Viking Swords which are NOT Viking
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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Many of what are termed 'viking swords' are not viking swords, or even Scandinavian, Norse or Danish swords.
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Just playing the advocate that many have played before, but isn't it the same migration of Germanic peoples which led to both the Anglo-Saxons and the Scandinavian cultures? Couldn't that make it possible that the style has its origins in the Roman Empire? Therefore, couldn't it be called a Roman sword? 😂
Just having a bit of fun. Great video.
The West African Tokouba is identical to the “Viking” swords.
Here is the example from 9th century Great Moravia Mikulčice gave no. 280, very simple sword, but still of same style.
www.sword-elgur.com/sword-type-x-from-mikulcice-grave-280/
Will you do a review of the 2022 movie ‘The Northman’? There is a single edged sword in it, I’m not sure how accurate it is.
@@jordanthomas4379 ruclips.net/video/sm_IYVftXEI/видео.html
From the point of view of a viking, _every_ sword is a viking sword. Their owners just aren't always aware of the fact.
😆
Bruh, every sword is a gladius as well. Duh.
Good point
As a decendant of vikings, i aprove this message
@@justinpyle3415 As a descendant of Attila, bababooey.
I used to make swords for re-enactors. I remember having a long drawn out 'discussion' with an authentication officer about a sword I'd made up and was hoping to sell at the event, it looked just like the plan I hilt you showed as a generic pattern...... He banned it as it didn't look like any of the dozen or so pictures in his book, this was the same plank who insisted I couldn't use a club on field as "No ones found one". Like Vikings are the only group since before modern humans came into being that never hit someone else with a stick!
1. I'm pretty sure there is mention of people hitting each other with sticks in the sagas. 2. I think this guy was just an asshole drunk with power.
Normans in Bayeux Tapestry carry big sticks with the leaves on.
You have to love "gate keepers" like that person. Apparently he has never seen the bayuex tapestry. Also clubs where common weapons of the clergy. Supposedly they were not to spill blood. But even does not make sense because you could easily split someone's head wide open.
Apparently, the man is afflicted by dungeon mastery. A terrible, terrible affliction...
Hitting people with a stick, you say? That's brilliant! Why didn't the vikings think of that?
Hence, Matt Easton frequently wears Japanese clothing (i.e., imprinted with Japanese text) but made in China, sold in the UK. And if Matt donates his shirt to Oxfam it can end up in a bin going to East Africa. Pretty hard to define the shirt, now.
It is now a Matt Easton relic.
thats a good analogy
And clothing enthusiasts in the future will be having a hissy fit trying to convince people that East Africans would not have worn these shirts.
@@SirThomasMontacute 500 years from now, films set in the 2000s will show everyone dressed in t shirts and jeans.
Lol SuperDry is a British brand. Not a Japanese one.
It's a bit like people calling morions "conquistador helmets", when they were in fact one of the most common helmets of the XVIth-XVIIth centuries and everybody in Europe used them.
People do call them that. I knew about them as Nanban Kabuto, before I knew them as European.
@@yokaiou5848 Interesting. And what does "nanban" mean in this context?
@@ArkadiBolschek it means southern barbarians, it's stuff that the Japanese either bought or made in a foreign style, in this case European. They adopted and adapted European weapons and armor.
The morion being a helmet was named
Southern Barbarian style helmet.
@@yokaiou5848 googled "japanese morion" and it was exactly what I thought it would be:
a morion helmet but with a mask and a lamelar neck guard
They were apparently quite popularly used during the English Civil War
Also with the issue of hilting:
If a Viking captured an Anglo-Saxon sword they could take it back to Norway g have it re-hilted. Since we can't always tell where a blade was made a hilt can only tell us about the hilt; where it may have been from, time period/region of decorations, etc
Hot take: most early 'viking' swords were re-hilted Roman Spatha ;)
@@SonsOfLorgar do you have some sources for that? Not saying you are wrong & it seems logical but I've never seen any proof. I haven't looked into it much to be fair
@@asa-punkatsouthvinland7145 nope, it's pure intuitive speculation based on the percived uniformity of shape, length and quantity that from my limited point of view might be either due to inspiration/imitation or customisation of inherited captured/issued/or by other means disseminated blades out of Imperial proto-mass production stockpiles.
Similiar to all the AR15 and AK-47 variants today
@@trolltalwar mid 8th-early 9th century?
@@SonsOfLorgar fair enough! I definitely believe there were Roman blades remounted by others & that Romans definitely borrowed ideas from others; as they did with the gladius.
I was just hoping someone did research on it & had a book or something.
Regardless thank you
I'd really like you to cover byzantine and arab swords of this period, no one ever talks about those. In fact, even though I imagine both material and reliable iconographic sources to be particularly scarce on this topic, I'd love you to also address differences in general equipment (shields and armour) with that of western Europe.
HECK YES
That would be really cool! I know it's not Matt's area of expertise, but I'd love to hear his thoughts. There's so much iconography to look at.
I think for Arab swords there's actually a great deal of originals in some museums. I've had chances to buy some stuff that's not much later than that for not even that much money albeit still expensive af compared to alot of what Matt buys but far cheaper then European swords of that time would be.
I support this!
This kinda feels like a 'guns, germs, and steel' situation that turned into a misinformation situation. These swords are buried primarily by Vikings thus they are found most frequently in Viking lands.
