How I wish all CZcams history were done like this. No irritating background music, no hyperbole, no reconstructions, just learned people talking about their subjects, admitting they don't know everything, but sharing their huge depth of knowledge and their passion for the subject with us. Superb, absolutely superb, video, thank you.
@@slashes22Okay, now we need a sword Thor. Skallagrim has said many times that he’s not the sword equivalent of Gun Jesus despite looking the part of sword Thor, and so have all of the other sword tubers I can think of including perhaps the best qualified, Tod Cutler. Any other candidates?
U.K. wants to ban "assault" kitchen knives. Everything can be a weapon. I was suspend for 2 days in grade school, for having an "assault" paper clip...
The problem with rocks that were used in combat in Iceland during the Viking age, is that most of them are at the bottom of the sea in Húnaflói, Northen Iceland. That is the only real large scale sea battle (strangely enough) that was ever fought in Iceland. There were other instances where rocks were assembled to be used in battle, for example Borgarvirki the only siege in Iceland. But since the defenders were able to trick the attackers into thinking they were far better supplied then they really were, the attackers decided to give up and go home, so no actual battle took place. So any rocks that were not used, were just repurposed for building later.
You know, having thrown a few rocks myself, I wouldn’t mind hearing a specialist in the field talk about the best size, shape, weight and composition of rocks for throwing. The thrown rock is allegedly our oldest weapon after all.
I am so here for sword arc Ian. You might want to look into Ulfberht swords. The first brand of weapons to be faked, that we know of. Edit: I spelled Ulfberht wrong, Old Frankish is hard, yo.
Agree, now I guess people faked wine back in Rome and probably much earlier. And copyright or patents was not an thing, but the Ulfberth swords might be the first weapon brand.
I've got an 'Awaguchi Ikkanshi Tadatsuna' branded kozuka knife from about the late 18th century. The brand is still produced in Japan today, and the period knives were so heavily and successfully faked that few experts would even hazard a guess as to whether one was 'real.' I expect the first brand-name forgery is exactly as old as the first brand name!
@@Puffball-ll1ly Not a chance. This guy is the most popular dude in Valhalla today. His bros are buying him drinks even though the mead free and infinite.
@@Puffball-ll1ly : In my swabian homeregion in nearly every village graves of allemanic persons from 3th to 6th/ 7th century had been found, those grave items tradition of non christian reason ended in 7th century, noblemen practiced this after adoption of christianity some time longer than commoners. Those graves, sometimes large graveyards, are mostly found , when there are large constitution works, for example a new complex of houses, a new rsliway line or similar things. In many cases the use of old pagan graveyards ended, when churches had been build, and christian graveyards are , or had been until few decades ago, arround church. So with christianity the nonchrisrian gravesites had been forgotten, and are found now by coincience. Sometimes it also happens, that when old churches are enlarged, modernized or renovated, a grave with items is found. Assumingly the grave of a nobleman, who switched to christianity, ordered to build First church, but was burried in germannic tradition.
@@Puffball-ll1lyordinarily I agree but you can't own all land forever. People have existed for thousands of years and yet people only see/care abo5 normal graveyards from the past 100 years. Being buried somewhere shouldn't condemn it for human occupation forever.
🚫 Yeah, but this sword was originally owned by my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great(x3) grandfather....... ^He handed down a scroll that described in detail how this particular pagan Viking stole it from him! He made it clear in his will that he expected later generations to ensure that its returneded to our family where it belongs.
@@ragingjaguarknight86 oh yeah, the atlatl is impressive, but hardly Aztec exclusive, while I don't think we have any evidence of anyone else using embedded flint/obsidian for swords.
