VIKING BOWS!!!

[bow-toxo]

Hallo friends,
I

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There was a complete Viking bow found in Balinderry in Ireland and one found at Hedeby in Germany along with several broken pieces. They were made of yew or elm, which is also mentioned in the histories. Unlike any other bows, the tips are heat bent toward the shooter. Cross sections are from a nearly D shaped oval to a more flattened shape, especially at the tips. The strings had a loop at the upper end and were tied off at the lower tip, A side nock was cut in at the upper limb and there was no wrapping at the handgrip. I made two from elm and one from hickory. The elm soon developed a lot of string follow. I have submitted an illustrated article to Primitive Archer magazine and I think they mean to print it but I don't know when. It also shows how the arrows were.

[Fundin]

There are few fids of Viking bows, barlinderry and Hedeby (Heithabu) Generally they are yew longbows (withb one example beeing elm). But they dont havwe the hornn ocks of the english longbows. Instead they have trumpet shaped nocks and deflexed tips, a sollution to make the ends of really heavy bows hold before hornnocks came about. Strengths of bows estimated abowe 100#

For hunting I would use the more slender Nydam version from 300AD, estimated at 50-70#, longbows of yew with sidenocks and slender outer limbs.

Bowwoods in Sweden at the time would be
Yew
Elm
Ash
Hophornbeam
Rowan
Hazel
Oak

to name a few

the saami would at the same time use laminates
birch or goat willow with a belly of pine or spruce (compression wood)

[a finnish native]

Hi there young vikng!
I started a thread about viking bows some time ago.
Now that I have looked into them more, it seems that the wood preferred was indeed Yew, but since it was not that well available in norway they did use other materials such as elm and other good whitewoods.
Then again the Vikings of Norway did do a lot of conquests to the west. Especially to the countries now known as the United Kingdon and Ireland. So they did receive great amounts of Yew from those parts. They also did a lot of trading with the other vikings (mainly from Denmark's area), so that was another source of Yew.
The bows that they used were as the other members already said mainly similar to English longbows. The draw weight was almost in every cases over 70# so that the same bows could be used for war and hunting. The bellys of the bows were rounded and the backs were somewhat flat. This only applies to the bows built from yew though. If the bow was from Elm or other whitewoods the belly would have been flat.
The bows were mainly drawn to the chest and not the ear or jaw. this is one of the characteristics that separates the bows from English long bows. The draw would also have been shorter than in ELBs. Almost all Viking bows that have been found are about 72' or longer. most of the bows found were used for war, so the descriptions for small game bows are hard to tell. but as I already said the main assumption is that the same bows were used in hunting and in warfare.
'Vikings were fishermen and farmers more that hunters, so the food mainly consisted of fish, crops and cattle, but hunting also took place.
The Vikings were more "international" than one would assume, so they were also influenced by surrounding nations and people. One good example about this is a Saami bow that was found from the remains of a viking settlement in norway. Firs it was assumed that the Vikings were building such bows for hunting, but later on it was proven that the bow was of a Saami origin brought in by Vikings that made a trip to Saami land further north and east.

[a finnish native]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,2115.0.html    and here is the link to that topic of mine.

[uwe]

Welcome young viking!
The Haithabu viking bow is a very strong bow. An archaologist said it was not for practice. (hes an archer, too).
The tips of these bows are bended towards the belly.
Hope it helps what I attached.Sorry about making handstand!
Regards Uwe

[attachment deleted by admin]

[JackCrafty]

Great thread! 

[bow-toxo]

Hi there young vikng!


The bows that they used were as the other members already said mainly similar to English longbows. The draw weight was almost in every cases over 70# so that the same bows could be used for war and hunting. The bellys of the bows were rounded and the backs were somewhat flat. This only applies to the bows built from yew though. If the bow was from Elm or other whitewoods the belly would have been flat.
The bows were mainly drawn to the chest and not the ear or jaw. this is one of the characteristics that separates the bows from English long bows. The draw would also have been shorter than in ELBs. Almost all Viking bows that have been found are about 72' or longer. most of the bows found were used for war, so the descriptions for small game bows are hard to tell.

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 I am interested to know where thos information comes from. I know of only two complete Viking bows, the one from Haithabu, the back of which is not 'somewhat flat', as we see in the cross section in reply#19, and the one from Balinderry that is not 'rounded ln the belly'. The broken pieces found were more of a flattened oval.  Please share information on any others. I would also be very interested to know the source information for the type and length of draw.

 Some other posts thought the Nydam bows were Viking. Sorry, they are definitely Roman period, at least 400 years before the Vikings.

