There is a wonderful rule: if you shoot a gun at the past, the future will shoot a gun at you. This quote has a deep meaning. Indeed indeed! It all starts small: first it's stones and sticks, and later slings and axes. Unfortunately, not everyone can make this transition. From primitive weapons to more advanced ones. Solum fortis superesse... Many peoples were able to become armament titans in their era. But I would like to dwell separately on the warriors, whose courage and perseverance knew no equal. These bloodthirsty reapers of death, riding the winds of war, destroyed entire settlements. Vikings… Bearded seafarers who plowed the harsh northern seas far and wide on their powerful drakkars… Brave and valiant warriors of Odin and Thor… Soulless barbarians and pagans. The attitude towards them in Europe was ambiguous. For some, they were dangerous and ruthless enemies, for others they were trading partners and brothers in arms.

“The Vikings (Normans) are sea robbers, immigrants from Scandinavia, who committed in the 9th-11th centuries. hikes up to 8000 km long, maybe even longer distances. These bold and fearless people in the east reached the borders of Persia, and in the west - the New World. Great Soviet Encyclopedia The word "Viking" goes back to the Old Norse "Vikingr". Regarding its origin, there are a number of hypotheses, the most convincing of which raises it to "vik" - a fiord, a bay. The word "Viking" (lit. "man from the fiord") was used to refer to robbers who acted in coastal waters, hiding in secluded bays and bays, and also (Western Scandinavian viking) meant "military campaign" or "devastation", "plunder"). Thus, the Vikings were called those Scandinavians who were engaged in aggressive campaigns, lived off the booty captured at sea and in other lands. However, outside Scandinavia, people from this region were called "pagans", "Normans", " people from the North", "Dans", "Rus", "foreigners". In Russia they were called "Varangians". It also happened that the authors telling about them sometimes did not know which Scandinavian country certain Vikings came from , and called them, for example, "dans", thereby tying them to a certain geographical region, although in fact the Viking squad could consist of representatives of various areas of Scandinavia.Wherever the Vikings went - to the British Isles, to France, Spain, Italy or North Africa - they ruthlessly plundered and seized foreign lands. In some cases, they settled in conquered countries and became their rulers. The Danish Vikings conquered England for some time, settled in Scotland and Ireland. Together they conquered a part of France known as Normandy. The Norwegian Vikings and their descendants established colonies on the islands of the North Atlantic - Iceland and Greenland and founded a settlement on the coast of Newfoundland in North America, however, which did not last long. The Swedish Vikings began to rule in the east of the Baltic. They spread widely throughout Rus' and, descending along the rivers to the Black and Caspian Seas, even threatened Constantinople and some regions of Persia. The Vikings were the last Germanic barbarian conquerors and the first European pioneer navigators. Abroad, the Vikings acted as robbers, conquerors and traders, and at home they mainly cultivated the land, hunted, fished and raised cattle. The independent peasant, who worked alone or with relatives, formed the basis of Scandinavian society. No matter how small his allotment was, he remained free and was not tied like a serf to the land that belonged to another person. In all strata of Scandinavian society, family ties were strongly developed, and in important matters its members usually acted together with relatives. The clans jealously guarded the good names of their fellow tribesmen, and trampling on the honor of one of them often led to cruel civil strife. The violence that reigned in that society is evidenced by the fact that almost all men were buried with weapons. A well-equipped warrior must have a sword, a wooden shield with a metal plate in the center to protect the hand, a spear, an ax and a bow with up to 24 arrows. The helmet and chain mail, in which the Vikings are depicted by modern artists, are actually very rare during excavations. Helmets with horns, which are an indispensable attribute of the Vikings in the paintings, in fact, have never been found among the real things of the Vikings. But in the graves of warriors, military equipment, we find peaceful objects - sickles, scythes and hoes. The blacksmith is buried with his hammer, anvil, tongs and file. Next to the coastal peasant we can see fishing gear. Fishermen were often buried in their boats. In the graves of women, one can find their personal jewelry, kitchen utensils and tools for making yarn. Women were also often buried in boats. Wooden, textile and leather things are rarely preserved to this day, which leaves many unclear questions in the study of that time. Only in a few graves does the earth retain a little more than usual. Off the coast of the Oslo Fjord, just under the peat layer, there is a clay layer that prevents the penetration of water and air. Some graves would have been, as it were, conserved for many thousands of years and, thereby, retained all the objects that were in them. In this regard, mention should be made of the burials of Oseberg, Thune and Gokstad, the treasures of which are exhibited in the Viking Ship Museum on the island of Bygdey in Oslo.

According to some historians, the "Viking Age" or "great northern conquests began in the middle of the 8th century.

On a June afternoon in 793 A.D. e. the monks of the small monastery of Lindisfarne, located on the island of Holy (or Holy Island) off the coast of Northumberland (England) and did not suspect that fast boats of sea pirates were approaching their island. Attacking the frightened monks, the Vikings staged a terrible massacre. The invaders plundered the monastery, taking with them gold, silver and other valuables. Then they boarded ships and disappeared, sailing away on the waves of the North Sea. Nine years later, the monastery at Iona in the Hebrides was robbed. Not satisfied with single raids, the Vikings moved on to seizing large territories. Late 9th - early 10th c. they took possession of Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides and settled in the north of Scotland. In the 11th century for unknown reasons, they left these lands. The Shetland Islands remained in the hands of the Norwegians until the 16th century. Leaving the shores of England, they headed for Ireland, where rich monasteries also became the object of their attacks and robbery. In 830 they established a wintering settlement in Ireland, and by 840 they had taken control of large areas. The Viking positions were mostly strong in the south and east.