A most excellent video! To explain about the tip thing. The Spatula tip actually cuts through cloth and flesh as you stab through with it and does this quite well. It's not so good at piercing maille or plate, for that a pointy tip is better. So cutting more than thrusting oriented but vs soft armor it can do it. The rounded tip can be used to do a cast blow that hits with the tip (a percussive tip shot rather than a normal cut in a way that is good at defeating cloth armor. Probably on Iceland at this age maille was not common but wearing heavy clothing was, due to the weather. So the spatula tip is optimal for a sword. The spatula tip was common in Scandinavia at the time as well but there were sharp tipped swords also used. Maille was better defeated by a Spear anyway.
That's a strangely interesting point. Odds are swords were sort of an "EDC" and would face cloth frequently, while if battle called you would reach for a spear, less easy to carry, with better range and penetration.
More like it's quicker to switch to your sword than go running back to get a new spear. Swords and axes were both side weapons; the primary weapon of the era was usually a polearm like a spear or longaxe.
@@FreiherrDinkelacker No, the main weapon of most vikings was a spear, which uses even less metal than an axe. Also, viking battle axes were definitely not used as tools, they have very different geometry than any cutting or splitting axe (battle axes were thinner, sharper and lighter than tools)
@@FreiherrDinkelacker That quote is from the retail website Horns of Glory, which is not an academic source; it is a commercial operation whose business model is to sell fantasy "Viking" tchotchkes to people who can't tell a thegn from a seidkonur. The claims it makes are highly suspect for several reasons. Firstly, it treats wood axes and battle axes as the same. In reality, battle axes were purpose-built weapons with much thinner blades that wouldn't be suitable for chopping wood, and a wood axe would be much too heavy and unwieldy to be use in combat except in the direst of circumstances. Secondly, it associates the axe with Thor, even though Thor is far more associated with his hammer Mjolnir than with any axe. In fact, very few gods are directly associated with axes. Thirdly, it doesn't address the massive importance of spears to Viking Age formation warfare; spears were the foundation of all battlefield tactics, whereas the axe was merely a personal weapon. Where other gods wield swords, hammers, and rarely axes, All-Father Odin wields a spear. Nobody is arguing that axes weren't common and effective weapons. But they weren't foundational to Viking Age warfare the way spears are. As in both earlier and later periods, a battle axe in the Viking Age was a side weapon, something you'd wear on your belt for occasions when close combat became necessary. Swords served much the same purpose. For fighting in formation on a battlefield, the spear was overwhelmingly dominant.
I have to check on that. I was born and raised in a region of Finland that according to a local legend kicked viking a$$. I had an article of that incident that was on our local newspaper some 30 years ago. I can just picture in my mind these caveman like hillbillies, waking up drunk/hangover, to some vikings boating past their village and gettin pi$$ed off of the noise so much that they sink the boats and beat the sh!t out of the vikings, followed by more drinking, because Finland. My buddies in Finland still have the article framed. I've been living in USA for the past 20 years or so, but still proud of my heritage, perkele!
@@jten1116 It is very likely that they, or at least the men of the highest ranking in the area, went on raids themselves. It's a misconception that people were either raiders or victims. The law at the time was pretty much "It's only yours if you can defend it". And alcohol distillation wasn't common until some 300 years later, so they would have been drinking mead and ale like everyone else. It's not until the Russian occupation that Finland developed a vodka culture (which is a perfectly valid reaction to Russian occupation if you ask me). Yes, I'm fun at parties :P
@@andersjjensenSahti-drink is about 2000years old invention. But they did not drink all the time, more like couple times a year during festival time...
I am german, Brittas boyfriend, ln my swabian homeregion in nearly every village , especially when the name ends with -ingen, graves of our allemanic ancestors have been found. Depending on warriors wealth, you can find blades of seaxes and spathas, axeheads, and speartips, lesser arrow tips. Helmets or armour are rather rare, but shield bosses very common. For the case, some readers of my comment want to visit Waffen( weapons)museum Oberndorf am Neckar ( Mauser, Heckler & Koch, Feinwerkbau, Königlich Württembergische Waffenfabrik), pllease visit also the Heimatmuseum (Homeregion museum). It is in the same building, you can visit both museums with the same ticket. In Heimatmuseum there are the allemannic weapons relicts, found next Oberndorf.
