Viking Era

More discussion of Viking era weapons, ships, money, and warfare: money

Object from the exhibition We Call Them Vikings produced by the Swedish History Museum by The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Some fun comments on money in the Viking era were covered in the delightful book Viking Weapons & Warfare by John Kim Siddorn.

Posts in this series:

  • Spears, cost of iron
  • Shields, armor
  • Helmets, ships – the post you are currently reading
  • Money

Money

A brief recap of the money extracted from England by the Vikings:

  • 16,000 pounds – 994
  • 24,000 pounds – 1002
  • 36,000 pounds – 1007
  • 48,000 pounds – 1012
  • 114,000 pounds – total for this simple summary

How much would that be worth today?

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Pondering

More discussion of Viking era weapons, ships, money, and warfare: helmets and ships

Viking longship. At 4 benches of oars this would have been a rather small warship. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In his book Viking Weapons & Warfare, author John Kim Siddorn looks at Viking weapons from the perspective of a long time reenactor. Having used shields and spears which he built in a shield wall provides a different, and informed, view that is a delight to read.

Posts in this series:

  • Spears, cost of iron
  • Shields, armor
  • Helmets, ships – the post you are currently reading
  • Money

Helmet

Very few helmets have been recovered, which have led many to the inference that Vikings went into battle bare headed. His experience and logic suggest that could not possibly be the case.

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Pondering

America is Land of the Free, Because of the Brave. My ‘thank you’ to those who made it so.

Heavy bomber crewman, U.S. Army Air Force, World War 2. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.

Our freedom is under rapidly increasing assault by many politicians who think they are kings and queens appointed by divine right instead of having merely won a few more percentage points of the vote than their opponent in the last election.  In the last year public health officials at the federal, state, and county levels who lack self-awareness of how often they beclown themselves have joined in the efforts to shred our liberty.

As a result of these attacks, it is ever more important that on this Memorial Day we remember those who shed all their blood so that we may be free.

A ‘thank you’ from me is so trivial, yet that is all I have.

I will demonstrate my appreciation for freedom purchased by others by exercising freedom.

Yesterday I exercised my freedom of religion. Tomorrow I will exercise my economic freedom, also called pursuit of happiness, by running my business the way I choose.

I have posted variations of the following ideas several times before.  I will continue to make these points routinely.

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Pondering

To everyone on active duty today, I often accept a ‘thank you’ on your behalf.

Union Infantry private, U.S. Civil War, 1961-1865. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.

While touring the U.S.S. Midway Museum in San Diego early this month, I wore a “U.S. Air Force” ball cap with various stuff pinned to it, such as the rank I wore, a missile badge (“pocket rocket” for those who know), SAC logo, and a rectangular piece of metal that declares “Combat Crew.”

During the course of walking around, I got lots of glances and several comments of “thank you for your service.”

Also got some joshing comments from the retired Navy guys about them ‘allowing’ me on their ship. Since we were all on the same team back in the day, the kidding was pure fun.

I was on active duty for only four years and that was decades ago. I never got within 3,000 miles of hostile action. (Of course if the flag had gone up, I would have been radioactive dust at 20,000 feet altitude about 40 minutes later.)

As a result, I was uneasy for a long time when someone said “Thanks for your service.”

It took me a few years to get to get comfortable with those comments.

I now graciously and proudly accept those expressions of appreciation from my fellow Americans, but not because of what I did so long ago. 

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Viking Era

More discussion of Viking era weapons, ships, money, and warfare: shields and armor

Vikings are go on the offensive. Vikings are dressed in chain, with swords, spears, axes, shields in the hands and helmets on their heads in winter time. Medieval Reenactment. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In his book Viking Weapons & Warfare, author John Kim Siddorn looks at Viking weapons from the perspective of a long time reenactor. Having used shields and spears which he built in a shield wall provides a different, and informed, view that is a delight to read.

Posts in this series:

  • Spears, cost of iron
  • Shields, armor
  • Helmets, ships
  • Money

Shield

Shields typically measured between 2’ 7” and 3’ in diameter. They were flat with several planks next to each other. Often there would be some sort of rim going around the edge.

