Viking Axe Artifact: Breaking Down All Barriers
If someone asks me to give them three words about the Viking Age, I definitely say "Ship, axe, and fear". If the ship carried the Vikings to crossed the high waves reaching a new land, the axe helped them to gain upper hand and control their enemies. Viking axe is also a symbol of fear and determination to break down all the barriers.
In the Viking Age, there were many types of an axe which helped the Vikings in many cases ranging from agricultural fields to battlefields. Overall, Viking axe was light, well-balanced, and focused on speed. They were designed for nasty and clever moves.
The Vikings once used their axe to chop down woods, to hunt, to aid them during the fishing, to raid, and to slay enemies.
The scholars believed that the Viking axe was made from a piece of metal. They flattened it and then wrapped it to make it symmetrical. Viking axe had an eye which was a connecting point for the blade and the handle.
The handle of the Viking axe could be either long or short and it all depended on what the purpose of the users was. If it was an axe which a long handle, it could help the warriors to reach the enemies from a distance while the shorter axe was the other way round. But the level of damage from the axe with the longer handle could not be as great as that from the axe with a shorter handle.
Some of the Viking axes could have been decorated with gold and silver to reveal high social rank and wealth of the owner. For example, the most famous Viking axe that the archaeologists excavated was the Mammen axe which was decorated with gold inlays and carved with Viking floral and animal patterns.
Viking Mammen axe with delicate patterns of floral and animals
The eye of the Viking axe artifacts
Viking Langeid axe original version and modern replica
Three Viking axe artifacts
