Weapons and Armor in the Viking age!

Hello and welcome to Kemper Boots Crafts, Viking Heritage. Today I'm up in Uxengard, a viking village in the northern part of Denmark. I have been up here before making some videos about the village and also a little viking market that was held here some months ago. But today I'm up here making a video about weaponry and armory that the viking could have used and I brought some stuff with me, as you saw I got a sword and other things and of course my new shield here that I made in the previous video. But today it's about weaponry, weapons and armory, mostly weapon because the vikings didn't use much armory and I'll explain that in a little while. I hope you enjoy this little video from the wonderful place up here in the northern part of Denmark. First I'll say, during the viking age there was a development in the method they could produce iron on. So in the start, and you will remember, the viking age was about a period of 300 years and in the start of the viking age the iron was very expensive but during the viking age when it went over to the middle age the iron was more common. But it's important to remember this because most of the weapons that I show today is not for every man. If you were rich you could buy some weapons with more iron but if you were a poor man, a farmer, you didn't have access to much iron so the weapons you had was very small compared to the rich man. But I'll start with the bow and arrow and talk a little bit about that. And the longbow was used in the viking age by the vikings and of course with some arrows too. I didn't think that the vikings used bows and arrows when they attacked Lindisfarne and other places they raided because it's not a weapon you can use like that. It's more when you are facing a large challenge, a big army, then you can use the bow and arrow first to shoot some arrows at the opponent and perhaps killing some, perhaps injuring some and then you can attack with the other weapons you have. But when they made their raids on monasteries and cities and so on, my opinion is that they didn't use much bow and arrow there. But it's a nice weapon and they certainly used it for hunting. When they were out in the forest they could hunt animals with bow and arrows and such a longbow should be a little bit taller than the man that used it. I'm a six foot three and this bow is a little bit short for me but it's very doable and I can hit a target precisely if it's good enough for that. So the vikings definitely used bows and arrows but mostly for hunting and when they faced a large army so they could hurt them from a distance. And the next thing I would like to talk about is the spear. There were different kinds of spear. This one I bought in Germany I think. They used larger heads than this but this was also a way to attack the enemy. You can use it as throwing a spear but again if you're facing a large army this would probably be a good way to kill some before you face them man to man. But mostly they used this spear when they were facing the enemies. When they made a shield vault they could stand behind the shield vault with the spears and pick and kill the enemy through the spear wall and that was very efficient and that's why there are different kinds of length in the handles of the spear. This one is not particularly long but it could do and as you can see in this video from Uxengard they use it very often when they practice their fighting here. So it was a good way to attack the enemy from a distance through the shield vault and perhaps kill or injure your enemy. And then to the most common weapon in the Viking Age it was the axe. And there were lots of different kinds of axes. There was this one, a kind of big one and then I have my smaller one here in my belt. Of course they could use the axe for chopping wood and so on but in a combat this was a very efficient weapon they could use. There's also an axe called a Dane axe and it was a special axe. The head was very thin and lightweight and the handle was more than two meters and then they could stand behind the shield vault again and attacking the enemies over the shield vault with a long axe and probably kill them or injure them very severe so that they were not able to fight anymore. So that was a weapon that was used and again because of the iron, the price and so on, this was a great weapon and most common people could afford getting an axe. So this is a good weapon and the special design is called a skeg axe. This is like a beard, skeg on Danish and that's why I call it a skeg axe. I got this from Grimfrost and of course I put links to all my gear in my video description or to my website so you can find it if you want to get something similar like this. This is a great weapon and the most common used in the Viking Age. And now to my new thing, my new sword from Grimfrost. It's a Leuten sword and it's a replica from a find in Norway, a Leuten in Norway. I must say many of the gears, the weapons and the jewelry and so on that are sold in Grimfrost are actually made from replicas of original findings. It's made out of bronze and of course steel here, high carbon steel and it's very heavy. I think it's about one and a half kilo and yeah, and the skabbat, the sheet here, it fits nicely. I really appreciate this weapon. I'm not going to begin fighting, there's some fighting groups, Vikings here in Denmark and I could probably join them but I think I'm too old for that so I'll just have it with me on some of my trips and hang it on my wall. But I think it's a cool weapon and yeah, it was only the rich people that could afford a sword because there's a lot of iron in it, you can understand that, and you have to be a jarl or king or a very important person if you had money enough so that the blacksmith could make such a weapon for you. But I like it and yeah, I think it's cool, Leuten sword, but this weapon was good in combat, of course you can stand behind the shield and swing your sword and hit the enemy and injure him very severe. So I think the Vikings was all dreaming of having a sword at that time and of course later in the period the more people had access to iron and could afford a sword, but in the start of the Viking Age not many people could afford buying a sword. But an alternative to a sword, you can use your Xerxes, not my Kimber Xerxes, it would be too small for that, but a larger one like this one, also from Grimfrost. This is a little sword you can use in hand-to-hand combat, so there's not so much iron in this so many people, more people could afford buying Xerxes and they also were longer than this, you could have it on your side like a little sword and yeah, so this could be an alternative to a sword. Now a little bit about the armory. Of course a shield was an armory they could use and they could make them themselves, it was not particularly difficult and lots of Vikings had a shield and they could hang it along the side of the longship, the Viking longship, and have them ready when they are attacking cities and so on inland. So this was a good armour and a cheap one, the only thing is this one, it's called a bush I think, and it's made out of iron and you had to of course have access to iron. Then the next thing, the helmet, yeah, there's a lot of iron in this and because of that not many Vikings used helmets and of course it's a cliché that the Vikings had horns on the helmets, so there's no evidence of that, but it's very heavy and it can protect you from an axe blow to the head and probably the rich people, the Jarls and Kings would have worn such a helmet, but yeah, the Vikings did use helmets and it's very heavy to have on and yeah, I think it was only for protection, not for the good looks that they used helmets here. And then there was a chain mail, I think it's called, clothing made out of small rings, and it was very efficient, if the axe hit the chain mail they wouldn't go through it and even arrows and so on could protect them from that, but again it's a lot of iron and the common man didn't have access to such much iron, so it was only again for the rich people that could use that. Of course later in the Viking Age and in the beginning of the Middle Age here in Northern part of Europe, more and more people had access to iron and could afford buying more armour so they were more protected and of course they could have gloves on made out of thick leather and also some protection on the shoulders with some padding and thick leather that would help them to protect the body from spears and arrows and perhaps a small axe, but most common Vikings didn't use armour, at least not in the start of the Viking Age. And the story about the berserkers, there's lots of different stories about them, but they say that they were dressed out like a wolf or a bear or even naked, they just went berserk without thinking about their own security or safety and yeah, there's a lot of stories about these berserkers and it's very interesting too. Yeah, that was the things I have wanted to tell you about the Viking weapons and armoury and now I think it's time for a cup of coffee, yeah. Yeah folks this is all for now, thank you for watching Kimber Bushcraft and Viking Heritage. It's been a wonderful day up here in Ixengard and if you ever come up here in the Northern part of Denmark, take and visit this wonderful place, nice people up here and yeah, so authentic and I can only recommend you to visit this, yeah. Remember I'm not an expert in Viking weapons or armoury, but I think the broad picture I've told you about the Viking weapons and armoury is accurate as far as I can tell, so yeah. Thank you again for watching Kimber Bushcraft and Viking Heritage and then I hope to see you again on the next one, bye bye, take care.