tdog,
The bows got their names from where the squints dug 'em up at. The Holmegard was dug up in Holmegaard Denmark, and the Mollegabet was dug up in you guessed it? The Holmegaard is about 7,000 yrs old and the Mollegabet is about 5,000 yrs old. The holme is like an american flat bow ( limbs the same width out to a certain point and then a taper to the tips). The mollegabet has paralell working limbs about half way out and a lever (that doesn't bend) from there to the knocks The first has fully bending limbs and the second is half bending and that propels a lever. The Mollegabet produces more draw length, more easily than does the holmegaard. Oh ya, these bows pre-date the Vikings by a whole bunch....but the Mollegabet did survive past the true Viking age (there is evidence of the Russ using them into the middle ages, in what we now know as Russia)
Rich
