The Vikings

Gavin Nugent · 1st January 2016, 03:31 PM

I'm not sure if these have been shared before, please remove if they have.

http://www.museum.ie/Archaeology/Exh...-Clontarf-1014
A brief intro to the objects.

http://www.museum.ie/Archaeology/Exh...Ireland-Videos
A wonderful series of videos...it is worth watching all of these as they may not start out discussing weapons, but there is some very good weapons content within those videos.

Gavin

fernando · 1st January 2016, 04:46 PM

Very good material, Gavin.
Thanks for sharing.

Jens Nordlunde · 3rd January 2016, 10:19 PM

They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well.
In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south.
Due to DNA analysis they have also found out that some, even before the time of theVikings, came from places very far - travelling thousands of kilometers - and at that time - without planed and trains.
Somewhere I have some pictures of excavated Viking swords, and I will try to find them.
The most impressive Viking sword I have seen was at a friend. It had a rather short blade but quite broad with only one fuller, the quillons were long and downwards bend, but the hilt was like on one a two hand sword, to this came that the pommel was round and quite heavy. IT was a very impressive weapon, but as I have lost contact to him I cant show any pictures.

Timo Nieminen · 4th January 2016, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well.
In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south.

As far west as North America, with a long-term colony in Greenland. Don't know far east they travelled, but they raided in the Caspian Sea. IIRC, more silver dirhams (a Middle Eastern coin) have been found in Viking hoards than elsewhere. These give information about trade routes to the east:
https://www.academia.edu/1722281/Isl...ched_the_North

kronckew · 4th January 2016, 11:23 AM

people were a lot more mobile way back than we give them credit for. some say jesus (yeshua) travelled in his youth with his uncle to cornwall on a tin trading mission. the cool movie 'the thirteenth warrior' premise of a middle eastern scholar/warrior meeting up with vikings and travelling to their homelands is not far fetched. the vikings made lots of cash & loot working for a while as varangian imperial guards in contantinople before retiring home, plenty of scope to liberate middle eastern and persian coinage from people laying around on battle fields who didn't need them anymore.

Norman McCormick · 4th January 2016, 08:17 PM

Hi,
You may find this article of interest.
Regards,
Norman.

http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue...ibn.fadlan.htm

Timo Nieminen · 4th January 2016, 08:32 PM

Ibn Fadlan's description of the funeral is the only detailed contemporary description of a Viking ship-burning funeral.

A good translation, and also of other accounts of travel to such northern areas, is:
http://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Lan...dp/0140455078/
http://www.bookdepository.com/Ibn-Fa.../9780140455076

kronckew · 5th January 2016, 12:04 AM

cool info. Ahmad ibn Fadlan was the arab scholar/warrior character in the '13th warrior' movie.

Forja Fontenla · 6th January 2016, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kronckew

cool info. Ahmad ibn Fadlan was the arab scholar/warrior character in the '13th warrior' movie.

Good movie... and bad-looking swords

kronckew · 6th January 2016, 08:44 PM

their armour was fantastic, as in fantasy, not as in accurate. looked like whatever they had in the prop room. the wurm people had fantasy weapons too.

ahmad 'converted' a 'heavy' viking sword into a saif with a few minutes at the forge and a bit of grinding. heck i have a hand forged and finished - made to period spec - viking sword, weighs about the same as my shamshir. i suspect in reality he might have wanted to modify the grip more than the blade. arab swords of the period were likely straight double edged anyway.

reminds me of the old movie 'prince valiant' with his huge aluminum singing sword, prince v. had a great accent too! and his lady love would have taught madonna a thing or two about breast augmentation and display.

one must suspend belief and reality a bit for most hollywood films, or you'd go crazy. like an 1803 british cavalry bad guy's sabre in the american revolution film with mel gibson. drove me nuts for a while, but i gave up. especially when they portray yorktown at the end of the al pacino revolution movie, it looks more like new zealand topography than the real thing that i drove thru every day for 3 months to get to the coast guard base for classes.

1st January 2016, 03:31 PM	#1
Gavin Nugent Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,818	The Vikings I'm not sure if these have been shared before, please remove if they have. http://www.museum.ie/Archaeology/Exh...-Clontarf-1014 A brief intro to the objects. http://www.museum.ie/Archaeology/Exh...Ireland-Videos A wonderful series of videos...it is worth watching all of these as they may not start out discussing weapons, but there is some very good weapons content within those videos. Gavin

6th January 2016, 08:44 PM	#10
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,184	their armour was fantastic, as in fantasy, not as in accurate. looked like whatever they had in the prop room. the wurm people had fantasy weapons too. ahmad 'converted' a 'heavy' viking sword into a saif with a few minutes at the forge and a bit of grinding. heck i have a hand forged and finished - made to period spec - viking sword, weighs about the same as my shamshir. i suspect in reality he might have wanted to modify the grip more than the blade. arab swords of the period were likely straight double edged anyway. reminds me of the old movie 'prince valiant' with his huge aluminum singing sword, prince v. had a great accent too! and his lady love would have taught madonna a thing or two about breast augmentation and display. one must suspend belief and reality a bit for most hollywood films, or you'd go crazy. like an 1803 british cavalry bad guy's sabre in the american revolution film with mel gibson. drove me nuts for a while, but i gave up. especially when they portray yorktown at the end of the al pacino revolution movie, it looks more like new zealand topography than the real thing that i drove thru every day for 3 months to get to the coast guard base for classes. Last edited by kronckew; 6th January 2016 at 08:56 PM.

1st January 2016, 04:46 PM	#2
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Very good material, Gavin. Thanks for sharing.

3rd January 2016, 10:19 PM	#3
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well. In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south. Due to DNA analysis they have also found out that some, even before the time of theVikings, came from places very far - travelling thousands of kilometers - and at that time - without planed and trains. Somewhere I have some pictures of excavated Viking swords, and I will try to find them. The most impressive Viking sword I have seen was at a friend. It had a rather short blade but quite broad with only one fuller, the quillons were long and downwards bend, but the hilt was like on one a two hand sword, to this came that the pommel was round and quite heavy. IT was a very impressive weapon, but as I have lost contact to him I cant show any pictures.

4th January 2016, 11:23 AM	#5
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,184	people were a lot more mobile way back than we give them credit for. some say jesus (yeshua) travelled in his youth with his uncle to cornwall on a tin trading mission. the cool movie 'the thirteenth warrior' premise of a middle eastern scholar/warrior meeting up with vikings and travelling to their homelands is not far fetched. the vikings made lots of cash & loot working for a while as varangian imperial guards in contantinople before retiring home, plenty of scope to liberate middle eastern and persian coinage from people laying around on battle fields who didn't need them anymore.

4th January 2016, 08:17 PM	#6
Norman McCormick Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,597	Hi, You may find this article of interest. Regards, Norman. http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue...ibn.fadlan.htm

4th January 2016, 08:32 PM	#7
Timo Nieminen Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 422	Ibn Fadlan's description of the funeral is the only detailed contemporary description of a Viking ship-burning funeral. A good translation, and also of other accounts of travel to such northern areas, is: http://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Lan...dp/0140455078/ http://www.bookdepository.com/Ibn-Fa.../9780140455076

5th January 2016, 12:04 AM	#8
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,184	cool info. Ahmad ibn Fadlan was the arab scholar/warrior character in the '13th warrior' movie.