Did they remember where they buried them all if they need them in war?
The hilt style with the curved crossguard and pommel is very reminiscent of older celtic weapons.
And also the Roman Imperial Spatha
The spatha was itself based on the Celtic La Tène swords in use far earlier. The really famous ones that had the long blades, not the short and stabby ones from Iberia and Britain.
The Celts likely got it from the Roman Spatha. The tribal "Celtic" Britons were more spearmen (and axes maybe) than swordsmen until the Romans brought tbose weapons.
@@wehrewulf not true. The Roman spatha wasn’t a thing until like after the birth of Jesus Christ. Celtic people’s had been using double edged, full tanged swords, elaborate hilted swords since the beginning of the Iron Age. The Romans even got mail from the Celts of Central Europe who been using mail since 800 BC. Even the Germanic people had iron sword production independent of the Romans, but I’m sure they gleaned off of Roman design because why not
"OLAF! Love the look! New sword?"
"Ulfberth! Yes, thank you for noticing! I just got back from London Fashion Raid. These new swept hilts are all the rage with the Saxons."
A lot of people like some version of "spatha" for this era of sword. "Dark-Age Spatha", "Migrant Spatha" (as in short for Migration Era Spatha), "Post-Roman Spatha", "Latter Spatha", etc.
Strictly speaking a migration era spatha would precede these swords! The migration era is like 400-750 AD, the viking era 750 - 1050 AD (give or take a few decades, and depending on whom you ask - the English, for example, usually say the viking age is 793-1066). The migration era swords are actually somewhat different from the viking era swords, although there are of course a lot of similarities and some overlap.
It's fine to call these 'spathas' but we should differentiate them from the migration era swords, if we want to be technical! (Personally I just call them viking era swords).
@@blakewinter1657 Shadiversity has a good idea for the name. Swert, it the Norse name for Swerd before the term sword was developed. It is still to specific, but not as nonsensically specific as a Viking Sword.
Carolingian seems better.
"Spatha" has an overall different approach to the handle and blade width, and is more commonly understood to be a longer version of the Gladius.
@@PJDAltamirus0425 I don't like Sverd for these because that's still the modern Scandinavian word for sword. "Sverd" is just as valid for katanas and rapiers.
@@WritingFighter I would never call them 'carolingian,' in part because I dislike Charlemagne. Also it suffers from the same problem as 'viking,' in that most of these swords were not used by Charlemagne's people, and also, the 'viking swords' lasts from 750 to 1050, much longer than Charlemagne.
In post-Soviet countries (I dont know about all of them, but in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for sure) this type of swords is known as Carolingian or Frankish.
So I agree with the points here! I really do. And, as an afficionado of Viking-Era swords (particularly those that were prevalent in Sweden and Finland), this is a point that I often consider as well when I talk about swords. They are not really viking sword, but viking-era. A few types were not even very prevalent in Scandinavia (e.g. the type L shown in this video).
However, I do use the term 'viking sword' a lot, because, like the term viking itself, it's gotten changed in popular language. Just as 'viking' has come to mean 'any Scandinavian from circa 750 AD to 1050 AD,' so 'viking sword' just means one of these styles of one-handed sword with a short hilt, relatively small but thick guards, etc.
I think of it kind of like the term 'pirate sword.' Technically, there is no such thing as a pirate sword. Pirates didn't make swords, nor did they have any kind of sword that was exclusive to them. But people talk about 'pirate swords' anyway, just meaning 'the kinds of swords pirates used.' That seems to be the way people use the term 'viking sword.' As long as we're aware of this, I don't think it's much of an issue.
By the way, I also really recommend 'Marks of Fire, Faith, and Value' by Mikko Moilanen for anyone interested in swords of this era. Although it focuses on swords found in Finland, and only on those with iron inlays in the blades, he includes so many useful measurements and things that I have not found in any other sources. So for people trying to learn what the originals were really like, it is a wonderful source. He is also a swordsmith himself, so he discusses the metallurgy and how the swords were likely made.
Hello Blake! :-)
@@RichardCarlsson How odd seeing you here!
@@blakewinter1657 Ditto.
Hmm, the pirate analogy is sound but did Vikings/ the people of Denmark, Scandinavia, etc not make their own steel? Are they and their blacksmiths not famous for a kind of Damascus accidentally made using twisted steel bought from the Middle East? Or is this another case of we can’t be sure where the swords are from in Europe?
Edit: I’m talking about UlfBerht swords which apparently indeed are not probably not “viking”.
Many Vikings were also from the Baltic states…. Fellow pagans! Oh… not Russian, Ukrainian… Kyiv was a real city when Moscow was a swamp- for several centuries more!
"What is a viking sword?"
Any sword that was worn/carried/wielded by a person who went viking.
@@Meevious No, it's a sword that is used for viking.
I wasn't referring to a sword owned by a vikingr, but one being used for the purpose of viking.
A cutting sword isn't a sword that is itself a cutting. It is a sword that is used for the purpose of cutting.
Pretty sure Vikings also used Turkish/Arabian style swords... atleast some of the Varangians that served as guards for the emperor in Konstantinopel/Mikklagard (todays Istanbul). The Vikings used what they liked and could get their hands on. Some they made, some they bought, some they stole and some they looted from the dead.
A good sword is a good sword and that is valuable.
