Viking Weapons: The Cool and Collectible Weapon

There were few things in the world more terrifying than a charging hoard of Viking pirates on the prowl. Whether they were the fabled giant axe wielding berserkers of myth and legend or they were the far more common pirates that roved the seas and rampaged across the Atlantic Vikings have long held a place in both history and popular imagination.

Vikings and Viking Weapons: Myth and Fact

Myth: Everyone knows what a Viking is. They are big burly men wearing ox-horned great helms that drink a lot and cleave people in half with gigantic axes.

Fact: Vikings, or Vikingr as they might have called themselves, ran the gamut from short and stout to tall and rangy. Many were in fact the overly large and powerful beings people still tell stories about but they were not truly giants. They did not as a rule wear horned helmets because unlike some of the belief held by others they were not idiots. A horned helm is the perfect way to get your neck snapped in battle when a sword or axe comes down atop the horns.

As for the giant axes, while it is true that they did wield them frequently they usually were not as large as some would have people believe. There were two kinds the Vikingr used on their Viking, the word Viking actually means expedition, raids in general. They used smaller thrown axes and the larger two handed axes. These weapons typically had runes engraved on them that the Vikingr believed gave the weapons mystical power.

Just as often, however, Viking weapons were double edged spatha style swords, battle hammers, or single handed spears. A spatha type blade was short, typically around thirty-two inches in length, with a wide blade at the bottom that became smaller toward the tip. Viking swords did vary slightly from the Hersir sword to the Valkyrja sword that any respectable Viking or battle maiden of Valhalla might wield.

These weapons allowed for the use of a shield. Viking shields usually with runes engraved on them as well.

Vikings in popular culture hold a cult-like fascination in the minds of many that could rival even that of the ninja and the samurai for over the top mystification of their culture. Vikings appear frequently in fantasy literature such as the character Wulfgar in many of R.A. Salvatore's works. Technically that character was a barbarian. However, everything about him from his tall Nordic looks and weapon of choice, a war hammer, pretty much screamed iconic Viking.

Dwarven civilizations in fantasy settings seem to always be modeled after the dwarves of Norse legend and as such seem to be incredibly short Viking knock-offs that wield axes bigger than they are and wear horned great helms. They were excellent craftsmen and minors and the Vikings would constantly try to win their gold and jewels with their strong right arm.

Viking weapons were not huge cumbersome things wielded by hairy maniacs. They were solidly crafted tools of war and conquest wielded by stout hearted pirates that took what they want and didn't care one whit about the fools they cut down in the process. They were too weak to fight them off therefore they deserved to be plundered. It was a simple business for the time and anyone in the modern age that yearns for a time when mighty men and women with brave hearts took what they wanted and held it by the strength of their barbarous might would do well to own one of their traditional weapons.

Knives and Swords