Vikings are some of the most notorious warriors in history.
For centuries they terrorized Europe and were dreaded for their savage raiding, pillaging,
and conquering.
Viking warriors struck terror into the hearts of their enemies with their fearlessness in
the face of death, and they were equally feared for their mythical weapons, like the battle
axe that fought off an entire English army.
Although history remembers the Vikings as a savage group of bloodthirsty fighters, daring
raiders and intrepid explorers, in reality, the majority of the Viking people in the middle
ages were quiet, simple people, farmers and fur traders who worked tirelessly to eek out
a meager living in the harsh northern landscapes of Scandinavia.
Things began to change in the 8th century when the first Scandinavian kings appeared
in the history books and began to organize their disparate people into more centrally-controlled
communities.
The Viking Age officially kicked off at the end of the century in 793 A.D., and the following
3 centuries would be characterized by extensive sea travel and countless raiding expeditions
to foreign lands.
The Viking explorers were certainly open to trade, but more often than not they would
simply take what they wanted during their barbaric raids, returning home with mountains
of treasure like silver bowls and goblets taken from unlucky victims, bejeweled crosses
stolen from coastal monasteries, and even human slaves to be taken back to Scandinavia
and put to work.
The Vikings’ main goal, however, was to conquer new lands and expand their empire
with new - and better - lands for the Viking people to settle on.
To this end, the Vikings explored far and wide, raiding the coastal areas throughout
Europe, discovering the remote lands of Greenland and Iceland, and even crossing the ocean to
reach the Eastern coast of Canada many centuries before Columbus would claim to have “discovered”
the new world.
As the Viking Age wore on and the Vikings spread throughout the world, their wealth
and power grew and the Vikings became a much-feared spectre in the minds of European peasants
and nobility alike.
The Vikings’ already strong reverence for their warriors only grew during the pinnacle
of the Viking Age, giving rise to the mysterious warrior cults that still intrigue us to this
day.
Legends of Viking Berserkers have survived through the ages - tales of lone warriors,
naked but for an animal skin, fighting ferociously and without fear, often taking psychedelic
drugs to block pain and fear and allow them to destroy anyone foolish enough to cross
them.
Perhaps the best known of the Viking warriors, the Berkerskers were said to have donned nothing
but a bear skin for battle and worshipped Thor, Tyr and Odin, the old Norse gods of
war and justice.
Berserkers were often used as shock troops, sent into battle to terrorize the enemy.
Their power was as much psychological as it was physical - enemies were terrified by the
Berserkers’ violent rage and total lack of fear.
Their battle cry was to violently bite down on their wooden shields, and Berserkers were
said to have ripped off their tunics in the heat of battle to fight naked, demonstrating
their lack of concern for their own safety and horrifying their enemies with their bloodlust.
The Vikings may have been considered primitive and barbaric by the more cultured European
peoples that they terrorized and conquered, but their weapons and fighting style were
cutting edge.
The Vikings possessed some of the most advanced ship-building technology in existence at the
time - their longships were narrow and deep, capable of holding up to 40 people and mountains
of supplies or booty, and were perfect for both crossing the open seas and sailing up
shallow rivers in search of settlements to plunder.
Weapons were an essential part of daily Viking life and were indispensable for self-defence
and plundering raids.
Viking warriors did not wear chainmail, as the delicate metal would have rusted during
soggy coastal raids, but this actually worked in their favor - their lack of protective
gear gave them a fearless appearance and terrified the populations that the Vikings attacked
and raided.
Instead, the Viking relied on their infamous shields as their main defensive weapon, often
standing shoulder to shoulder and overlapping their shields to form a formidable shield
wall.
Oddly enough, although the stereotypical Viking is often depicted in modern media as wearing
a horned helmet, archeologists have found very little evidence of these helmets and
many experts believe they were less common than we thought.
As far as offensive weapons went, Vikings employed a wide variety of weapons that were
common throughout Europe at the time, like bows and arrows, lances and spears.
The most elite Vikings carried swords, which were more costly to make, but common Viking
warriors mainly used the notorious Viking broad axe.
These more common axes were hardly a subpar weapon - they were one of the most recognizable
of the Viking weapons and just the sight of a fierce Viking warrior carrying a bloody
battle axe was enough to strike fear into the hearts of defending armies.
A typical Viking battle axe was a large, 2-handed weapon.
Archeologists have unearthed ancient axes with wide, thin blades, featuring distinctive
horns at either end and a razor sharp cutting edge nearly 10 inches long.
The blade itself would have been reasonably light, weighing around 28 ounces, and they
were forged using a complicated process that yielded a thin but strong blade, and incorporated
a stronger type of steel along the blade’s edge.
The blade would have been attached to the handle with a brass band, which would have
shone like gold in the sun on the battlefield.
The shaft itself would have been between 3 and 4 feet long, giving the weapon a large
lethal range.
Viking battle axes were truly impressive and intimidating weapons, especially when wielded
by a fearless - and possibly naked - Viking Berserker.