Author makes a point I have never seen before – there is no archaeological evidence that medieval armies used laminated shields.

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Viking Era

More discussion of Viking era weapons, ships, money, and warfare: spears, cost of iron.

The nails are what’s left of a burial coffin. Object from the exhibition We Call Them Vikings produced by the Swedish History Museum by The Swedish History Museum, Stockholm is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Delightful book on Viking era weaponry takes a practical, hands-on look at use of weapons in combat. In Viking Weapons & Warfare, author John Kim Siddorn takes a very different perspective from the usual Viking book, since he is a reenactor with extensive experience actually carrying a shield and spear in a shield wall during reenactment battles. With his 25 years of reenacting experience, he can speak personally on protection provided by a shield, how quickly untrained people can be brought up to speed on using a spear, how difficult it is to use a sling, and the practicalities of maintaining integrity of a shield wall during close combat.

His book provides extensive discussion on construction techniques and practical usage of various weapons. I won’t go into a detail on that, because to do so would require essentially repeating entire chapters to get an appreciation for the issues involved.

Instead I will pull out tidbits of interest to me that I hope would be of interest to those who already enjoy this blog.

Posts in this series:

  • Spears, cost of iron
  • Shields, armor
  • Helmets, ships
  • Money

Cost of Iron

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Middle Ages

Cancer and heart disease may have been more prevalent in ancient times than we’ve been told.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The ancient, good ol’ days were not quite as good as modern romantics would like to think.

Two articles I’ve come across recently point out that there was a lot more illnesses that we consider to be modern disease than was previously thought.

4/29/21 – Medical Xpress – Cancer rates in medieval Britain around 10 times higher than previously thought, study suggests – Prior to a study which for the first time used x-rays and CT scans to look at skeletons of people who died in medieval England, the estimate was that less than 1% of people back then suffered from cancer.

The assumption was that without any modern chemicals or tobacco use people living in the medieval era just did not have cancer.

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Viking Era

Another guess at value of a sword and other defensive armament circa seventh century.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is viking-weapons-adobe.jpeg

Viking weapons and armors set. Viking warrior equipment. Sword, axe, spear, pike, bow, arrows helmet shield. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A big part of what you see on this blog is me slowly putting together pieces of information about ancient finances. As I come across tidbits providing insight to ancient days, you can watch me gradually build my knowledge.

Several years ago I came across some references to prices of defensive armament back in the seventh century or so, but got stumped when trying to sort out the valuations expressed in terms of gold pieces. A reader explain why I was confused and got me back on track. So, I’ll take the next feeble step in my learning journey.

Think back to your high school algebra class when your teacher told you to show your work. That’s what I will do. This allows you to check my logic and math. You can also assess my assumptions for yourself. You can then modify my calculations if you have different assumptions, such as for the value of gold in the Middle Ages.

Ancient pricing

Mentioned in my post Cost of weapons in Northern Europe in mid 7th century the book Vikings at War book by Kim Hjardar and Vegard Vike provided some pricing information from the 7th-century Frankish legal text, Lex Ribuaria (or Ripuaria)

The lawbook provided the following prices when restitution was necessary:

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Viking Era

Viking warfare – overview of how women fared during and after the Viking Age – 7/

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The delightful book Norse Warfare: A Portrayal of Combat, Raids, and Plunder in the Viking Age by Martina Sprague briefly touches on how women got along during the Viking age and how their conditions generally deteriorated after that era ended.

Women in the Viking Age

Author points out at several places in the book that Norse women had more freedom and power in the Viking world than women did in the European world.

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Viking Era

Viking warfare – violence wasn’t limited to the Vikings – 6/

Alert Viking warrior armed with axe and shield.  Same weaponry used by most soldiers in the era. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

No doubt the Vikings were more violent than we can imagine. The book Norse Warfare: A Portrayal of Combat, Raids, and Plunder in the Viking Age by Martina Sprague explains they weren’t the only violent ones around at the time.

It was a violent time

Legend and popular stories claim the Vikings were particularly brutal and ruthless. If you listen to those reports you will think that they were unique in their time.

Not so, the book points out.

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