The Knife Wrestlers

Today, copies are located in Gothenburg in Bältespännarparken, in front of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm, in Vänersborg and in Mästarnas park in Hällefors.

The sculpture furthermore contains elements of Nordic (pre-)history, including the use of runes and verses from the Poetic Edda.

The analysis of Molin's private letters has shown that the inscription was meant to be there originally, and that the text consists of some verses in Old Norse taken from the Poetic Edda.

A year later, it was shown at the art academy in Stockholm, but it was only in 1862 after it had been cast from bronze in Berlin by Moritz Geiß that it started to draw attention.

In the same year, it was shown at the 1862 International Exhibition in London where it received a lot of attention, and two copies were sold, one to the city of Cologne and one to an English art dealer.

[1] An altered copy of this statue appeared in the American television show, Star Trek: The Next Generation in the quarters of the character Lieutenant Worf.