AXES : FIT FOR PURPOSE ?
Axes are tools which lend themselves to be used as weapons, felling men as easily as trees. It may be thought it therefore follows that there is no easily discernible border between what is intended to be a weapon and what is intended to be a tool.
Such a view, while to some extent logical, fails to consider the wider social context of warfare and warriors. The identification as a warrior is significant and implies some status in a tribal society as pre-Christian Northmen were. In Christian society status continued to be associated with 'those who fight' - the miles class. It follows that warriors would have had a personal pride and status to preserve which would argue that they equipped themselves for war with forethought and in consideration of their role.' This is not the same as two arguing neighbours grabbing the nearest thing to hand to slaughter the other. The over-use of Icelandic country bumpkin squabbles being used to describe 'warfare' not-withstanding. The tools of everyday working life would be familiar to all. A pitchfork or a scythe, while deadly, are not the tools of a warrior but of an agricultural labourer. A labourer would have been unfree or semi-free and not an individual who would go to war. If we imagine modern professional soldiers turning up on the battlefield with a hunting rifle or civilian handgun we are getting close to the impression that a warrior equipped with a wood-cutter's axe would have made in the Viking Period.
When trying to classify axe-heads after their form Jan Petersen complained that they were difficult to pigeon-hole. He grumbled that they were indistinct from each other, no doubt because the application of an axe is less specific than a sword, for example. He classified swords into 26 or so categories much more easily. However, he classified swords primarily on their decorative fittings, of the hilt, and not the form of their blade, the functional element more analogous with the head of an axe.If one tries to classify swords by blade form then Petersen's typology breaks down or is at least much more simple and more indistinct. A sword is a tool, for fighting , and must retain certain qualities or it stops functioning effectively. Axes are the same.
Swords of the Viking Period are relatively long, mostly double-edged, and do not have a slender tapering blade with a point. They are broad and the tip is short and not fine at all. They are intended to deliver powerful cutting and slicing blows with the long edges. What, then about axes? As tools axes have various functions. They can be used for felling, splitting and finishing planks, carving basic forms for wooden utensils etc. Not all axes fulfil these functions - the t-shaped axe or broad-axe used for plank-work is not so good as a heavy, wedge-shaped axe for tree-felling. The Bayeaux Tapestry shows working axes. They are different from the weapon axes shown as are the men wielding them. This is the most obvious example of the distinction between a weapon and a tool.
The group that are easy to recognise as weapons are decorated axe-heads. Perhaps to dignify them, to render them more costly or to highlight quality items, some axe-heads are decorated. The axe-heads form Trelleborg, Mammen and Danish finds, t-shape also - are expensively decorated. The Trelleborg axe could otherwise maybe mistaken for a t-shaped planking-axe but it is rendered a weapon by its decoration, taking a step up into the warrior-status weapon from the labourer's tool. It is interesting that the classic broad-edged axe-heads of Petersen M types are not decorated. Probably the form was enough to state ' weapon', 'for flesh not wood'.
If we go back to consider axe-head forms then reenactment fighters have a dilemma when considering them for use. Can I legitimately take any axe-head and adopt it as a weapon ? I will preferably go for something light because it is easy to wield and probably costs less too. Looking for a light axe there very many to choose from. They can be found in profusion on the net, even originals for sale, and many reenactors use them. So I have all the validation I need -let's go! The dilemma comes from the consideration - which admittedly takes more than a micro-second of brain work to evaluate, and many will not waste so much time - that not all axes were weapons. How can I find a weapon to use rather than a tool ? How can I recreate the equipment of a warrior and not that of a peasant labourer? If you think that peasant labourers were involved in warfare then you have some other work to do, but that is for another essay...
Light axe-heads are rare in western and southern Scandinavia. They are more common in the east and later Viking Period into the medieval age. In Scandinavia they are best known from Birka and Gotland. Birka and Gotland are exceptional places where a relatively wealthy pagan class of merchants buried a lot of grave-goods with the dead and these wealthy people had extensive trading contacts with what is now Russia, Poland and the Baltic states. Indeed, it is possible to argue that some of the burials at Birka are of foreigners and not natives. Such a consideration must be made when reconstructing clothes and wargear for reenactment unless it is desireable to have a free-for-all in terms of time and place and to forget ideas of accuracy or authenticity. It may be thought by some that it is ok to mix Norwegian clothing with Polish weapons. That is up to individual choice. It is easy to consider all items found in graves to be weapons. Especially those found in male graves along with other weapons. However, there are warning bells to heed. In a comprehensive study of early English pagan graves Heinrich Harke has concluded that the variation that is seen indicates that we do not understand why items were buried in graves and to consider weapons as the equipment of a man in his life-time role as a warrior is to make a serious error.For example, Norwegian graves contain more axes than graves in the rest of Scandinavia, Does this mean Norwegians used axes for warfare more than other people ? In some areas of England pagan graves include swords with almost every man. In others only rarely. Does this mean warfare was conducted in a different way in different parts of pagan England ?
The ritual of burial and the symbolic worth of grave goods can outweigh or differ from the role and value those items have in life. To throw the easiest spanner in the works: what when weapons are found in women's graves ? Sometimes swords, sometimes spears - more often axe-heads. This is not a very large percentage of grave finds but it occurs. The graves otherwise have usually female accoutrements. Does this mean some women, dressed as women, were fighters ? The explanation cannot be simple, a subject of another essay...but the simplest explanation is unlikely to be true. If it is accepted that this case of weapon identification is wrong then the whole idea that weapons indicate warriors begins to crack open. If we cannot be sure that all items found in graves are weapons that were used by the occupant of the grave then we must accept that actively choosing to consider them as such is disingenuous, even dishonest. We must try to increase our confidence in identifying weapons that were used by warriors.