Interestingly enough. If I remember it correctly, the Varangians were offered swords along with the rest of their battle gear by the Byzantines but said they'd rather use their own swords. I'm not sure what the reasoning was, but I imagine the designs being too different from what they were used to might be a part of it?
@@anarchclown The early medieval swords in middle east were very similar to early medieval European swords. Straight stocky blade. Short crossbar.
@@ReasonAboveEverything Yup. I don't know why they made that choice to be honest. I just know that it was specifically mentioned at some point that they didn't want the Byzantine swords.
@@anarchclown I'd quess it's because the swords they used were already custom made or at least the hilt was custom made for the each warrior. Plus possible magical bonds they might have with the sword.
Good and interesting video as always. Here in Norway it has been found over 3500 viking era swords. So they are relativley common here. Where they are made is a good guess, but there was lots of swordmakers I have been told. The quality of the steel and iron used was normaly of lower quality than in the rest of europe. Early types have shorter blades because of this. Again, I have been told so. I dont know if this is true..🤔
Yep! that's why plaiting the iron was a common practice while forging, similar to how the japanese fold steel. And that is also why the Ulfbert swords were fancy rich guy options, because they used imported Indian crucible steel.
A viking sword was any sword the vikings could use to kill people with.
I don't think they cared much about it themselves as long as the sword was a good sword.
And most vikings used axes and spears anyway😁
The whole term "viking" should just simply be abandoned in academic context. It's been way overused in recent years due to media popularity and a lot of hype from fans of tv shows and movies. Great presentation btw!
Make it go stand next to chainmail.
@@hollyingraham3980 ? what's wrong with chainmail lol more accurate than fucking leather armor....
But the term chainmail isn’t an ambiguous term. It’s a justified term due to the use of mail in other contexts, like email, snail mail, etc.
Helmetless Hollywood viking: Rah!!!
Hjalmar Helmetbro: Well, Sven... It looks like you forgot your helmet again. You wouldn't want your wife to be a widow and the jarl to get fined for an Osha violation
If I may, I’d like to clarify some of the confusion of the different Viking tribes and who went Viking where.The borders of the different Viking tribes and the modern countries are very different.
The Dane’s came from todays Denmark and from todays southern Sweden.
Sweden didn’t exist so within the area of todays Sweden lived four main tribes; the Swedes (east central), the Geats(south central), the Gutes (island of Gotland) and the Danes (South). The kingdoms of the swedes and the Geats later united to become Sverige (Sweden in Swedish). The southern part of Sweden where the Dane’s lived was later conquered from Denmark.
In the the area of todays Norway were the Geats and the Norwegians.
The Norse were however very mobile and often moved from one area to another. Many of the famous Viking kings and warriors didn’t originally come from the area or tribe they were known for. Somone known to be Norwegian might actually have been a swede and a swede might originally have been a Dane. One example is Ragnar Lothbrok, who is famously portrayed as a Dane but he was actually born in the kingdom of the swedes and was a son of the Swedish king Sigurd Ring.
What makes up for this confusion is mostly due to English name translations and very different borders. The people in Sweden today are all called swedes in English and the Viking tribe are also called the swedes. But in the Scandinavian languages there is a distinction. The tribe were “Svear” but the people living in todays Sweden are “Svenskar”. Svenskar are made up of Svear(swedes), Götar(Geats), Gutar (Gutes) and Skåningar (who used to be Danes).
Another contributing factor to the confusion and the factual errors is the fact that during the romance, it was common practice to slightly alter history for nationalistic reasons.
@@KurtFrederiksen Almost everything we have to go by are from the island if sagas and the Swedish rune stones, unless the Catholic Church documented it. And they were often wrong.
I think you’re missing the point of my post. The swedes is not equal with Swedish Viking’s as there was no Sweden. The Swedes (not Swedish)was living in the area of todays central Sweden and gave name to the country. But if you say Vikings from Sweden you must include several tribes and include the Danes, as they lived in what now is Sweden. That’s why I say it’s a lot of confusion with the terminology. I’ve seen dozens of rune stones in Sweden telling the story of vikings from the area of todays Sweden, including central Sweden where the swedes lived, telling the story of journeys to the British islands. Unfortunately there was a lot of misconceptions and incorrect facts during the nationalistic era of the romance when people from Norway and Denmark dictated the Viking history.
I actually have a sword of that type from Windlass, it's based off of a find from Finland, it's got a pattern welded blade and the guard and pommel are unusually shaped, it's labeled as Damascus Viking sword in their catalogue
Suontaa sword?
@@lehtju4waif5ahk49 no it's the one with z type hilt.
@@lehtju4waif5ahk49, I don't know, but it's listed in Windlass's catalog as Damascus Viking Sword
Most iron age sword were found from Finland. Finland was unique bc of how many of those were found and how detailed they were. (Carvings of finnish gods and different symbols.) Like 50% of all iron age swords were found from finland.
That was brand new news for me. 50% of all iron came from Finland? I have never read about vikings from Finland?
@@larsamundlarsen4628 No not 50% of iron. I meant 50% of iron swords. There isnt many videos or articles about this, and the ones that do exist are in finnish. Also vikings weren’t from Finland. Finnish tribes sometimes fought vikings. I had a phase where I was interested in iron age finland and finnish mythology, so I wached videos and read ab this stuff. Now it’s passed and I just remember some fun facts.
