Hank Reinhardt's The Book of the Sword (20 page)

If there is one weapon that is most closely identified with the Vikings, it is the axe. Axes have been in use all over the world and at all times, and are probably the oldest weapons next to clubs. But the Vikings worked a variation that became popular all through the North, and even down into Italy, and that is the "Danish Axe."

Reproduction Viking axe.
Photo by Adam Lyon.

This is a big weapon. There is no way that this can be confused with a wood axe. This is a battle weapon, and intended to lop the limbs of men rather than the limbs of trees. The cutting edge on these axes ranged from eight inches to many that are ten to twelve inches in width. Curiously, these axes are not particularly heavy, but really rather light in weight. Most weigh in at two to three pounds. The blades are quite thin, about 2mm in thickness, with the blade being thickened at the edge. This gives the edge the backing it needs without a great deal of weight. Generally mounted on long shafts and swung with two hands, it is quite possible for a strong man to wield it effectively with just one hand. I have been able to do it and, although I did not have the control I had with a sword, I could deal a most devastating blow with it. The light weight allowed it to be swung easily, and with great speed. The edge, even thickened, was no thicker than a sword blade, so that the axe could cut quite deeply. The very thing that makes the Danish axe a deadly weapon also kept it from being an effective tool. The blade would not be strong enough to cut into a tree, and the stress created would likely cause it to buckle.

In one battle the blow from a Danish axe was almost incredible. When the Norse under Haskulf Thorgilsson attacked Dublin in 1171, there was among them a famous berserker called John the Wode. When the Dubliners attacked and their knights penetrated the ranks of the Norse, the Norse began to fly. But John stood his ground and fought with terrible ferocity. It is recorded that he cut off the leg of a knight at the thigh, and in doing so, cut through not only the knight's long byrnie, but also through his mail breeches as well! The power it would require to do all this is almost, but not quite, unbelievable. He is also reported to have cut down ten or eleven men before he himself was slain.

Thin and thick beaten axe heads, silhouettes as viewed from above.

But the large Danish axe was not the only one in use. There were many shapes, and a large number of them were short and intended to be used with one hand in conjunction with a shield. Regardless of the profile of the axe, they were referred to as two distinct types, the "thin beaten" and "thick beaten." This seems to refer to the blade below the eye or socket hole. In the thin beaten axe, when looking at the front of the eye and blade, the axe suddenly narrows and the blade is fairly thin and flat. On the thick beaten the blade hollows only slightly as it thins down to the edge. The thick beaten is obviously more sturdy and capable of heavy duty chopping. This type of axe could be used for a multitude of purposes. It is very difficult to say that any one axe was designed for a specific purpose. A wood or carpenter's axe made a good weapon—especially if that was the only one you had. The one exception to this is the large, thin beaten Danish axe. Its only purpose is that of a weapon. The thin blade does not allow for good wood cutting, but is superbly designed for a weapon.

In the final analysis, the Vikings did not have anything really unusual in the way of weapons. Many other European warriors had similar arsenals. What the Vikings did have was a core toughness that very few other cultures ever exhibited. It is easy to consider the Northmen hard and brutal, even cruel when judged by 20th-century standards. But those were hard and tough times that called for hard and tough men.

In my opinion, skill in the use of the sword began to decline during the middle of the 13th century. At this time armor began to be increasingly effective and was available to more and more warriors. Mail, which could be penetrated by a strong blow with the sword, was now being augmented with sections of plate. The mounted knight was by this time dominant in most of Europe, and only in the out of the way places, like Iceland and some of the Nordic countries, did foot combat still play an important role; but even there it too was on its way out.

The sword remained a symbol for nobility, honor, and so on, and was a very important weapon, but in actual combat more and more the weapon of choice was a mace, axe or war hammer.

On foot the preferred weapons were bills, halberds, and polearms in general. And although carried, the sword was now a weapon of last resort. The foot soldier found it more convenient to carry a two-hand weapon, and a small shield that he could easily wear. His armor was also becoming more and more protective, but far from the complete coverage that the wealthy knight could afford. Some of a foot soldier's armor was paid for by his employer, but it was also augmented by what he could pick up from the battlefield. Generally speaking, he was expected to provide his own armor and weapons.

Reproduction transitional armor, circa 1360, made by Peter Fuller.
Photo by Peter Fuller.

This is rather easy to understand if you look at the improvements that were taking place in the field of defensive armor. Mail was becoming much more plentiful because mail was frequently repaired and reused and could be handed down. As the whole economy of Europe improved, a rising middle class could afford more and better protection. Many foot soldiers were wearing a gambeson under mail. The use of such a padded undergarment absorbed much of the shock that mail normally passed on to the wearer. Plate defenses were also being added, and this made it more and more difficult for the sword to do much damage. As the armor improved, the shield became less and less important, and was gradually phased out. However, it was still used by the knights: not only was it quite dressy, and showed off the coats of arms, but it had a real use in that it helped deflect the lance. Which, after all, was the main weapon of the mounted knight.

There was also a more subtle social change taking place. It became much more advantageous to capture a knight than to kill him. After all, dead he was worth what you could get for his armor and horse, but alive his ransom could be a great deal of money. Several knights gained extreme wealth by being good enough, or lucky enough, to capture enough enemies to set themselves up for life. In England Falstaff was one and so was William Marshall.

These are the basic reasons that I feel that skill with the sword began to decline in the mid-13th century. Of course it didn't stay that way. As soon as the social and military conditions warranted it, swordplay came back, and skill was once again brought to the fore.

All Norse sagas, especially
Njal's Saga
(aka
The Saga of Burnt Njal
),
Egil's Saga
,
Eirik the Red
and
Grettir the Strong
. The editor is particularly fond of the Penguin editions with the Magnus Magnusson translations.

Bradbury, Jim.
The Medieval Archer.
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985.

Delbrueck, Hans,
History of the Art of War Vols. 1–IV
, translated by Walter J. Renfroe, Jr. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, this edition first published 1982, original German edition published 1923.

Fiorato, Veronica, Anthea Boylston & Christopher Knusel,
Blood Red Roses: The Archeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461
, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000.

Jones, Gwyn,
A History of the Vikings.
Oxford University Press, London, 1968.

Manjno, Guido, M.D.,
The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World.
Harvard University Press, 1975.

Oman, Sir Charles,
The Art of War in the Middle Ages, Vols. I & II.
Greenhill Books, London, 1991, first published in this form 1924.

Schaal, Dieter et al.,
Vermisste Kunstwerke des Historische Museums Dresden
. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, 1990.

[1] Armorers didn't start heat-treating armor until the end of the 14th century—up until then there wasn't enough carbon in the metal used to do a proper heat-treat—and even in the 15th and 16th centuries it was hit or miss. Some armor was heat-treated and some wasn't. A good book for info on this subject is
The Knight and the Blast Furnace
. —Peter Fuller

The rapier is the most romantic of swords. In spite of the recent popularity of the katana, the rapier remains the dominant sword in all romantic fiction. It is a slim, elegant, and oh so deadly weapon. Who has not thrilled to the duel in rhyme in Cyrano de Bergerac, to D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers fighting fiercely for the honor of the Queen? The very name evokes morning duels, with the mists lending an air of mystery to a deadly confrontation, or moonlight glinting off blades in a desperate midnight encounter.

Antique Spanish cup-hilted rapier, 47 inches overall length. HRC25A.