One of the powerful bases of the Vikings was the Irish city of Dublin. This situation continued until 1170, when the British invaded Ireland and expelled the Vikings from there. More and more Danish and Norwegian Vikings arrived in the British Isles. But now they were no longer detachments of raiders, but squads with fleets of ships at their disposal. Some of these ships may have reached 30 meters in length and could accommodate up to 100 warriors. It was mainly the Danish Vikings who penetrated England. In 835 they made a campaign at the mouth of the Thames, in 851 they settled on the Isles of Sheppey and Thanet at the mouth of the Thames, and from 865 they began the conquest of East Anglia. King Alfred the Great of Wessex stopped their advance, but was forced to cede the lands located north of the line running from London to the north-eastern outskirts of Wales. This area, called the Danelag (Danish Law Area), was gradually reconquered by the British in the following century. But later, after the great battle of Ashington took place in 1016, and then, in the same year, King Edmund of Wessex, the leader of the Vikings, Knud, who professed Christianity, died, became the king of all England. Ultimately, in 1042, as a result of a dynastic marriage, the throne passed to the British. However, even after that, Danish raids continued until the end of the century. In 799, the Danish Vikings began to raid Frisia, a coastal region in Europe located roughly between Denmark and the Netherlands. From there, rising along the rivers Loire and Seine, they penetrated deep into the European continent and devastated cities and villages. In 845, the Vikings even raided Paris. The Frankish king Charles the Bald paid them 7,000 pounds of silver to withdraw from the city.

But the Vikings are back again. They continued to raid, moving even further inland - to the cities of Troyes, Verdun and Toul. Gradually, the Scandinavians gained a foothold at the mouth of the Seine and other rivers of northern France. In 911, the French king Charles III the Simple concluded a forced peace with the leader of the Normans, Rollo, and granted him Rouen with the adjacent lands, to which new territories were added a few years later. The Duchy of Rollo attracted a lot of immigrants from Scandinavia and soon received the name Normandy. The Normans adopted the language, religion and customs of the Franks. In 1066, Duke William of Normandy (known in France itself as Guillaume of Normandy), who went down in history as William the Conqueror, the illegitimate son of Robert I, a descendant of Rollon and the fifth Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings and took the English throne. The Normans undertook conquests in Wales and Ireland, many of them settled in Scotland. The Vikings also sailed to Spain and Portugal, where, according to reports, they first invaded in 844. They sacked several small towns and even captured Seville for a while. But the Arabs gave them such a powerful rebuff that the Viking army was almost completely defeated. However, in 859 they came again - this time with a flotilla of 62 ships. Having ravaged some parts of Spain, they undertook a campaign into North Africa. The Vikings, though their ships were filled to overflowing with captured booty, went to Italy and devastated Pisa and the Moon. At the beginning of the 11th c. the Normans penetrated into southern Italy, where, as mercenaries, they participated in hostilities against the Arabs in Salerno. Then new settlers began to arrive here from Scandinavia, who established themselves in small towns, taking them by force from their former employers and their neighbors. The sons of Count Tancred of Hauteville, who captured Apulia in 1042, enjoyed the loudest fame among Norman adventurers. In 1053 they defeated the army of Pope Leo IX, forcing him to make peace with them and give Apulia and Calabria as a fief. By 1071, all of southern Italy fell under the rule of the Normans.

One of the sons of Tancred, Duke Robert, nicknamed Guiscard ("Sly"), supported the pope in the fight against Emperor Henry IV. Robert's brother Roger I started a war with the Arabs in Sicily. In 1061 he took Messina, but only 13 years later the island was under the rule of the Normans. Roger II united the Norman possessions in southern Italy and Sicily under his rule, and in 1130 Pope Anaclet II declared him king of Sicily, Calabria and Capua. In Italy, as elsewhere, the Normans demonstrated their amazing ability to adapt and assimilate in a foreign environment. The Normans played an important role in the Crusades, in the history Kingdom of Jerusalem and other states formed by the crusaders in the East. From the territory where modern Sweden is located, the Vikings sailed east, through the Baltic, and further along the main waterways of Eastern Europe- the rivers Volkhov, Lovat, Dnieper and Volga. So they got into the Black Sea and approached the shores of rich lands Byzantine Empire. Some of the Vikings, who were engaged in trade, even reached Baghdad along the Volga and the Caspian Sea. The Norwegian Vikings undertook campaigns to many outlying islands. So, in the VIII century they captured the Orkney and Shetland Islands, in the IX century - the Faroe Islands, the Hebrides, as well as the eastern part of Ireland. The Vikings formed a settlement even in Iceland. Though this northern country was discovered and settled by Irish monks, at the end of the 9th century. the Norwegian Vikings firmly established themselves there. The Norwegian settlers were the leaders with their entourage, who fled from Norway from the despotism of King Harold, nicknamed Fair-Haired. For several centuries, Iceland remained independent, it was ruled by influential leaders, who were called godar. They met annually in the summer at meetings of the Althing, which was the prototype of the first parliament. This oldest parliament in the West is still governing body Iceland. However, the Althing could not resolve the feuds of the leaders, and in 1262. Iceland was subject to the Norwegian king. It regained its independence only in 1944. In 985, a Viking named Eric the Red established a colony in Greenland. Several hundred settlers arrived on the southwestern coast of Greenland, discovered by Eric the Red a few years earlier.

They settled in the locality of Vesterbygden ("western settlement") at the edge of the ice cap on the banks of the Ameralik Fjord. Even for hardy Icelanders, the harsh conditions of southern Greenland proved to be a difficult test. Being engaged in hunting, fishing and whaling, they have lived in the area for about 400 years. However, around 1350 the settlements were completely abandoned. Here they could probably play leading role cooling of the climate, a chronic shortage of grain, and the almost complete isolation of Greenland from Scandinavia after a plague epidemic in the middle of the 14th century. 1000. According to these sources, North America was discovered by Bjarni Herjolfsson, the son of a Greenlandic pioneer. Bjarni Herjolfsson set sail from the coast of Iceland, went to Greenland to his parents. But he lost his course and swam past Greenland. "Bjarni, apparently, was the first of the Normans to sail to the shores North America", - says one of the books about the culture of the Vikings. The main characters of the Scandinavian sagas are also Leif Eriksson, the son of Eric the Red, and Thorfinn Thordarson, nicknamed Karlsabni. The base of Leif Eriksson, apparently, was located in the area L "Ans-o-Meadow located on the far north coast of Newfoundland. Leif Erickson traveled west from Greenland to Baffin Island after 1000 and then to the shores of Labrador. He landed at the cape, which he named Vinland. Leif spent the winter there before returning to Greenland. Karlsabny assembled a force to establish a colony at Vinland in 1004 or 1005, but was killed there in a skirmish with the natives. Because of the growing enmity with the natives, after three years the Vikings left these places and never returned there.