@@urkkipurkki5733 I understand what you mean. It's also difficult to know where the swords was made. The swords that has been digging out from graves in different places in Scandinavia show us that they had fantastisk swords, mostly from England or France. They had mutsh better steel than us, and they had learned from the Romans hundreds of years ago. It was forbidden to sell swords to the Vikings, but they stole or captured them during the fight.
Mun pitää kyl vähä haastaa tota sun argumenttia. Suomesta on löytyny arviolta noin yli 500 viikinki ajan miekkaa, ja taas Norjasta toista tuhatta...
I think hes reffering to Ulfberth swords. Not all viking sword's
Decorations aside, it's ultimately a Roman calvary sword.
Hi form Sweden! People from south (as in not Scandinavia) used plant patterns in decoration of many things - smithwork on doors, paninted on rafters, and sculpted on the capitals of pilars. Scandinavians did not do this until well into the Christian era (12 century). Scandinavians used animal patterns, snakes, wolves, horses, hounds and such. The sword you call Franksish at the start of the video certainly fits this pattern, being decorated with a plant vine motif very uncharacteristic of Scandinavia.
Thank you so much for this, Matt! I was always convinced that "Viking sword" or "Anglo-Saxon sword" are, by and large, marketing terms for what should be referred to as an "early medieval (northern) European sword". Given the scarcity of findings and the, erm, mobility of property associated with every aspect of what we retrospectively call "Viking culture" today, there simply is no honest way of being sure that a sword ending up in e.g. a Scandinavian tomb actually originated in the area. Likewise, how do we know that a sword found, say, amidst the remains of a longship on the bottom of the river Thames, didn't travel across the continent with its previous owner? I wouldn't even be surprised at them wielding handed-down gladii from the 5th century. Anyway, enough of me nerding out. It's just nice that I can finally LARP a pre-Norman-conquest Anglo-Saxon warrior sporting a "Viking sword"... 🍻👍
There are definitely decorative styles that are primarily Scandinavian and can quite confidently point to a particular sword having been made in Scandinavia. It’s the more generic, pan-European style swords that are hard to place as made in a specific region of Europe. And of course, some sword types are clearly Anglo-Saxon or Frankish, for instance.
While swords definitely could be passed down the generations, I’ve never heard of a 5th century (Migration Era!) sword found in a Viking Age context. If it happened, it must have been exceedingly rare. I’ve never heard of a 7th century sword found in a Viking Age context either. Maybe you could find some blades from the Vendel Period still in use in the 9th or 10th century if you went looking for them, but if that were the case they were all re-hilted in contemporary styles.
It's also very possible that some swords for decorate by blacksmiths once they came to other countries, depending on the owner
"What makes them viking swords?"
Vikings stole them. Any other question I can answer for you? 🤪
Ulfberht is Saxon for wolf bright. Yes, Ulfberht, or +ulfberh+t to be correct, was Saxon make, not Frankish. The Franks spoke vulgar Latin at the time, and if they were indeed monastery made, they would have been in Latin, not Saxon.
I and a team of people from around the globe researched this for many years. The ONLY language Ulfberht is contemporary with, and is found in, is Saxon.
That War of Clans ad transition legit made me lol. Really fun moment there.
Want to know how to tell a Viking raider from a Viking trader?
Count the swords on both sides.
Irish culture did not include cities. Dublin wasn't just ruled by the Norse, it was founded by them.
Great video, i was just thinking about this topic last night. To my understanding most franks would have known these swords just as spatha, as they used latin terms for the military, for example lorica insted of mail.
I think it would have been interesting to note that there’s written evidence that Vikings preferred Frankish swords because the Frankish king passed a law prohibiting the sale of weapons to Vikings on pain of death.
*Scandinavian battle axes, spears, and arrows were efficient, but Vikings nevertheless coveted Frankish battle swords, which were famous for their craftsmanship all over Europe and even in Baghdad. Scandinavian warriors often acquired Frankish swords; many were buried with them. The Franks were aware of the superiority of their weapons; Emperor Charles the Bald in 864 prohibited the sale of weapons to Northmen, on pain of death.*
as much i know, there are no metal ore mines here in iceland, but the ore is bound in certain types of moss and had to be melted out, the quality was of course very fragile and the blades had to be imported from france and the local blacksmiths only mounted the handles on them and the sword was finished... fun fact, the "vikings" stole so much silver if you could find all this today and put it on the market the price of silver would fall by half - according to studies from sweden from the early 2000's
This actually ties very closely to what I was going to post. We have amazing examples of the Saxon "three core" swords and numerous depictions of them in Anglo-Saxon art, that predate the "Viking Age." Later examples of art, in my opinion, clearly show Norse using swords strikingly like the Anglo-Saxon "three core" swords. As a smith, this makes a good deal of sense to me. Bog iron being the primary source of "hardenable" material in the most of the Scandinavian countries, produces significantly lower quality steel and is excessively labor intensive, while the British Isles, Frankia, Spain, the German Principalities and the imported steel from northern India / Pakistan was of significantly greater quality. Why wouldn't a raider / trader either take the raw billets or even better, the finished product home with them? And if the form was equated with function, as well as the material, it would make sense to reproduce the designs you know work, but add a little personal flair.
@@bjornronaldson6017 Do you have a source for the lower quality of metal produced from bog iron? Because all I can find suggests that it actually has less impurities than most orea, meaning it should produce better metal.
