Weaponry

  Vikings weren't just masters of thievery, food, and making textiles. They were also masters at weaponry! Of course in order to raid towns and other ships they needed weapons to dominate Scandinavia. The main three types of weapons used were swords, spears and axes. Spears seemed to be of the most common weapon used seeing as it was the cheapest weapon around. A less common weapon used was the bow and arrow.

  Every free man was expected to own a weapon. Axes were often found lying around the houses of the Vikings seeing as it was and still is a common farm house item. Swords are the most common to find while digging through burial mounts. Though, in order for the vikings to produce the swords, the status of the sword owner had to be very high because it was very expensive to make them.

Viking swords from Burial Mount

  Considering Vikings fought on foot and in a loose formation, they had to have light loose armor that protected the wearer individually. The horned helmets weren't actually big and heavy as most would think! they were very light, uncommon and very few had the runes of their tribe and face covers. The Vikings did, however, have decorative shields to carry with them. The shield themselves are not complicated to replicate; though, the designs are. 

Refurbished Viking Shields

  Viking shields were often 34-36" in diameter and were .5" thick. They had planks of dry wood butted together. The wood they used was mainly spruce, fir and pine since these woods were considered lightweight and they didn't split easily. At the center of a shield was a domed iron boss.

shield boss

  The nails holding the boss in place also held a hand grip for the owner to grip and move the shield freely. the hand grip was often also made of wood; though, some have been found to have been made with iron as well. The rim of the shield was often lined with leather or rawhide to keep it from splitting at the edges. Fronts of shields were also sometimes lined in leather because it was most resistant to weapons.
  These are just the more common weapons the Vikings used. Of course they used more weapons made of different materials. Next week I plan on covering either Old Norse, their language, or Norse Mythology. Have a great week! Góðan daginn!