have anyone noticed the floating sword that is next the talos shrine by windhelm?

I haven't ever noticed one there but sometimes "dropped" weapons and gear do end up in some odd places. The ones I've found floating in mid-air are usually those left over from some violent confrontation... apparently dropped by people as they died. Their bodies despawn but the dropped weapons become lootable clutter and the game will try to remember where they were dropped and have them be there whenever you enter the area. Occasionally this results in them being positioned in mid-air, sometimes it will be impossible to get a "take" option on them. Often I find that walking into one will cause it to drop to the ground and then I can loot it. I can see where this might also happen with loose objects that the game is trying to place in particular locations as lootable clutter.

Altho I think the Unofficial Patch resolves this issue with regard to weapons dropped by NPCs as it prevents them from being tagged as "dropped" and keeps them in the NPC's inventory instead, if you loot them from there you get them and if not they disappear as soon as the body does. I still run into the problem sometimes with items that weren't dropped by anyone in particular but are just supposed to be there as clutter or loot. Usually not floating in mid-air but I won't be able to get any options for taking the object no matter how close I get or what angle I try to grab it from. Usually a save and immediate reload fixes the problem for me if I want the item that badly.