As far as I understand, the reason for European pattern welding was the fact that bloomery smelting produces very impure ingots with non-homogenous carbon content. Which means that you can pick out the high-carbon steel pieces to use as edges, pattern weld the rest into as strong a blade as possible and weld the edges to that.
That process would have been the same for any bloomery smelted iron though, not just bog iron.
@@gustavchambert7072 it's less that the bog iron is inherently poor quality and more that the billet steel coming out of Northern India was of abnormally high quality at the beginning of the Viking Age. I believe the Brotish Royal Museum did a metallurgical study of several swords from the period and I know there have been several private experiences done with both processes, though we no longer have access to the naturally occurring raw material from those veins.
@@bjornronaldson6017 sure, I know about the north-indian steel but you seemed to say that the distinction was between bog iron and mined ore in general, as you mentioned the indian steel in the same sentence as a bunch of european mines.
You actually state flat out that bog iron is more labour intensive and of lower quality than all the european, mined sources you mentioned.
To my knowledge, none of those places made crucible steel or similar until much later in history, meaning the only real difference would have come from the source of the material.
@@gustavchambert7072 ah, I see what you are getting at. Here is one interesting study on bloomery steel from the Medevail period, www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_c/articles/2015_thiele_bloomery_steel_tests.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiD2Na-sb75AhVPpIkEHRwlAJIQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1fuDsRTGRmiaUOsq7PMCe0
And here is a decent description of smelting process for bloomery steel, with links to comparisons between modern and period bloomery steel.
Still sifting through my library for my information on bog iron. It's not something I work with regularly, so I believe it may be in a box somewhere and since it is 5am here and my roommates are asleep, I am not going to risk waking them. I will try to find the texts and get you the info.
10:20-10:29 that escalated quickly
Its kind of like calling a cutlass a pirate sword. Or a scimitar an arab sword. Or a katana a samurai sword. A gross oversimplification that nevertheless gets the point across very effectively.
Excuse my ignorance, but in the case of the katana, weren't they almost exclusively used by members of the samurai class?
@@megadesu69 samurai used lots of different swords, any of which could technically be considered "samurai swords". About the usage of the katana by non samurai, I've heard lots of conflicting information. I follow the line of thinking that as samurai were notably distinguished by the carrying of two swords, that implies that lowborn people would have been permitted to carry a single katana if it was appropriate for the situation.
Large amount of Ulfberht swords has been found from Finland but it's not known how they got here and some even have suggested that those were forged in Finland.
There are 14 found in Finland (Moilanen argues the number is 31). 17 in Sweden, 9 in Estonia, 13 in Germany and 44 in Norway. I can't understand why Finland have been suggested as the origin of the Ulfberth based on numbers, Do you have a source? Going by numbers alone, Norway would be the obvious suggestion. Out of 167 Uflberth swords, over a quarter have been found in Norway. I doubt they were made in Scandinavia, or in the Nordics, as the name Ulfberth suggest todays Germany or France.
@@daginn896
Interesting
Archeology can be misleading without primary sources to guide us i mean with the finding alone one will assume those Swords were Scandinavian, but in reality that was mostly because of the pagan burial traditions
Any pointing to them being forged in Finland are doing so for a biased reason. The general concensus is they were forged in Francia so either Germany or France by modern standards plus a little bit of other countries.
The name is a frankish personal name.
We'd also have to look at the Finnish swords and determine if they're even real or just era appropriate forgeries. Name spelling and a few other details matter. So do the fittings. All the highly decorated ones I know of are fakes and made of the wrong blade material. Might be some rehilted ones but none I'm aware of.
But finland is the wrong area.
@@daginn896 31 found in Finland. But we don't have exact numbers. One expert does show the 14 swords he accounted for. Another mentions a total of 31 and shows some of them but doesn't go into enough detail.
We also aren't sure on the exact number of real originals. And how many are actually in extant existence because there's some that may be in private collections. There's also some swords believed to be in reference to the originals that were found in Finland but not actual originals. And there's some that are in extreme states of damage from the ages that are debatable if they're even really still surviving examples.
Next video: Not All Bastard Swords were used by Bastards
We have the Saxon Hoard on display at the city museum, split between our museum and Birmingham. Its very uniquely Saxon in ornamentatiom but the bare bones of how the swords and armour are shaped and styled show the huge influence of the Roman Legions. The swords are just like Roman cavalry swords which is unsurprising as the Germanic tribes fought for the Legions, often as cavalry. Then there is the Romano British influence as well. I am fairly certain its why European swords all have the same flavour.
I also thought about the Spatha. I am just unsure about the average respective lenghts.
There's also the fact that the culture of covering most of Europe at this point was Germanic so it really shouldn't be that surprising that most of tye weapons across Europe looked similar with eachother
I love the Migration Era sword. Really gotta find the time to forge the ones I sketched years ago.
Early medieval arming swords, not viking swords.
There were also Vikings from what is the modern day Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, though most people forget.
Viking refers to an activity as well as a cultural package (that of pre christian Scandinavia).
Viking: "I take sword. Sword mine. Call sword Viking sword.
Now serve mead."
