I recently watched a Discovery documentary that claimed the original swords were inlaid with the name "+ulfberh+t", while the rip offs were inlaid with "+ulfberht+". It was my understanding that things were the other way around. Can anybody clear this up for me? Thanks
The Discovery program's summary is a little simplified, but it's correct: the high-quality crucible steel swords said +Ulfberh+t, while +Ulfberht+ was one of several inscriptions found on the lower quality swords (presumably, knock-off imitations).
Our knowledge of the different kinds of Ulfberht blades comes from an important metallurgical study of surviving artifacts by Alan Williams, which you can read here.