Viking Axe & Shield Combat

[Music] hello my name is what I'm Vox icon and in this video I'm going to talk about Viking eggs and shield now the axe appears to have been a really popular weapon with the Vikings and there must have been a reason for it of course apparently the axe is really good in a number of respects because it's not only weapon its first and foremost a tool so if you have an axe on you then you have a really capable tool for say splitting logs something that a sword is totally useless for axes of course also much cheaper and easier to make than a sword such as the one hanging right behind me however it does not seem like this was a poor man's weapon even fat learn a chronicler who lived in the 10th century left us with a really interesting source on the Vikings upon his voyages which also took him into the Volga region he met some Roose Vikings which left a deep impression on him amongst other things he wrote about them that every man carried a sword an accent a knife at him at all times I think that this is a really interesting source because it shows that those Vikings who were able to afford the sword still like to carry an axe with them too so there must be a reason for this popularity of the acts with the Scandinavians biking axes come in a variety of shapes this is not a surprise because the axis the tool of the carpenter the shipwrights they were used for house building and all kinds of purposes and even today there are various access for various tasks the edge of an axe was usually protected by a little wooden sheath that was tied to the axe head by means of leather thongs some of these X sheaths have survived till present day both the sheaths as well as the handles of axis we're oftentimes carved and decorated with incisions and ornaments there's a Honda evil acts that actually looks perfectly like a Viking X that was found in Luther's ax in Sweden and or at least it is kept at loot is a museum and this axe has a nicely carved handle now usually when archeologists see any ornament on an axe they suppose that it must be for a really wealthy person or oftentimes decorated axe heads are considered to be a criterion that qualifies a particular acts as a combat tool a weapon now monoliths Captagon regarding this argument because we know a lot of very ornate axis that we're never used as weapons that are decorated and that have carved handles and things like that there are also axis of impressive dimensions here is a photo from a book that shows a walker using an axe that has a really impressive ex head that if found in a different context could easily qualify as one of those feared Dane axes the half the wooden handle of the LeDoux's ax ax is also in strike with runes along one side of the handle and these runes say Peter owns me John carved the rooms and everybody who's ever worked on a construction site or was involved in a house building knows that when you bring your own tools to the site it's a really good idea to mark them so personally I think this is just an everyday tool and not a particularly valuable implement it's snacks and people love their exes and they decorated the handles okay but let's talk combat again so what makes an axe such a fearful weapon well the first thought that springs to mind is that it can deal really powerful blows everybody who's ever used an axe to split word knows that it's really good to do the job if you have some skill within the wood axe then you also are well aware that it has to be the tool that does the job so it's not you it's the way that you use this particular tool the axe to split the log so you let the you let the axe drop and you accelerate it and you give it a little pull at the end and then it just splits the words into however in combat other than a piece of word people will not wait for you to deal such a blow against them and strike at them with the X there's something that has to be kept in mind namely that combat has a particular geometry if for instance you strike like you would strike when strike with an X when you are splitting wood cutting timber then usually the axe moves in an arc okay now this means that it needs more time to bridge the distance from A to B then an implement that would be pushed forward in a straight line so anything that moves forward in a straight line will reach the target quicker than something that moves in an arc which basically is a detour so that means that the one who strikes in an arc will reach his target later than the one who pokes at him with this weapon directly on a straight line you may think that this doesn't make such a big difference but in fact it does it's so eminent that it is one of the crucial advices pointed out to us in the late medieval fight books and the combat treatises where it says that you should always strike in such a fashion that the point of a sword should go forward to the target in a straight line as if a thread was bound to the tip of your sword and somebody would be pulling this thread towards the target and what is true for the sword is also true for the axe because the laws of physics don't change geometry is what it is so you can always strike at somebody with a swing using a powerful arc when he is already thinking and in high medieval manuscripts you sometimes see nice who have swung their shield on their backs and they lift their sword with two hands to strike and their opponent but this opponent is already on his knees you can use a power swing once you are actually striking at somebody who doesn't strike back as long as an opponent is still on his feet and is fighting back then it's good to adhere to the rules of geometry so if you give up on the idea of swinging the axe to strike forcefully then of course the concept of using an axe to smash shields goes out the window - and in fact if you are using a sharp axe which of course was true a thousand years ago in actual military conflict and in battles or tools or whatever then striking a sharp weapon into a shield is not a good idea in the first place now why is that well original shields are all extremely lightweight it doesn't seem like they were made to last and to withstand such blows in the first place and they didn't have to they didn't have to because people were fighting with perfect measure okay so these people were training for hours per day there are sources from the high middle ages that the former people are admonished to train at least twice per day so here we are looking at professionals and a shields which I had the privilege to examine in stating National Museum in Poland surviving kite shield from the late 12th century does in fact shows some marks that were probably inflicted in combat so there are a few battle damages that you can see on this shield and what's really amazing is that these four cuts which apparently were inflicted by really sharp abundant probably a sword they are just so cutting the surface of the shield so only two of four cuts are actually showing on the back off the shield the others didn't even make it through the planks and this is this is even though the planks are only seven millimeters thick so again here we're looking at a lightweight shield and it's measure that is more important than resisting any heavy blows plus the person who strikes at an opponent who is carrying a shield will this would have probably been well aware of the danger of his weapon getting caught in such a shield now this is an experience that you don't make on modern reenactment battlefields in fact a blunt implement a blunt weapon a blunt sword you are your standard reenactment sword is much more capable of destroying an authentically built shield than is a sharp sword now of course they didn't bring blunt weapons to battlefields because destroying shields was not the point the point was to actually kill the opponent and so with a sharp sword or a sharp axe there is the clear danger that you might get caught in the plants off the opposing shield and mind you these are usually these are usually shields made from planting smoke from plywood so with planks if you come and take the grain and you cut deeply into the shield what have you done what have you achieved your weapon is sticking in his shield well Bravo now you have successfully attached a tabletop to your weapon nobody does that on purpose and you don't want this to happen to you in combat either so if the palace wing and the destruction the damage of shields is not word this axe was used for is not what made it so popular with the flat Center grips Viking R and shields what was it now the way that I view Viking combat in general is that it was the shield which was the main weapon the shield was used to create openings and once you managed to open up an opposing shields and create an opening then the hand weapon came into play to exploit this opening created by the shields and strike and to the opponent of course it's not only the shields working in the bind all the time because you have you have a weapon in your weapon hand too and so you can use your weapon you can use say the sword to press against a particular point on the surface of the opposing shield giving a deceiving pressure signal I do that all the time and then you provoke a particular response and so you are actually working with both hands in fact you could view fighting with the shield as actually using a weapon like an axe or like a swords which is in fact the handle the grip off a shield only this stick is attached to a large board which covers you and this is exactly what I suggest was done with this kind of shields and it works perfectly so other than a sword the axe can actually strike forward shoot forward catch the edge of an opposing shields pull it open and then shoot forward into the time this is something that works like a charm it's really really really cool you can see it in the combat sequences where I do some experimental sword and shield fight with Simon and Berlin both of us [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's an accident to all my fantastic patrons thanks a lot for your support you rule [Music]

Channel: Roland Warzecha

Views: 380,714

Rating: 4.8081746 out of 5

Keywords: historical swordsmanship, Dimicator, training, Sword-Fighting, Combat, single combat, dueling, duel, shield, Roland Warzecha, Medieval, swordplay, European martial arts, Middle Ages, Martial Arts (Sport), historisch, Freikampf, 1200s

Id: qPs9u3p_k2o

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018