I mean, anyone who says that Anglo-Saxons only carried those swords because they traded with Danes is kind of missing the point that, by the same argument, Danes only took those swords back to Scandinavia because they traded with Anglo-Saxons. It may have been the Dark Ages but Anglo-Saxon England was a pretty wealthy place - there's a reason why the Danes came here as Vikings to raid in the 1st place and just look at Sutton Hoo! Swords in this period were not cheap to design and manufacture, they were pretty high status, and whilst I am clearly not saying that Danes did not smithy their own weaponry, there is a reason why the Axe was their preferred raiding tool. They most likely acquired the majority of their swords either through trade or raids, which would imply that their swords could just as easily come from areas outside of Scandinavia.
Matt Easton: Complains about pop culture views of vikings
Also Matt Easton: Shows ad for a game that perpetuates pop culture views of vikings
Same with the "Viking" shield. Used absolutely everywhere in Europe from as early as the 5th century for the oldest found via archaeological searches.
Very interesting additional Point.
Well technically, both the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Scandinavians all came from Germany. The Anglo-Saxons came from either Germany or Southern Scandinavia. Not to mention the hybridization of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings through intermarriage and conquest. So you could say these aren't Viking swords, but Germanic swords. And Germanic swords were based on Roman Gladius, which was influenced by Ibero-Celtic Spanish swords.
A Viking sword is one with a horned helmet on the pommel, a biker leather hilt and a horsehair plume that's side-shaved and braided. Usually kept in a woolen chainmail scabbard.
No thats total wrong, they used fur like a real barbarian not wool for the scabbard.
There seems to be a misunderstanding about who Vikings were in that era. The Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Frisians (who comprised a huge part of the great heathen army), and almost every Germanic tribe off the Baltics, and North sea were colonizing, raiding peoples. They were the forerunners that gave the pathway to Scandinavian Vikings later on, a short time later. Germanic Vikings, were still Vikings.
Some modern Danish historians claim that the Vikings never existed. It is a literary invention from the 1800s. The Viking expansion is just a Nordic Iron Age expansion...
If you want to call it the early medieval period, then call it early medieval swords.
If you want to call it the Viking period, then call it Viking swords.
I don't see the big issue with it.
Everybody understand what you talk about anyway.
In the same vein, it really annoys me, when someone says "Early Medieval sword". It should be Early Medieval *Era* sword!
I'm kidding. People are lazy. "Medieval Era" will become simply "Medieval", every single time, and it doesn't annoy me. Similarly, "Viking Era" will become "Viking". That's potentially confusing to people who know nothing about history and historical weapons, but we have no choice, other than to live with that. For referring specifically to swords made in Scandinavia, or by Scandinavians, I suggest saying _Norse swords._
The Norse raided, traded, settled, crafted, conquered, manufactured, explored, captured, oppressed, killed, were killed, ruled, extorted, fought as mercenaries, and generally did everything else that people did back then. They were just a bit more eager than average, when it came to some of those things. Matt has a chip on his shoulder about the Vikings behaving badly in England, and has very nearly accused English Viking reenactors of treason. It hardly matters which side in what part of English history one reenacts, though. If it's after the Roman occupation ended, one will be a traitor, by that standard. At that point, everyone in England was an invader or a descendant of an invader. Yes, Matt, even you. The Vikings weren't special in what they did, just in how successfully they did it, how many places they did it, and for how long they kept doing it. Oh, and they considered getting killed a success, which, I guess, does set them apart a bit, but not by nearly as much as one would think.
Winning 50% of pitched battles is pretty good for an invader arriving by sea, by the way. The rule of thumb is that an invading force needs to outnumber the defenders 2:1, in order to be successful. Arriving by sea, the Vikings had nothing close to that kind of numbers. Combining matching the English in pitched battles with guerrilla tactics, the Vikings were very successful. An invader being better than the locals in guerrilla tactics is also pretty unusual.
There is alot of confusion on vikings... Just cause you are a dane,swede or Norwegian doesn't make you a viking. They are similar to voyager in Canada if you didn't take a canoe, travel, ect you would have just been native/Metis. Same thing if you didn't go on raids,ships ect you are just a north Germanic tribe...
And as needed more land that was fertile not just raiding. They moved south east and west creating kingdoms such as Livonia,Kalmar union, and Denmark at time had Northern Germany and Frisia in dutch prior to invasion of England. And already been Kieven Rus, 30years war protestant, Prussia. Alot of northern places have Germanic influence.
Metal newbie here, so maybe this is a dumb question, but what does the metallurgy suggest? I kept waiting to hear about where the iron was from. I understand with trade and looting, everything ends up everywhere, but ….
I'm glad he brought the single edge Norwegian swords because that the first thing I though of as a specifically viking sword.
One in five swords discovered in Norway is single edged.
The Irish were the first Vikings and the Danes and the Cornish were allies at times- don’t think that relationship lasted much past Knut invading Kernow.
but then we could also get into semantics and ask what's a viking? becuase Saxons(and the rest of the germanic world and the whole of Europe to a greater extant) were doing viking things a lot earlier than "the vikings"
I have to take a look at that book. I remember one Norwegian book on vikings stating that the Norse really preferred Frankish swords (or just blades) at the time, such as the famous Ulfberht swords. Not sure if this is the whole story of course.
There's very little I dislike more in this world than the casual use of the Christian pejorative 'pagan'.
What about Seax Swords and Ulfberht Swords? Do you personally own any actual Viking Swords that you can show us, instead of pictures from a book?