All these conquests would not have been so successful if not for their rich weapons.

The Vikings fought on foot. Naturally, they used horses to move their units quickly from place to place, and riders often appear in the images of that era, but it is clear from all descriptions of the battles that the warriors came to the battlefield on horseback, and then dismounted and hobbled their horses even before how the battle started. The same custom existed among the Anglo-Saxons, as shown in the poem "The Battle of Maldon". In the scenes of battles on stones from Gotland, we see horses without riders, either tied or hobbled (see insert). Archeology confirms this rule: horses in Viking burials are equipped with rich harness, stirrups and other attributes of horse harness lie next to them, but nothing like protective armor for horses has ever been found, which would certainly be needed if there was a custom to fight on horseback.

Perfected Scandinavian sword of the IX-XI centuries. became a true symbol of the era. In the special literature, it is called the "Viking sword". "Viking Sword" It is a direct descendant of the spatha - a long double-edged sword of the Celts and a direct ancestor of the knight's sword. In fact, it should be called the "Viking sword", since these swords belong to a certain era and were worn by all the warriors of the Viking era, and not just the Vikings. However, the expression "Viking sword" also took root because the sword was a typical Viking weapon. Although the battle ax still played an important role, the sword was more valued by the Vikings. The pagan Viking sagas are full of tales of special swords. For example, in the Edda about Helga Hjorvardsson, the Valkyrie Svava describes the hero’s magic sword as follows: “There is a ring on the head, courage in the blade, the blade inspires fear in front of the owner, a bloody worm rests on the blade, the viper curled up in a ring on the back.” Along with magic swords, famous family swords are known, having given name and special qualities. The Scandinavian sword of the Viking Age was a long, heavy double-edged blade with a small guard. The Viking sword weighed about 1.5 kg. Its usual length was about 80 ... 90 cm, the width of the blade was 5 ... 6 cm. Along the canvas on both sides of the blade of all Scandinavian swords there are valleys that served to lighten its mass.

The thickness of the sword in the area of ​​the valley was about 2.5 mm, on the sides of the valley - up to 6 mm. However, the dressing of the metal was such that it did not affect the strength of the blade. In the IX-XI centuries. the sword was a purely slashing weapon and was not intended for stabbing. During the Viking Age, swords increased somewhat in length (up to 930 mm) and acquired a slightly sharper end of the blade and the tip itself. Throughout continental Europe between 700-1000 B.C. n. e. swords of this design have been found, with minor differences. Not every warrior had a sword - it was primarily a professional weapon. But not every sword owner could boast of a magnificent and expensive blade. The hilts of ancient swords were richly and variously decorated. Classification of swords IX-XI centuries. by the handles. With a wide variety of hilts, the blades of the swords are almost the same - wide, flat, with valleys, slightly tapering towards the tip. Blades with parallel edges or narrow ones are rare. Some swords almost do not differ in the shape of the hilts, but differ only in their ornament, while others, on the contrary, sometimes have the same cellular decoration of the crosshairs and pommel, while the outlines of their hilts are not similar. Strictly speaking, these are not separate types, but species within one type. “The typology of J. Petersen sometimes seems too detailed, yet in the interests of greater accuracy of comparisons, we leave unchanged those Petersen types that could be combined into one group. True, in connection with the peculiarities of the Russian material, the sequence of consideration of these types has been somewhat changed. As far as we can ascertain, medieval workshops produced most of the blades with already mounted handles, so it can be assumed that most of the blades and handles for them were made at the same time. However, in Europe there are cases when the hilts of finished swords were altered and decorated later according to local tastes. Such, for example, are Ulfberht blades with hilts ornamented in northern Ellingestil. The methods of studying swords have gone so far as to lead to new and unexpected discoveries. It turned out that typologically very inert ancient blades are an excellent historical document of great power and persuasiveness. Back in 1889, the work of the curator of the Bergen Museum, A. L. Lorange, who had been dealing with ancient swords for many years, was published (posthumously). 11 When processing 50 blades, the researcher came across previously invisible inscriptions, signs and damasking. The interpretation of the inscriptions proposed by A. Lorange, has not become obsolete even now, but the methods of their detection themselves have remained unknown. The discovery of the Bergen scientist was discussed for many years. The amazing abundance of inscriptions and signs that suddenly appeared on things, most of them well known for a long time, is explained by the production features of branding. The "magic" feature of these meths is that, depending on the safety and care, they can disappear and reappear. Even on the strip, cleared of carrosion, the inscriptions and signs are almost indistinguishable and, as a rule, are revealed in the process of special processing. Our actions at the same time, obviously, resemble the final operations of an ancient artisan, who, before finishing work, polished the blade and etched metal that was previously invisible on the mirror. Masters skillfully and with great taste combined noble and non-ferrous metals - bronze, copper, brass, gold and silver - with relief pattern, enamel and niello." Ancient Russian weapons. Issue. 1. Swords and sabers IX-XIII centuries. Precious decorations were of their own. Swords were carried in sheaths, which were made of leather and wood. In 1939, a magnificent, well-preserved ship burial was found on Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. As a result of research, archaeologists came to the conclusion that this is the grave of the Anglo-Saxon king Redwold, who died in 625. One of the most significant finds in this burial was Redwald's sword. His blade was welded from numerous strips of Damascus steel. The handle is almost entirely made of gold and decorated with cloisonné enamel. If gold cells are usually filled with colored enamel, then the Sutton-Khu sword has polished grenades inserted into them. Truly it was the weapon of the king, representing the highest standard of metallurgical art.

