Weapons of the Viking Warrior by Gareth Williams & Johnny Shumate

Author:Gareth Williams & Johnny Shumate
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472819758
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Weapons in use from the first three rows of a shield-wall. The arcs show the amount of lateral movement available from each position without striking other members of the shield-wall. Each warrior had room to strike at more than one opponent, but the cramped conditions meant that there was little room for lateral movement for thrusting weapons, or to swing swords or axes.

Vikings in battle, mid-10th century

Two opposing shield-walls approach each other to fight in close order. Within this formation, the spear is the principal weapon. On the left of the scene, archers seek to disrupt the opposing shield-wall by loosing arrows into the enemy’s midst. Many of the warriors have only padded armour rather than mail, and the longbows of the period were heavy enough to penetrate this. Shields and helmets offered some protection, although these could also be pierced by arrows, but paying attention to the arrows is a distraction from the direct threat of the advancing shield-wall. On the right of the scene a small number of mounted warriors are moving to turn the flank of the opposing shield-wall, again with the hope of causing the formation to collapse, but the horses are unable to attack the shield-wall effectively from the front. A small group of warriors has advanced to block the flanking movement, and some of these are armed with the large double-handed axes characteristic of the late Viking Age. This type of axe may have been introduced particularly for use against horses, as shown here. Some of the warriors wear helmets with spectacle-shaped eye-guards. These helmets were already old-fashioned by the mid-10th century, and conical helmets with nasal guards were becoming more common.

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