Ahh, the famous "Viking protection service." LOL
Also, it's not like there was a patent office. Frankish smiths couldn't sue Scandinavian smiths for copyright infringement.
Looks like Germanic Spatha seems like an accurate name for this kind of sword.
"Although smaller weapons like daggers, knives, and arrowheads could be manufactured in Scandinavia, the best swords and spearheads were undoubtedly imported."
-Wikipedia article on Viking-age arms and armor.
Btw, I've always LOVED the Albion "Clontarf". It's almost as precious now as it would have been in the time of Charlemagne, considering that Albion no longer makes it!😥
Yeah. That is utter nonsense from Wikipedia. I have no idea who wrote that, but considering there are impressive local objects made from iron and steel from earlier than the viking era, it's a preposterous stereotype that keeps being perpetuated, partially at least by the actual school system for some reason. At least in Sweden, we had access to iron very early on and we exported iron objects but somehow even though we had plenty of it, even though Lapphyttan in Sweden is the oldest known blast furnace in Europe, even though we have what appears to be purely scandinavian designs of things, even though there are plenty of helmets and other objects made by the norse, for some reason there are still people believing that "they couldn't make swords". It's quite frustrating.
@@anarchclown , I do think the author quoted in the Wikipedia article is probably making an overly broad statement. That being said, I think they are probably speaking only within the context of what we would call the "Viking Age" (7th-10th centuries), and even then, only in reference to swords and some spears. I do believe that it's pretty well established by archeological evidence that the vast majority of swords used by Scandinavian Vikings were obtained from outside of Scandinavia, i.e. the Kingdom of the Franks.
@@andreweden9405 There is no such consensus at all. The Ulfberht swords were probably manufactured in a Frankish workshop (though copies probably made somewhere else have also been found), but iron production was a huge part of the Scandinavian economy. Eva Hjärtner-Holdar of the Swedish National Heritage Board and Stockholm University has spend her career on Iron Age iron production and smithing in Sweden, and she has definitively shown that very fine carbon steel was made in Sweden, which was particularly well suited for making weapons such as swords through pattern welding. There was also martensite quality iron, which is excellent for edges. There was a system of differently shaped iron bars depending on the type and quality of iron, and this system was in place by 0 AD, so long before the Viking Age. Therefor, the theory that most Scandinavian swords had imported blades are not sustainable, at least not for Sweden. The scale, quality and organization of the central Swedish iron industry in the 1st millennium AD was far too advanced for there not having been a substantial local production of swords, seaxes, spear- and arrow heads during the entire period. This proficiency in iron smithing also extended to other, non-martial objects as well, such as latticework bird ornaments on Vendel period shields, and of course the Vendel helmets, for instance.
In a way it is like arguing whether the Bowie knife is an American thing or Sheffield thing.
This never bothered me until I read an article online about this a few days back.
I'm kinda more irked by the usage of the word Viking tbh.
You mention the Jutes, what’s a good resource for information on the jutes peoples
How many draugr have been let lose cuz of archeologists
To your point, I saw more New York Yankees ball caps and t-shirts in Krakow than I did in New York City.
Cultural cross-pollination sounds like the most legit answer
There's also another book more substantial perhaps (701 pages): "Viking swords" by Fedir Androshchuk, mainly presenting Swedish examples.
What bugs me, is that every time these swords are depicted on film they have six inch long grips. I guess that's what looks normal and comfortable by modern standards, but it looks stupid and ruins it's usefulness to me. It reminds me of watching Forged In Fire. You have these great blade smiths sometimes, but they have no context to the design of the weapon, and why it was/is made a certain way.
vikings are just fun to tell stories about, they dressed up like heavy metal band members and had punk rock hair (or at least that’s how we like to portray them). Christian europe we’re all farming grain and paying taxes etc, not as much fun to play dress up that’s all
Me thinks your perception of how vikings looked like is poisoned by hollywood’isms.
"Were they good or bad?" What a one-dimensional view of history to ask something like that. Not that there weren't "good" and "bad", we know that people who did things that we consider evil were considered so by their peerseven at their time, it's just that it isn't the way to approach history.
The Geats, and the Swedes where not the same… Beowulf was Geat!
Also a warrior would use whatever equipment he felt most comfortable with and felt had the most advantage. Look at brigantine armor.
in fact, I think that basic pattern of sword was used from Ireland all the way to Arabia.
A viking sword is the sword you take on a viking.
Ive gathered that the term viking is more of a verb, " here we go a viking, am I incorrect? Id love some content on the clarification.
Yes you are incorrect. There's the masculine noun 'víkingr' which means a pirate and the feminine noun 'víking' which means a piratical raid.
Have you ever done a video specifically about the Ulfberht swords?
I don't know much on the subject and would be interested in your thoughts.
what about this idea:::::: Vikings,,,, were behind the times. When everyone else upgraded and no longer used these "migration era swords", because armor was becoming increasingly common and swords needed to be pointier, and COULD be pointier (assuming that metallurgy also improved somehow, not sure if it did or not, but perhaps it did),,, Vikings continued to be mostly armorless and use "viking swords" to do raids (and for a while, make viking swords look superior, as the pointy swords didn't have the cutting power).
People seem to underestimate the amount of trade that went on in that period, technology travels.
We should just call them sverds like Shad says.
Viking swords found everywhere the Vikings went interesting. That "Saxon" sword looks more comfortable to wield by a modern man compared to having to use the Viking sword as a Viking.
