Del's Hedeby Viking Bow

[mikekeswick]

It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.

[Jodocus]

Nice! 

After some reasoning I came to the conclusion that the tips have three purposes:

To keep the string out of the dirt, since it was not plastic and would rot. And it sure was dirty in the nord.

To feel and look very norse and fearsome

To get that cool creak when pulling, as in the movies, and be even more fearsome.

[Del the cat]

It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.

Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back .
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course
Del

[Holten101]

It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.

Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back .
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course
Del

Ill buy that;-)

It leaves us with a bit of a problem though...the chance of a ditched failed bow to survive seems higher than that of sound workhorse bows. The Holmegaard bows were found in a kitchen midden, The Muldbjerg bow was fractured and used in a fish trap etc.

There is a slight chance that we go about replicating failures;-)

(Not a thought I truely subscribe to)

cheers

[dueb]

Very nice! and very interesting! Great work!

[Onebowonder]

It sure is a strange one. My money is on something ceremonial.

Good theory.
I'm very wary of jumping to conclusions about one off bows, that's what is so great about about the MR bows, enough to draw sensible conclusions (although there is still plenty of argument).
Maybe this was the only one ever made with long extension over the nocks... who knows?

Olaf made it and his friends did mock him sorely, one of them said it was only good as a coat rack and hammered a nail into the back .
In a fit of rage Olaf threw it in the bog and thus it survived.

Just a theory of course
Del

Most of that story is correct, but here's the REST OF THE STORY...

Yes Olaf was vexed that his bowyer peers had mocked his prototype long tips bow, but he didn't throw the oddball bow in the bog.  He actually just went to the corner pub and drowned his sorrows in a tankard of salted sour mead.  While he was in thus indisposed, his shop wench failed to keep a proper watchful eye on her four year old son, Nevel, who loved to play with the tools in the bowyers shop.  Young master Nevel applied a small nail he found in the straw and shavings covered floors with a hammer he found sitting on Olaf's StaveMaster bench.  He hammered it soundly into the newly tillered limb before his mother managed to notice his misdeed.  By the time she noticed, the damage was done! <gasp>  Thinking quickly, she hid Olaf's ruined prototype long tips bow under her skirts and cloak and scooped up young Nevel and scurried out of the shop walking stiff-leggedly to the edge of town.  Once she made the edge of the bog, she pulled out the bow, wrapped it in muslin and tied three heavy cobble stones to it to assure it would sink and stay at the bottom. 

Olaf never spoke to two of his Bowyer guildmates again for three years as they had scorned his craftsmanship over the long tipped bow.  He always assumed they had stolen it to taunt him.  Young master Nevel grew up in the bow shop and eventually become both famous and infamous for the development of a three limbed bow, a suspension system for wheeled carts based on a series of stacked bow limbs, and some the first examples of compound bows, though it was quite some years before any of his ideas ever managed to be proven commercially viable.

[Del the cat]

Ah! it all makes sense now.
Oddly enough, I was musing over a three limbed bow only the other day, but I couldn't figure out a string arrangement (yes seriously).
She must have been a very tall wench to hide that bow under her skirts
Del
(Nice to know there are others as daft as me )

[Hrothgar]

I confused, who is Olaf    "but he didn't throw the oddball bow in the bog", " and drowned his sorrows in a tankard of salted sour mead", nice alliterations   

[Marc St Louis]

Nice bow, not terribly fond of the overly long tips though.  Did she back out?

[mikekeswick]

Holten101 - I hear what you are saying but I flat out refuse to believe the Holmguaard bows were failures! Holmguaards are pretty much the best designed flatbows ever in my eyes. They shoot very fast and with no shock at all and are deadly quiet...if that is a failure I want to know what wasn't!!

[Del the cat]

Nice bow, not terribly fond of the overly long tips though.  Did she back out?

I e-mailed a week ago, no reply yet, but she's been slow replying to 'em all.
I'm in no rush, got a funeral next week and plenty of other stuff to do. Maybe she's got family to attend to.
I'll give it a decent length of time and then do some speed tests, lop off the tips and repeat the tests, sort of hoping I do get to do the test.
There's another lady waiting on a Yew longbow of that weight who is local to me, she'll be happy to take it.
Del

[Holten101]

Holten101 - I hear what you are saying but I flat out refuse to believe the Holmguaard bows were failures! Holmguaards are pretty much the best designed flatbows ever in my eyes. They shoot very fast and with no shock at all and are deadly quiet...if that is a failure I want to know what wasn't!!

Mike I agree 100%;-)....and I have made it my life goal do disprove anyone who says they are failures!

Cheers

[OTDEAN]

Nice looking bow Del  Them Vikings must have sunk a few meads when coming up with that design for the tips!

Dean

[scp]

I have a nagging suspicion that vikings were so macho as to mistake hand shock as the evidence of powerfulness. They must have been using their bows in a way that the efficiency does not matter much, probably because they were shooting rather heavy arrows at short range targets. Just a guess, but quite possibly falsifiable.

[IdahoMatt]

That's a crazy looking bow del.  I like it.