[a finnish native]

my information comes from a finnish primitivebow forum. If I were to link it to you, you probably would not understand the text, but here is the link of what I found from there.
The draw lenght is just an assumption, but I remember reding a few Sagas that said that and archer (viking) pulled the string to his chest and aimed at the enemy.
then besides these nymand bows a bow was found from Ballinderry and it was dated to be about 900 years old. This bow was from yew and it had a rounded belly and oval somewhat flat back. it was 185 cm long (74") and clearly over 70#. some of the nymand bows that the Danish Vikings buried in a swamp in religious purposes were yew also with a round belly and a longbow design.
A piece of a logbow that was from yew was found from laatokanlinna (laatokka's castle) nowardays situated in western Russia near the finnish border. This bow had to be left there by the Varnagian vikings from Swedish land. The Varnagians travelled as far as to Baghdad.
a whole bow made from yew was found from Hedeby, southern Jyllan. the bow was (4, 0 x 3, 2 cm) at the widest spot and at the narrowest spot it was (3, 0 x 1, 8 cm), the tips were slightly recurved. the bow was 192 cm long (76.8").

[a finnish native]

About those Nymand bows: the Roman empirum did not reach the areas of Denmark or Nydam. The vikings did live there before the viking age (800-1100). so even if the time is not between 800 and 1100 the settlements and burial customs there point to early vikings.

[uwe]

The roman founds at Nydam were given to the saxon soldiers, who were fighting for Rome and brought it up to the North.
Remember: the viking age historically begins with the agreesion of Lindisfarne abbey in Ireland in the early 9th cent. (807 around) by the vikings.

[bow-toxo]

The draw lenght is just an assumption, but I remember reding a few Sagas that said that and archer (viking) pulled the string to his chest and aimed at the enemy.
then besides these nymand bows a bow was found from Ballinderry and it was dated to be about 900 years old. This bow was from yew and it had a rounded belly and oval somewhat flat back. it was 185 cm long (74") and clearly over 70#. some of the nymand bows that the Danish Vikings buried in a swamp in religious purposes were yew also with a round belly and a longbow design.
A piece of a logbow that was from yew was found from laatokanlinna (laatokka's castle) nowardays situated in western Russia near the finnish border. This bow had to be left there by the Varnagian vikings from Swedish land. The Varnagians travelled as far as to Baghdad.
a whole bow made from yew was found from Hedeby, southern Jyllan. the bow was (4, 0 x 3, 2 cm) at the widest spot and at the narrowest spot it was (3, 0 x 1, 8 cm), the tips were slightly recurved. the bow was 192 cm long (76.8").

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i guess you didn't read my post about the Hedeby {Haithabu] and Balinderry or look at reply #19. Those two examples are not enough to say what most Viking bows were like especially when the limited information you have is not quite correct. I would very much like to know what sagas mention a draw to the chest which could be a long draw depending on what part of the chest.
I would like to know more about the bow from laatokkanlinna.

[Loki]

the viking age historically begins with the agreesion of Lindisfarne abbey in Ireland in the early 9th cent. (807 around) by the vikings.

Lindisfarne Abbey is on the North East Coast of England (Northumbria) it was sacked by the 'Viking's' (Danish) in June A.D 793.Or are you talking of a different Abbey? The Abbey (Lindisfarne) was founded by a Irishman (St Aidan) in A.D630 but it's no were near Ireland!!

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~cfee/MedievalNorthAtlantic/Lindisfarne/index.html

The Gospels.I hope this link doesnt brake the no religion rule?I'm not posting this because of the content of the words but for the beauty of the book! and they call it the dark age,tut.........
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/themes/euromanuscripts/lindisfarne.html

[Young Viking]

Bow-Toxo
If you are not Nordic, then it is obvious, or if you are Nordic by blood and are not told the history since your birth then it is also quite obvious. I have many medals, and pendants from super long ago(From Norway) They picture Ullr, our god of the hunt, and of Archery, he always draws his bow to his chest, if that is a cultural symbol, that would mean that an overwhelming number of our bows must also do just that. Just my observation. its funny given my height and stature, it is actually quite comfortable, and somehow accurate for me to use a longbow drawn to my chest, maybe its jsut natural for Vikings to draw like that, evolution baby! woo!! lol

[Fundin]

The Nydam bows are not Viking, they would be considered early Vendel. However, the ships found at the same site are defenetly a predecessor of later Viking ships, thus from the culture that became the vikings later. The Nydam bows are basically just a long yew bow with one sidenock. They are predecessors to the later Vikings bows. However, as a few hundred years passed, it seems like bows were made stronger (the two finds are defenetly bulkier, probably 100+#). That is probably the reason for the bulkier nocks, as soft yew wouldnt stand that strong a bow without reinforcement of either horn nocks wich came later, or more material. Deflexing the tips can be for the same reason.

If making a bow for hunting, say 50#-70#, I would not recommend the tip configuration of the viking bows, as that would leave you with heavy outer limbs, resulting in poorer cast and mor handshock. If instead assuming the knowledge for making a good weaker weapon did not dissapear in a few hundred years, you will get a better performing bow by making a Nydam bow.

If making a yew bow without hornnocks designed for a long draw and say 120#, I would make a Heithabu replika. However, even though I am of viking heritage, modern life has left me to weak to have full controll of a 120# bow, I have enough trouble just pulling and shooting one.

[a finnish native]

Bow.toxo: Unfortunately I have no further information about the bof from laatokanlinna. I was just sharing information I know about.