Why do you think the Saxon sword looks more comfortable?
People keep on going on about 'the Viking Era' as if those pirates were the principal cultural group in Northern Europe!
I bet the Moors wouldn't have been driven back if there had been Moor of them.
"Viking sword" is a good phrase insomuch as they were the swords that vikings used, because they were the swords of the Viking Age. It's much better for people to be able to recognize that vikings carried that kind of sword, than for people to imagine vikings with, like, Braveheart claymores. So for my part, I'm just happy when people reach this level of historical awareness--to know the [basic] shape of the swords that vikings carried.
It could be so much worse.
The whole core of this is that certain people who fetishize a subculture are willing to both lie and ignore other facts of history to support their beloved group. "Viking sword" should obviously only apply to a sword made by that specific subculture from scandinavia. This should be obvious to anyone with a brain. Right now, almost the entirety of western europe has it's swords described as "Viking sword" despite having *nothing* to do with that scandinavia subculture; which is practically a crime against most of our ancestors lol. Not that we care about them of course. That'd be silly.
@@tommeakin1732 You're saying that people who call Viking Age swords "viking swords" do so to "support their beloved group"? What are you talking about?
I think it's a mere simplification of terminology, for casuals.
When 50% of the adult population thinks vikings wielded flails, this seems like a nitpick.
@@skjaldulfr I suppose I should clarify that I'm not suggesting everyone who says that is coming from that perspective; but the people who are largely responsible for this kind of language being mainstream and standard are the fetishists. The people who use it purely descriptively with no adoration just don't know any better I suppose. It's a situation where bad actors are being given the reins over mainstream language.
@@skjaldulfr I completely disagree that this is a nit-pick in comparison with that lol. That's like saying we should ignore that the foundations of a house are made out of cheesecake because the kitchen window hasn't been fitted properly
It's kind of like my DNA, the lands of my ancestors were called, England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, and a number of smaller European countries that border Russia. But in truth, my DNA is a result of the actions of the Vikings, which acted as a spoon to stir the pot. I was surprised that for instance, France was not listed in the DNA report, despite knowing that Fawkes is a Norman name, but the DNA of Normandy was different than the rest of France at that time. Of course, names are like swords, a person can use a name, and make it their own, but it may have traveled quite a distance from whence it originated. 🤔
I can't believe this guy doesn't have 10 million subscribers.
I went to the national museum of Denmark. It has some good amount of viking stuff.
Wasn't there a time when the Franks put the death penalty on selling sword blades to northmen? A lot of the blades the vikings used were probably bought (or looted) elsewhere since mining iron wasn't a huge thing in Scandinavia during the viking age. Better use the bog iron for tools and smaller weapons like spear points or axe heads.
Even as far away as Arabia I bet.
I think you need to read more of the history. Vikings king was king of England in many years of the Viking age, and most of the York and places around there was Viking territory so the vepons find in England property was the Vikings. And if you read more of the history you will see that the Viking was the best warriors of that time. The Vikings from among other Norway were used as mercenaries all over the world and were known as the best warriors of that era. Plus the Vikings settled all over the world and thus also buried their own in all countries and thus buried swords and other things together with their relatives as was common for Scandinavian at the time..
I have a degree in this period and studied it for many years. You don't seem to know what the word 'viking' means, nor understand the content of the video. In fact, you seem not to have watched the video at all LOL
@@scholagladiatoriaThere you are actually very wrong, I know exactly what the word Viking means. I have studied the Viking Age for many years, so there you are on the wrong track when you say that I don't know what the word Viking means. I've even gone to school about the Vikings. I was also born and raised in Norway so the Viking Age is part of my history and my ancestors were Vikings also.
@@scholagladiatoria what does viking mean according to you?
Viking-era sword is more accurate term I guess, people just tend to drop this "era" part.
That's why I always say viking' sword, meaning viking-era sword. Matt's just not hearing the '
Since swords get broken and dulled, I venture to think they have blacksmiths in the land they are campaigning in, or perhaps some of the soldiers double as metalworkers. They could smelt/shear/crimp the metal of their enemies and replenish armor and weapons in between skirmishes and raids.
What about the seax, specifically the long version?
I intentionally refer to those types of swords as Migration Era swords. I'm sure there's a more correct way of referring to them, but that's close enough for me.
People should check out iron age Germanic swords. They're single-edged and look kind of like machetes. The handle construction with the rivets also reminds me of messers which are also Germanic, as far as I'm aware. Swords like this seem to have been the original type used in the far north, until they began adopting double-edged swords from the Celts.
They adopted Roman swords. Its 100% down to Germanic tribes serving in the legions. We have a large Saxon hoard on display at the city museum and the sword is an ornate version of a Roman cavalry sword.
What can't be stressed enough regarding the Vikings is that they enormously benefited from the climactic conditions of the medieval warm period
there are some migration era swords that have a longer hilt but look reminiscent of Viking swords
I have to remember the next time I'm chatting with folks to do so holding a bloody great sword. Focuses the mind, no? Way more effective than waving my finger.
Sorry! Im from Sweden and i am a Viking. Vikings didn’t came from Finland! Vikings came from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden! Iceland was populated by people from Norway! Vikings came from Scandinavia and the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
Being such a pedant is stressful and soul destroying. "You can be a true viking" he says when doing the read...😕