A discovery straight out of a King Arthur legend recently unfolded in Norway, where a hiker unearthed a 1,500-year-old gold sword fitting hidden beneath a tree.

The news was announced on May 5 by the University of Stavanger, a public university in Norway .

The artifact was found in the Austrått district of Sandnes, a city in southwestern Norway.

It dates to the sixth century, during Norway’s Migration Period, a turbulent era of upheaval following the fall of the Roman Empire .

The anonymous hiker, who lives in Austrått, said he “like[s] to explore and get to know the local area.”

After noticing a tree felled by a storm, the man — a father of two — began probing the ground beneath it.

“I saw a slight rise in the soil under the tree and poked at it with a stick,” he said, according to the release.

Annette Græsli Øvrelid/Museum of Archaeology, UStavanger/Cover Images

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“Suddenly I saw something gleaming.…