The British Museum with the help modern methods studies have established that the sword consisted of a core of complex design and blades welded to it. The core was made of eight bars, each consisting of seven Damascus steel rods. The bars are twisted in opposite directions and shackled alternately "torted" and "straight". Thus, a characteristic pattern was formed - a kind of "herringbone" and sections with a twisted pattern and a longitudinal pattern alternated along the length of the blade. The average length of both is 55 mm, and the pattern is repeated at least 11 times. The British Museum offered to make a blade in the Sutton Hoo style to US blacksmith Scott Lankton, who is known for his work in this area. First, a package was welded by forge welding, then forged into a rectangular blank with decreasing dimensions (10 mm is the size of the larger base, and 6 mm is the smaller one) 500 mm long. The materials included in the package were selected based on the color they acquire after etching. Eight of the best twisted bars made up a package, welded at the ends by arc welding and additionally fastened with clamps. The complex stack thus obtained was forge welded using borax as a flux. For the blade of the sword, a plate was forged, consisting of 180 layers of high-carbon steel (80% wt.) And soft iron (20% wt.). The core was “wrapped” with this plate, and it was welded to it by end forge welding. As a result, a sword with a total length of 89 cm was forged with a weight of just over a kilogram and a blade length of 76 cm. After filing and polishing, the sword was hardened in oil. Vacation was made in hot oil.

After seven days of grinding and polishing, the blade was etched in the "classic" 3% nitric acid solution. The beautiful pattern that appeared was like wisps of smoke rising from a flame. This type of pattern is now called Sutton Hoo Smoke. The Smoke Sutton Hoo sword is now part of the collection of the British Museum and is on permanent display next to the original. The Smoke Sutton Hoo sword is extremely popular with modern smiths who specialize in Damascus steel. His numerous replica reconstructions are known, including such outstanding masters as M. Sachse, M. Balbach, P. Bartha. Another common weapon in the Viking Age was a heavy spear, which was significantly different from its counterparts from other countries. The northern spear had a shaft about five feet long with a long (up to half a meter) wide leaf-shaped tip. Such a spear could both stab and chop (which the Vikings, in fact, did with success). Thus, the Scandinavian blacksmiths, who forged swords for their compatriot warriors, mastered the complex technology of blacksmith forging, pattern welding and heat treatment. In the technique of production and artistic decoration of swords, they surpassed the masters of both Europe and Asia, as evidenced, for example, by the fact that it was Scandinavian swords that were exported to the countries of these regions, and not vice versa.

vikings military equipment ship

Bibliography

  • 1) http://www.studfiles.ru/preview/1025042/
  • 2) http://skazania.ru/pirates/4.htm
  • 3) Old Russian weapons. Issue. 1. Swords and sabers IX-XIII centuries.
  • 4) Guryev. A. Ya.” Viking Campaigns
  • 5) Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Among the ancient weapons of the ancient Scandinavians, it is worth noting that the sword was the most common weapon of the ancient glorious Viking warriors. The Arab writer and traveler Ibn Fadlan in his work wrote about the armament of the Vikings (Rus) in trading campaigns as follows:

With each of them (there is) an ax, and a sword, and a knife, and he (never) parted with what we (now) mentioned.

Replica Danish ax

Scandinavians: Norwegians, Danes, Swedes in that glorious era of great male warriors in battle simultaneously used both a sword and an ax from weapons, there was always a wooden shield to protect vital organs. In addition, the warrior had a short blade or knife (Sax).

viking axes

The combat weapons of the Scandinavians of that time were smaller and much lighter than a conventional working axe. The battle ax was intended for combat with it with one hand.

The photo on the right is a replica of a Danish ax (photo from Wikipedia, in the public domain).

However, morally, she also dealt an irreparable blow to the enemy, because basically in medieval Europe they fought with swords, and here the ax was in the hands of bearded merciless warriors, for whom death in battle was not terrible, but on the contrary - a Viking who fell in battle with a sword or with an ax in his hands (or other weapons), he got to the eternal feast and eternal forest to Odin himself, and in Valhalla to Odin the warrior was escorted by beauties and warriors, the beautiful golden-haired maidens of the Valkyries ...

It is not yet entirely clear whether the Vikings had double-edged axes or if this is an invention along with horned helmets. Ordinary axes existed in the Viking Age for sure, besides, they were as popular as swords. In ancient graves, swords are found in the graves of warriors along with battle axes.

viking shield

The Vikings were excellent conquering warriors. And for any warrior you need a weapon, both attacking and defensive. The Vikings made beautiful warships drakkars (dragons) and made excellent weapons, including the famous Scandinavian shield, the Norman Viking shield. Viking shields were round and wooden. They were made from linden, fir, spruce, pine. The Norman or Scandinavian shield differs from others by a special fastening with straps to the shoulder.

The shield served not only as protection against spears and arrows, but also protected from the blow of the enemy's sword or ax.

Viking spears

Viking spears were one of the most important weapons in battle in the era of the great Viking warriors, up to 1.5 meters long, with a leaf-shaped tip.

There were throwing spears (shorter and narrower), which looked like European darts and sulits (sulits were used by soldiers in princely squads in Kievan Rus).

viking sword

Viking sword - the most practical and common military weapon Scandinavian warrior in the glorious and great era of courageous and strong Viking warriors, who were excellent sailors and built beautiful warships drakkars (dragons), which were the pinnacle of craftsmanship in the manufacture of warships of that time, but now is not about that ...

By the way, in those days, swords were the main weapon of almost all peoples and civilizations.