After centuries of raiding and pillaging and countless bloody battles, many Vikings had
settled on English soil and lived, somewhat uneasily, alongside their English neighbours
- Vikings had even infiltrated the Anglo-Saxon nobility who ruled England by the 11th century.
But things were far from peaceful, and before long, tensions would come to a head in a violent
clash between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons that would mark the end of the Viking Age.
In January, 1066, the English King Edward the Confessor died without an heir, throwing
England into turmoil.
Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex and a descendant of the Vikings, was named the new
King of England, but he faced stiff competition for his crown.
Not only did he have to worry about an invasion from the South by the French, but he also
had fierce enemies among theVikings.
King Harold of England had earned the lifelong hatred of his own brother, Tostig Godwinson,
when he helped to have Tostig ousted from his position as Earl of Northumbria, and Tostig
wanted revenge for the slight.
Tostig formed an alliance with another King Harald, the Norwegian Viking King known by
his nickname, Hadrada, which meant “hard ruler” in Old Norse.
Tostig agreed to help Hadrada conquer England in return for being restored to his Earldom
if they were successful.
Tostig and Hadrada crossed the North Sea with 300 Viking longships and more than 11,000
Viking warriors, sailed up the Humber River and occupied the region of York.
As the Vikings wreaked havoc on the people of York and solidified their hold over the
area, King Harold of England had a tough choice to make - would he stay in London and prepare
for the inevitable invasion from the South, or would he travel North to deal with Viking
invaders?
Not one to sit around and wait, the English King roused his army and headed North to meet
the Vikings.
On September 25, 1066, the Bloody Battle of Stamford Bridge would mark the end of the
Viking Age and the last time that Vikings attempted to conquer England - but it was
by no means an easy fight for the English.
The Vikings were not aware that King Harold, expecting threats to his crown, had already
assembled his army, so they were taken completely by surprise when the English army appeared
on the crest of the hill overlooking the Stamford Bridge, near where the Vikings had made their
camp.
As the English army swept down the hill towards them, many of the Viking warriors found themselves
trapped on the West bank of the river, and some had even left their weapons and armor
on the ships, not expecting to face an attacking army so soon.
As the Vikings scrambled to cross the narrow bridge to reach the safety of the East bank,
the English army brutally slaughtered those caught on the West bank.
Despite this early success, it would not be a swift victory for the English.
The Vikings still had a secret weapon up their sleeves - a battle axe that fought off the
entire English army.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an ancient historical text and one of the only
sources from the period that survive to this day, the English army was nearly defeated
by a single Viking soldier and his fearsome battle axe.
As the surviving Vikings scrambled back over the bridge, the English army made to follow
them and finish the job they had started.
But the English soldiers had to cross the narrow Stamford bridge to reach the Vikings
on the other side, and they quickly found their way blocked by a terrifying sight.
As the English army bottlenecked at the edge of the river waiting to cross the bridge,
a single Viking warrior had taken hold of the bridge and blocked their passage.
The Viking Berserker must have looked fierce to the English soldiers, standing alone on
the bridge facing an entire army, clothed in nothing but animal skins and carrying only
a single weapon - a lethal Viking battle axe.
As wave after wave of English soldiers attempted to cross the bridge, the fearless Viking cut
them down one by one with his axe, buying the Vikings enough time to arm themselves
and regroup on the East bank.
Eventually, a brave English soldier climbed into a half-barrel upstream, and floated down
the river towards the bridge.
As he floated under the bridge where the mighty Viking stood, he pushed his spear up through
the planks in the bridge and killed the fearsome Viking warrior, but not before he had single
handedly slaughtered 40 men.
Emboldened by their warrior’s sacrifice, the Vikings on the East bank had formed a
shield wall and were ready to meet the English when they finally crossed the river.
At first, it looked as though the tide was turning in favor of the Vikings, but they
took a serious blow when King Hadrada was killed by an arrow to the throat.
The English King offered his brother peace, but Tostig, intent on his revenge, refused.
Tostig was ultimately killed in the battle, and some sources say that it was his own brother
who killed him by cutting off his head.
The Vikings were defeated, having lost thousands of warriors, and they returned to Norway with
just 24 of their 300 boats.
The Vikings would never again attempt to conquer England, and the Viking Age was over.
The fighting at Stamford bridge was so severe that, 50 year later, chroniclers wrote that
a great mountain of dead mans’ bones still lay on the battlefield.
King Harold may have won this battle, but the war for his crown was far from over, and
though he didn’t know it at the time of his victory against the Vikings, King Harold’s
days were numbered.
Just 3 short weeks later, the Norman Invasion by William the Conqueror would mark the end
of King Harold and the Anglo-Saxons, too, forever changing the face of England.
The Viking Age may have come to a bloody end at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, but in true
Viking style, it went out the way it came in - with bloody violence, fearless warriors
and mythical weapons.
The legends of the ferocious Viking Warriors and the battle axe that fought off the entire
English army have survived through the ages and still fascinate us today.
If you thought this video was fascinating, be sure and check out our other videos, like
this one called “Why Were Vikings So Much Better At Fighting?”, or perhaps you’ll
like this other video instead.
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