Such a view, while to some extent logical, fails to consider the wider social context of warfare and warriors. The identification as a warrior is significant and implies some status in a tribal society as pre-Christian Northmen were. In Christian society status continued to be associated with 'those who fight' - the miles class. It follows that warriors would have had a personal pride and status to preserve which would argue that they equipped themselves for war with forethought and in consideration of their role.' This is not the same as two arguing neighbours grabbing the nearest thing to hand to slaughter the other. The over-use of Icelandic country bumpkin squabbles being used to describe 'warfare' not-withstanding. The tools of everyday working life would be familiar to all. A pitchfork or a scythe, while deadly, are not the tools of a warrior but of an agricultural labourer. A labourer would have been unfree or semi-free and not an individual who would go to war. If we imagine modern professional soldiers turning up on the battlefield with a hunting rifle or civilian handgun we are getting close to the impression that a warrior equipped with a wood-cutter's axe would have made in the Viking Period.
When trying to classify axe-heads after their form Jan Petersen complained that they were difficult to pigeon-hole. He grumbled that they were indistinct from each other, no doubt because the application of an axe is less specific than a sword, for example. He classified swords into 26 or so categories much more easily. However, he classified swords primarily on their decorative fittings, of the hilt, and not the form of their blade, the functional element more analogous with the head of an axe.If one tries to classify swords by blade form then Petersen's typology breaks down or is at least much more simple and more indistinct. A sword is a tool, for fighting , and must retain certain qualities or it stops functioning effectively. Axes are the same.
Swords of the Viking Period are relatively long, mostly double-edged, and do not have a slender tapering blade with a point. They are broad and the tip is short and not fine at all. They are intended to deliver powerful cutting and slicing blows with the long edges. What, then about axes? As tools axes have various functions. They can be used for felling, splitting and finishing planks, carving basic forms for wooden utensils etc. Not all axes fulfil these functions - the t-shaped axe or broad-axe used for plank-work is not so good as a heavy, wedge-shaped axe for tree-felling. The Bayeaux Tapestry shows working axes. They are different from the weapon axes shown as are the men wielding them. This is the most obvious example of the distinction between a weapon and a tool.
The group that are easy to recognise as weapons are decorated axe-heads. Perhaps to dignify them, to render them more costly or to highlight quality items, some axe-heads are decorated. The axe-heads form Trelleborg, Mammen and Danish finds, t-shape also - are expensively decorated. The Trelleborg axe could otherwise maybe mistaken for a t-shaped planking-axe but it is rendered a weapon by its decoration, taking a step up into the warrior-status weapon from the labourer's tool. It is interesting that the classic broad-edged axe-heads of Petersen M types are not decorated. Probably the form was enough to state ' weapon', 'for flesh not wood'.
If we go back to consider axe-head forms then reenactment fighters have a dilemma when considering them for use. Can I legitimately take any axe-head and adopt it as a weapon ? I will preferably go for something light because it is easy to wield and probably costs less too. Looking for a light axe there very many to choose from. They can be found in profusion on the net, even originals for sale, and many reenactors use them. So I have all the validation I need -let's go! The dilemma comes from the consideration - which admittedly takes more than a micro-second of brain work to evaluate, and many will not waste so much time - that not all axes were weapons. How can I find a weapon to use rather than a tool ? How can I recreate the equipment of a warrior and not that of a peasant labourer? If you think that peasant labourers were involved in warfare then you have some other work to do, but that is for another essay...
Light axe-heads are rare in western and southern Scandinavia. They are more common in the east and later Viking Period into the medieval age. In Scandinavia they are best known from Birka and Gotland. Birka and Gotland are exceptional places where a relatively wealthy pagan class of merchants buried a lot of grave-goods with the dead and these wealthy people had extensive trading contacts with what is now Russia, Poland and the Baltic states. Indeed, it is possible to argue that some of the burials at Birka are of foreigners and not natives. Such a consideration must be made when reconstructing clothes and wargear for reenactment unless it is desireable to have a free-for-all in terms of time and place and to forget ideas of accuracy or authenticity. It may be thought by some that it is ok to mix Norwegian clothing with Polish weapons. That is up to individual choice. It is easy to consider all items found in graves to be weapons. Especially those found in male graves along with other weapons. However, there are warning bells to heed. In a comprehensive study of early English pagan graves Heinrich Harke has concluded that the variation that is seen indicates that we do not understand why items were buried in graves and to consider weapons as the equipment of a man in his life-time role as a warrior is to make a serious error.For example, Norwegian graves contain more axes than graves in the rest of Scandinavia, Does this mean Norwegians used axes for warfare more than other people ? In some areas of England pagan graves include swords with almost every man. In others only rarely. Does this mean warfare was conducted in a different way in different parts of pagan England ?
The ritual of burial and the symbolic worth of grave goods can outweigh or differ from the role and value those items have in life. To throw the easiest spanner in the works: what when weapons are found in women's graves ? Sometimes swords, sometimes spears - more often axe-heads. This is not a very large percentage of grave finds but it occurs. The graves otherwise have usually female accoutrements. Does this mean some women, dressed as women, were fighters ? The explanation cannot be simple, a subject of another essay...but the simplest explanation is unlikely to be true. If it is accepted that this case of weapon identification is wrong then the whole idea that weapons indicate warriors begins to crack open. If we cannot be sure that all items found in graves are weapons that were used by the occupant of the grave then we must accept that actively choosing to consider them as such is disingenuous, even dishonest. We must try to increase our confidence in identifying weapons that were used by warriors.