Video below: 1,100-year-old Viking sword found in rocks in Norway, which has been perfectly preserved for so many years ... A meter-long sword, found high in the mountains.

Secrets of the Viking sword

You can find on YouTube interesting video, which tells about the sword Ulfberht and the master even tries to create such a sword in the same conditions in which it was made by medieval craftsmen. The video shows the technology of making blades in medieval Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Check it out - a lot of interesting and informative information.

Secrets of the Viking Sword Ulfbert

Single-edged swords were used until the 10th century, after which archaeologists find only double-edged or double-edged blades.

Viking Bow

Scandinavia in the Viking Age is the time of great conquering warriors, sailors and sailors who were not only excellent warriors, but also excellent merchants. Of course, great warriors must have excellent weapons, at that time it was melee weapons. The quality of the weapons of the medieval warriors was good.

The advantage of the bow was that it could be used over long distances.

viking knives

In addition to the full military equipment of the Vikings, one should also include a knife, which was also an obligatory weapon of a warrior in battle with the enemy and in hunting wild animals. Of course, in the everyday life of the Scandinavians in the Viking era, women had household knives, but we will now talk about their fighting comrades, about formidable fighting knives, which were called Saxons. The name of this knife most likely comes from the name of the ancient Germanic people "Saxons" or vice versa.

Knife Saks

The Sachs knife is a rather long knife with one-sided sharpening. Honorary citizens, jarls, kings, the most famous warriors, usually had such knives in Scandinavian society. A longer version of the Saxon was called the Scramasax. In peacetime, it could be used, for example, for hunting.

The warriors of medieval Scandinavia, the Vikings, took great care of their weapons, carefully looked after them and decorated the scabbards and hilts in all sorts of ways, emphasizing the care and respect for the weapon, as well as the individuality of its owner.

The Carolingian sword is a type of edged weapon that was common in Europe from the 7th to the 10th century. It is also known as the sword of the Vikings, although it was widely used by other warriors of the early Middle Ages. The peak of popularity of this weapon falls on the 13th century, when it finally took shape, standing out as a separate type, which was considered the most effective at that time. More details about the history of the "Carolingians", their characteristics and varieties, as well as artifacts confirming their existence, will be discussed below.

So, the progenitor of the Viking sword is spatha, and its descendant is the well-known knightly sword. The double-edged spatha was invented by the Celts before our era, but gradually it became the main type of weapon, both among the Scandinavians and the Romans, spreading over several centuries throughout Europe. It was replaced by a sword of the Carolingian type. The Viking Age made a number of changes to the design of the once short blade: it became longer, thicker and heavier than its predecessors dating back to the era of migration of peoples.

By the 10th century, "Carolingians" began to be used almost everywhere by the warriors of the states of Northern and Western Europe. The very term "Carolingian" ("Carolingian", "sword of the Carolingian type") appeared much later - on turn of XIX and XX centuries. It was introduced by gunsmiths and arms collectors in honor of the Carolingian dynasty that ruled over the Frankish empire.

By the period of the Late Middle Ages, the Viking sword gradually transformed into a knightly weapon - the Romanesque sword.

Three main systematics of the "Carolingians"

Interestingly, from 750 to 1100. The design of the Carolingian sword remained practically unchanged. Only the shape of the handles has been improved. It was this that historians took as a basis, creating classification systems for Viking blades (by the way, many of them are very different from each other). So, at the beginning of the 20th century, Jan Petersen identified 26 types of handles, and Dr. R. Wheeler identified 7 main categories. Half a century later, Ewart Oakeshott added 2 more categories, demonstrating the transition from the Viking sword to the knight's sword.

At the end of the 20th century, Alfred Geibig developed the most advanced classification of Viking blades, which includes 13 types. The first of them shows the transition from spatha to the sword of the Vikings, and the penultimate and last - to the knight's sword. People who are most interested in Carolingian type swords highly appreciated this taxonomy. And for knightly swords, the Oakeshott classification is still the best.

More about Viking swords

ABOUT appearance and functional characteristics of the weapons of the Viking Age, our contemporaries can judge not only from handwritten sources and drawings. Many artifacts have been found on the territory of Christian Europe; single specimens came across to archaeologists in the Muslim Volga Bulgaria and even in the Kama region. In the latter case, the length of the found sword was as much as 120 cm!

But, judging by the density of the finds, the medieval Scandinavians fell in love with the Carolingians most of all. Weapon northern peoples practically no different from the blades of the population of the rest of Europe. So, Danish and Norwegian Viking swords are identical to the defensive weapons of the Franks, British, etc. This is a typical weapon of the Middle Ages, which was considered universal for both foot soldiers and horsemen.

"Carolingian" is characterized by the following features:

  • the length of the double-edged blade is about 90 cm;
  • total weight of the product - 1 - 1.5 kg;
  • the presence on the blade of a deep extended valley (a notch cut from both sides), the function of which is to lighten the total mass of the sword and to give the blade strength (having acquired the ability to bend, the blade did not break);
  • a short handle with a minimum size guard (cross) and a massive pommel (apple, knob).

The top is an important detail

One legend tells about the origin of the voluminous knob. Initially, the swords had an ordinary hilt, to which the warriors attached a small box with spells to help them during battles. Confirmation of this fact can be found in another legend - "About Skofnung" (the sword of Hrolf Kraka). The box protected the spell from mechanical damage, from burnout, getting wet, and from prying eyes. Over time, the box "grown" to the handle, becoming its full-fledged pommel.

How were Viking swords decorated?

Initially, Viking weapons were decorated with mosaics and inlaid with precious stones, but over time, the invaders abandoned expensive decor, because main characteristic in these tools they considered their functionality. Sometimes there were inserts made of precious metals. But few people could refuse such an ornament as the original pommel, so the variety of varieties of this part of the sword amazes our contemporaries.

