swords we make. Our goal is to reproduce not only the visual aspects of the originals to a high degree of precision, but also make swords that will handle and perform like the originals. For anyone who has had the privilege to hold an antique sword, the "feel" of an original sword is unmistakable -- a feeling rarely found in modern day replicas. The term "replica" is often used to represent a look-alike, sometimes made with moderate or low aspirations to authenticity.