Reply To: War of succession of England

[Paskal]

But as the shield shapes are different, the designs that are on it too …

Now, yes it would be interesting to know what the scribes thought of Anglo-Saxon shields around 1066 …

Well, the shields are not a good track, so here’s another nice difference between Saxons and Scandinavian …

The vikings made considerable use of the bow both on land at sea, not the saxons of Harold, not only was it used to a considerable extent by the bondi (paticulary in Norway, and in Sweden where the word ‘bow’ could even be used to mean a warrior) but also by nobles and kings, who took great pride in their personal accuracy.

Viking bows were mainly of elm, though yew was also used.

They were almost longbows in their proportions but the lenght of excavated arrows confirms that they were only drawn to the chest.

In the Leidang bows were provided as part of the ship’s equipment; the Gulathinglaw and Frostathinglaw say a bow and 24 arrows per thwart, to be supplied by the 2 oarsmen. This implies that up to 50 per cent of a Viking national army might in fact be bow-armed.