Many fans of the Vikings series were interested in the inscription on the Carolingian sword shown at the end of the film: some could not read it completely, while others were interested in the meaning of the word written in Latin. The crosspiece of a double-edged sword dating back to the Viking Age is decorated with the word "Ananyzapata" (Anananizapata), which is translated into Russian as "inquisitor". Perhaps the presence of such an inscription indicates that sometimes the design of the blade indicated the status of the owner of the weapon, as well as the role assigned to him by the leader.

About Viking single-edged swords

Not all Carolingians were double-edged. Sometimes the Vikings and their contemporaries also used single-edged products. They still had nothing to do with later sabers, since the blades of such specimens outwardly resembled a machete. This weapon was most common at the very beginning of the Viking Age.

The main distinguishing features of a single-edged sword:

  • the blade is sharpened on one side;
  • blade length - 80-85 cm;
  • lack of valley.

Such a sword was already longer than the spatha, but shorter than the double-edged "caroling", which very soon became widespread. The fact is that with the methods of struggle used at the dawn of the Middle Ages, the presence of two blades provided a great advantage: when the sword on one side became dull or damaged, the warrior turned it and used the opposite side.

May 5, 2017

Briefly about Viking weapons



“Lord deliver us from the wrath of the Vikings and the arrow of the Magyars” - this prayer is still pronounced in Europe
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The Vikings were amazing, magnificent, tireless and wonderful specialists in robbery attacks, the organization of criminal gangs, murders by prior conspiracy of two or more persons, as well as extremism, terrorism, mercenarism and insulting the feelings of believers. But as they say, they are not like that - such is life, back in the 50s of the twentieth century. Norway was a completely impoverished country, due to crazy economic problems from Sweden in the early twentieth century. 1.3 million Swedes left, all because of hunger and poverty, but what about the VIII-X centuries? Little grows on bare rocks, there is iron ore, which made it possible to develop blacksmithing, stunted sheep breeding and fishing in the harsh waters of the Norwegian, Northern and Baltic Sea, that's the whole economy. The same can be attributed to the north-west of Rus' and the Baltics, where poor agriculture, hunting and fishing did not allow to lead a well-fed life, so the influx into the Viking formations did not stop, there were gangs, which, according to evidence, consisted exclusively of Slavs.


There were much richer neighbors in the south, and on the banks mediterranean sea simply fabulously rich people, of course, in the head of a medieval person, not burdened by any morality and other pseudo-cultural husks, a logical thought arises - to take away and give to your loved one. Since the ships Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders, Balts and Slavs got along well, armed with what they could (mostly with clubs, spears and knives) on one fine day for them and terrible for all others living from Egypt to Dublin and from Baghdad before Seville, the Vikings took their monstrous sea dragons out to sea.


What exactly is the success of these sea vagrants? There were more of them in a certain place at a certain time - the only main secret of any war, there is no need to leaf through Xun Tzu, he did not know about this because there are always and everywhere more Chinese than the enemy, however, this has never helped them. Europe is an extremely sparsely populated place even now, towns and villages are often scattered, but unsociable people a couple of kilometers apart may not see each other for years. What can we say about the times of the Vikings, when the largest metropolis of Novgorod had 30,000 inhabitants, the large European city of London had a population of 10,000 people, and the average village around the castle had well, if 100-150 inhabitants, along with a baron, warriors, a molted falcon, dogs and wife.


Therefore, a sudden landing of 20-30 more or less combat-ready, and most importantly well-motivated Vikings, was a crushing blow to the stretched coastal defenses. Moreover, this is not current situation, when the notification occurs in minutes, and the arrival time from Lipetsk to Estonia of the strike group is 42 minutes. Then the villagers only by the alarm (if anyone survived) and smoke could find out that an attack had been committed. If the local prince or baron was in place, then there might have been some resistance, at least at the level to close in the tower and wait while firing back until the Vikings left, the villagers did the same, they fled or, having learned about the attack, sat out in the forest farms . There was no united resistance from the whole village, so even a single detachment of Vikings, understandably limited in number by the number of places on the drakkar (the huge one took 80 people, and temporarily up to 200), had in front of the baron with 10-15 servants and 3-4 villagers with bows and at best with scramasaxes or axes, overwhelming superiority. Well, like all the marines, they were guided by the motto: "the main thing is to get away in time" until the detachment of the king or duke arrived. Each Viking is a drakkar motor, if there are too few of them left to row, write wasted. A squadron formation of 10-20 drakkars could easily lay siege to London or Ladoga. Regarding serials and women in hird or blacks - 50 years ago in Sweden it would have sounded like a great anecdote, women were occasionally rulers, but I don’t remember a single saga about a woman, let alone a black hirdman, because this is impossible.


Over time, having accumulated wealth and equipped their harsh lands, the Vikings got a taste of it and instead of the boring northern summer they had incendiary annual sea cruises in order to rob their neighbors, rape them in perverted forms, and, with resistance, kill them with preliminary severe torture. In addition to robbery, they gradually began to trade, because they realized that goods valued in Ladoga (wine, jewelry, swords) are not so expensive in Seville, but in Rome, inexpensive wax, honey and furs can be well sold on the Novgorod market. Like all poor peoples, the Vikings became mercenaries, not only in the Slavic, but also in the Roman lands, their detachments were monstrously cruel, poorly controlled and self-willed, in Novgorod there are a lot of laws and documents related to the criminal offenses of the Vikings. Needless to say, when the captains of Rurik, the legendary Askold and Dir, having deserted from the army, simply put together an organized crime group and easily captured Kiev, which was completely normal for the Vikings, who twice besieged Paris, repeatedly captured London and passed fire and sword through all lands from the Levant to Lapland.


