Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders
The Icelandic sagas are a major source of information on the Vikings and their fighting prowess. In these stories, several mysterious pole-weapons appear, which are often called “halberds”, for lack of a better word. In order to better identify what these weapons could have been, and to provide a be...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Bern Open Publishing
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Acta Periodica Duellatorum |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://bop.unibe.ch/apd/article/view/6956 |
| _version_ | 1818597575000850432 |
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| author | Jan H. Orkisz |
| author_facet | Jan H. Orkisz |
| author_sort | Jan H. Orkisz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Icelandic sagas are a major source of information on the Vikings and their fighting prowess. In these stories, several mysterious pole-weapons appear, which are often called “halberds”, for lack of a better word. In order to better identify what these weapons could have been, and to provide a better understanding of how the sagas relate to the Viking-age events they describe, we confront textual and archaeological evidence for several of these weapons (the höggspjót, the atgeirr, the kesja, the krókspjót, the bryntroll and the fleinn), keeping in mind the contextualisation of their appearances in sagas. The description of the use of each weapon allows to pick several candidates likely to correspond to the studied word. Without a perfect knowledge of what context the authors of the sagas wanted to describe, it appears to be impossible to give a final answer. However, we show that some specific types of spears are good candidates for some of the studied weapons. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T11:49:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-51433e591b3446ffbd8f2ee7b7b18986 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2064-0404 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T11:49:59Z |
| publishDate | 2016-05-01 |
| publisher | Bern Open Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Periodica Duellatorum |
| spelling | doaj.art-51433e591b3446ffbd8f2ee7b7b189862022-12-21T22:32:44ZengBern Open PublishingActa Periodica Duellatorum2064-04042016-05-014110.36950/apd-2016-006Pole-weapons in the Sagas of IcelandersJan H. Orkisz0Chapitre des Armes (Paris)The Icelandic sagas are a major source of information on the Vikings and their fighting prowess. In these stories, several mysterious pole-weapons appear, which are often called “halberds”, for lack of a better word. In order to better identify what these weapons could have been, and to provide a better understanding of how the sagas relate to the Viking-age events they describe, we confront textual and archaeological evidence for several of these weapons (the höggspjót, the atgeirr, the kesja, the krókspjót, the bryntroll and the fleinn), keeping in mind the contextualisation of their appearances in sagas. The description of the use of each weapon allows to pick several candidates likely to correspond to the studied word. Without a perfect knowledge of what context the authors of the sagas wanted to describe, it appears to be impossible to give a final answer. However, we show that some specific types of spears are good candidates for some of the studied weapons.https://bop.unibe.ch/apd/article/view/6956Early Middle AgesViking Agepole-weaponsarchaeology |
| spellingShingle | Jan H. Orkisz Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders Acta Periodica Duellatorum Early Middle Ages Viking Age pole-weapons archaeology |
| title | Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders |
| title_full | Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders |
| title_fullStr | Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders |
| title_short | Pole-weapons in the Sagas of Icelanders |
| title_sort | pole weapons in the sagas of icelanders |
| topic | Early Middle Ages Viking Age pole-weapons archaeology |
| url | https://bop.unibe.ch/apd/article/view/6956 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT janhorkisz poleweaponsinthesagasoficelanders |