According to battle tactics, the Vikings were predominantly marines, that is, they specialized in the landing of amphibious assaults, which determines the northern nature itself with many water arteries. As such, there were no roads in those days in the north, so all life flowed along rivers, lakes and seas, where the Vikings felt great. The Vikings had horses, rich Vikings even had war horses, they were transported on drakkars, but in general, small furry Viking ponies, little different from a tall dog, were used as a very auxiliary force in rocky terrain where there was nowhere to graze. The movement of the Vikings was on the ship, then landing and fast foot crossings, which is why the type of heavy infantry weapons was developed, which made it possible to move quickly and resist a few cavalry in a shield formation with spears.


The main Viking weapon is the spear, it is cheap, easy to replace, its use against any other weapon except the halberd is devastating.




The Viking shield is also a weapon - knocked together from boards on glue, with a crossbar for holding, sometimes covered with fabric or leather, with an iron umbon to protect the fist - they can be beaten. There was no binding, it was made of different breeds tree, held in a fist, worn behind his back, transported on board a drakkar.


The Viking ax is a popular weapon - cheap, strong. They were by no means of heroic size - they can also be perfectly wielded.




What is called a battle ax is an axe. She was a little more battle ax sometimes bilateral.


The war hammer (pictured are French samples) was also by no means of a heroic size.


According to the typology, the Carolingian Viking swords are characteristic of all of Europe at that time and came out of the Carolingian Empire, which included Germany, France and Italy. The Carolingian type of sword crystallized around the 8th century, at the end of the era of the Great Migration, at the beginning of the unification of states Western Europe under the auspices of Charlemagne and his descendants, which explains the name of the type of sword (“refers to the era of the Carolingians”).


The Viking sword is a weapon mainly slashing, rarely seen in the saga that someone was stabbed. The usual length of a sword of the 10th century was about 80 - 90 cm, however, a sword of 1.2 m in length was found in Russia. The width of the blade was 5 - 6 cm, thickness 4 mm. Along the canvas on both sides of the blade of all Viking swords are valleys (Fuller), which served to lighten the weight of the blade. The end of the sword, not designed for stabbing, had a rather blunt point, and sometimes even simply rounded. The pommel or apple (Pommel), hilt (Tang) and crossguard of the sword (Guard) on rich swords were decorated with bronze, silver and even gold, but more often, unlike the Slavic Carolingians, Viking swords were rather modestly decorated.


As it usually appears in films, a certain master forges a sword day and night to the heroic music and hands it over to the main character, which is absolutely not the case. Perhaps somewhere in a remote village, a blacksmith who ascended above himself, usually forging sickles, scythes and nails, would have forged a sword if he had obtained a lot of iron somewhere, but the quality of this sword would have been low. Another thing is the weapons corporations that were engaged in the manufacture of weapons and, in particular, Carolingian swords on an industrial scale. For some reason, few people know that even in the Stone Age, and certainly in the Bronze Age, in all regions of Europe there were large corporations that produce weapons, even by today's standards. The division of labor was also characteristic of the production of the Carolingian sword, so the swords were made by several craftsmen, and the corporation put a trademark. It changed over time, the type of inscription changed, fonts changed, rebranding took place, because of illiteracy or other reasons (Albanian language?!) the letters in the inscriptions turned over. For example, in Rus' there were two such corporations LIUDOT KOVAL and SLAV, as evidenced by signature swords in museums.

In Scandinavia, apparently, there were smaller corporations that did not put their trademark or did not have the right to do so, but there were many exported swords, although the Carolingian Empire strictly forbade the sale of swords to anyone, but this law was poorly enforced or, judging by the number finds were not performed at all. In Germany, a huge weapons corporation ULFBERHT worked, whose swords are simply dotted with Scandinavian countries and Slavic lands, there were other massive signature swords, that is, other corporations such as CEROLT, ULEN, BENNO, LEUTLRIT, INGELRED worked.


The so-called signature swords were found throughout Europe, it is clear that the production of swords was put on stream and the arms trade was carried out everywhere. Making a sword in a corporation had the advantage of maximum output at minimal cost and costs with the best product quality. Iron was purchased in bulk lowest prices, was processed into less important products, apprentices were engaged in the manufacture of an iron base requiring low-skilled blacksmith forging, master blacksmiths assembled a blade that was complex. Master jewelers decorated the sword if it was of the appropriate value, or their apprentices stuffed a couple of cheap patterns. This approach, by the way, is typical for artists - apprentices write the background, most of the characters, and the master finishes the face of the main character or applies a couple of strokes and puts his signature.


The blade consisted of an iron or iron-steel base with hardened blades welded to it, then they learned to cover the iron base with steel plates from above, and later they learned how to make a solid blade. The iron base was made twisted or chopped and repeatedly forged again to create the so-called welding damascus, known from the 2nd-3rd centuries. This gave the blade with hard and sharp, but not flexible and brittle blades the necessary plasticity and the ability to bend under load. With the growth of blacksmithing skills, the complex damask technology was abandoned, since the quality of the iron base had already become acceptable and the blades no longer bear such a revered pattern that appears when etching wrought iron.


Swords were worn in wooden or leather sheaths, less often in iron, they could be covered with leather or later with velvet, any material that gave a “barbaric” chic, at that time they loved everything different from the color of the linen and raw leather. The colors were both in clothing and in the decoration of weapons as bright as possible from the available organic dyes, as soon as the warrior became rich - pommels, tips, plaques, brooches and rings glistened in the sun like a jewelry shop. They wore a sword on a belt or sling, not behind their backs, which is inconvenient both when rowing and when hiking, when the shield is thrown behind their backs. The scabbards were richly decorated, which is clear from the surviving tips, sometimes made of precious metals. NO ONE EVER carried a sword in a scabbard behind his back - it is impossible to get it out of there.

In addition, the Vikings had the second most popular sax or scramasax sword (lat. sax, scramasax) - rather a long than a short sword that came from the ancient Germans, but among the Vikings it had approximately the same length as the Carolingian up to 90 cm and a characteristic handle design . The Saxons, by the way, flatter themselves with the hope that their people comes from the name of this knife.




The length of the blade of the pan-European Saxon reached half a meter, the thickness was over 5 mm (for the Scandinavians and Slavs it could reach up to 8 mm), the sharpening was one-sided, the end was pointed, the shank, as a rule, was asymmetrical, the pommel of the handle was often made in the form of a raven's head. When using the Saxon, thrusting was preferred; according to the evidence, he pierced good chain mail and leather armor. More often, the sax was used not separately as a sword, but as a big one in everyday life, something like a machete, but together with a sword as a daga (dagger), if the shield was torn out.


Helmets, like swords, were a status item and not everyone had them. Basically, they copy the helmet from Gjermundby (Jarmundby), partially preserved and incorrectly assembled in the museum from pieces.








The nasal helmet (Norman, as it is called in Russia) was typical for the Slavs and Europe, partly for the Vikings, it is most often used because of its cheapness.




Chain mail was an expensive pleasure, they mostly managed with leather jackets with bone or iron lining, or generally went into battle without armor. Chain mail - each ring was riveted, of course, no “briefing” - that is, just a ring cut and flattened by flats).


There were also lamellar armor - especially after serving in Byzantium, the so-called "board armor" - metal plates connected by straps or rings of steel, such were from the Bronze Age bone, bronze, then iron, steel, in India, among samurai and Slavs as well as the Vikings.




The Vikings naturally had bows, crossbows (crossbows) and darts (sulits).




You are on your boat, and do not spend the night in houses:
The enemy can easily hide there.
On the shield the Viking sleeps, he squeezed his sword in his hand,
And only the sky is its roof ...
.
You are in bad weather and a storm, unfurl your sail,
Oh, how sweet this moment will be ..
On the waves, on the waves better straight to the forefathers
Than to be a slave to your fears ...

Origin and typologies

Viking swords are also commonly referred to as "Carolingian type swords". This name was given to them by weapon experts in late XIX century, since the spread and use of this sword fell on the era of the Carolingian dynasty (751−987), which ruled the state of the Franks. In general, it is believed that the Roman spatha, a long straight sword, was the ancestor of the Viking sword. Although in the arsenal of the Vikings, swords were divided into two types: double-edged and single-edged (in the manner of scramasaxes). The latter, as historians note, were found in large numbers in Norway.

Typology of Viking swords according to Petersen

In fact, the variety of Viking swords known to historians is very large. In 1919, the historian Jan Peterson in his book "Norwegian Swords of the Viking Age" identified as many as 26 various types and subtypes of this weapon. True, the historian focused on the forms of the hilt, that is, the hilt, and did not take into account the changes in the blade, explaining this by the fact that most of the Viking swords had fairly similar, standard blades.

Viking swords are also called "Carolingian type swords"

However, another famous explorer weapons Ewart Oakeshott in his work "Swords in the Viking Age" notes that in many ways different kinds the handles described by Petersen depended on the tastes and ideas of one or another blacksmith who made weapons. To understand the general trend in the development of weapons, in his opinion, it is enough to refer to the 7 main types, which the historian Mortimer Wheeler also compiled on the basis of Peterson's classification in 1927 (and Oakeshott, in turn, added two more from himself to these seven).


Wheeler's Viking sword typology, supplemented by Oakeshott

So, the first two types (see Photo 2. - ed.), according to Oakeshott, are typical for Norway, the third - for the north-west of Germany and southern regions Scandinavia; the fourth was in the Viking arsenal in general throughout Europe; while the fifth is in England, and the sixth and seventh are in Denmark, the latter being used by the Danes, who lived predominantly along west coast Europe. The last two types, added by Oakeshott himself, although they belong to the tenth century, are classified by him as a transitional stage.


It is not entirely correct to say that blades have not differed much from each other for three centuries. Really, General characteristics were similar: the length of the sword did not exceed a meter, while the blade varied from 70 to 90 cm. Importantly, the weight of the sword was no more than 1.5 kg. The sword technique was based on slashing and cutting blows, so the greater weight of the sword would complicate the fight.

In 1919, historian Jan Peterson identified 26 different types of these weapons.

At the same time, the sword had a wide blade, both blades of which ran almost parallel, tapering slightly towards the point. And although the Vikings chopped to a greater extent, with such a tip, with a strong desire, it was possible to deliver a stabbing blow. One of the main differences between a Viking sword is the presence of a fuller: it could be wide, small, deeper or, on the contrary, narrow, there were even two-row and three-row ones. The dol was necessary not to drain blood, as is commonly believed, but to reduce the weight of the blade, which, as noted above, was a critical issue in the course of the battle. Thanks to him, the strength of the weapon also increased.



Ulfbert

It was the length of the sword that was often decorated with the brand of the master who made it. Russian weapons expert A. N. Kirpichnikov in his work “New Research on Viking Age Swords”, along with European colleagues, drew attention to a large number of swords marked ulfberht. According to him, every third blade of the end of the 10th century bore such a stigma.

The fuller on the sword was necessary to reduce the weight of the blade

It is believed that his workshop appeared just in the time of Charlemagne and was located in the middle Rhine region. Ulfbert dates from the 9th - the first half of the 11th century. The Viking sword could be decorated with silver or even gold, but for the constantly warring people, accessibility was first of all important, but at the same time quality. Most of the Ulfberts found, oddly enough, were very simple in external decoration, but they differed precisely in the quality of steel, which, according to historians, was not inferior to the Japanese katana.


Handles of Slavic swords

In general, about four and a half thousand swords of the Carolingian type were found throughout Europe, most of them naturally - in Scandinavia. At the same time, about 300 specimens were found on the territory of Russia, and more and more specimens of Viking swords are still being found. So, recently, in one of the burial mounds of Mordovia, scientists found Ulfbert, who was heated and bent before burial. Such a peculiar burial, historians note, was arranged by the Vikings for swords, since it was believed that along with the death of the owner, his sword also died.