@@marietteestabrook4098 : Is in those areas of Germany ,which had been in time of Imperium Romanum the roman provinces Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Rhaetia nothing uncommon. For example in region Ellwangen/ Aalen you can walk for kilometers along former fortified border Limes, similar to Hadrians Wall. Was formerly a stonewall , the relict is a well visible little rampart (?) ,covered with many bushes. Strange (???) coincidence: In Aalen once a large roman cavallry unit Ala had its fortified barracks. A note: In english wall means a wall of stones, bricks or concrete, in german a Wall is made of wood, earth or sandbags. And in addition to Roman relicts, alemannic relicts , my homeregion has relicts of celtic fortifications/ Towns, inform yourself about Heidengraben, Heuneburg or Ipf. But thats not all, there are dozens of medieval Castle Locations. So finding relicts, being very old is in european countries nothing unusual. A huge problem are this Treasury hunters with metal detectors, this criminals destroy historical sites for their greed for historical items, they make historical sites often worthless for serious scientists.
Definitely one of the coolest episodes here. Only thing I'd ask be added to it would be - if there are any who do it - a smith who specializes in forging new swords like these, using the original methods if they are known. What's especially cool here is that it seems the decorations on the sword pommels served as a kind of personal heraldry for their owners.
There are plenty of channels who forge things as traditional as possible. There's always going to be someone who has to complain "that specific hammer head wasn't made a bazillion years ago tho" who can kill the fun in the comments. Iliya made a viking style sword as traditional as possible even going so far as to have an iron Puck smelted from rudimentary stuff and all. I believe that video was in the channel "AWE me" or "Man at Arms" or something like that before he and another guy went and started the channel "That Works". I suggest you watch Iliya work in ANY of those channels because it is really interesting stuff.
Have you heard of the mastermyr find? Black bear forge on CZcams has a couple videos making anvils and hammers based on this find out of a Viking archaeological site, but he doesn't make swords. I would look up the mastermyr find for more content related to authentic tools, weapons, materials and methods.
thors forge, a swede makes viking era swords, dane axes, spears etc, highly skilled, and every one that has bought one of his dane axes are giving rave reviews. He uses both modern steel, and goes bog hunting for iron ore to make it in the traditional way, but with power hammers and modern heat treatment to save time and labor. The more historically accurate you want it, the more expensive it gets for obvious reasons. He has a youtube channel if you like to check him out.
The only Viking blade I've ever seen in person was one of the Type X Ulfberht blades when it came to Denver. Absolutely gorgeous, heavy steel quillion and oversized rectangular pommel, in shockingly good condition with virtually no delamination. Really happy Ian's covering this sort of material, discussing the who, what and where of sword-making a millennia ago.
There are several hundreds of swords found in Finland, and more are earthen as metal detecting hobbyists grow in number-including some of those most famous swords. In Finnish media archaeologist, author and blacksmith Mikko Moilanen is often the person, who has been interviewed about the swords found in Finland. The National Museum of Finland might give a private tour too, who knows. They have in their collections E.g. The Suontaka Sword and this ring-sword: "Collections of the National Museum of Finland: Sword from Pappilanmäki, Eura". Thinking of bladed weapons topic, in Finland there are also puukkos, which have their own history and collections.
"Forgotten Weapons, not Forgotten Guns" was my first thought, when this ep. showed up. Very cool. I hope we get to see more of stuff like that, even if it means "episodes that have nothing for Ian to play with". 😉 Thanks, Ian.
at first I thought I was tripping, then I clicked. Its good seeing a modern weapons channel cover pre firearm era weapons. This just gives me Tod's Workshop, Skallagrim, Metatron and Shadiversity vibes
Not only is the back drop beautiful but the culture that produced these incredible relics is a fascinating life of the past that still has a very wide impact on the world culture
What I found wonderful about Iceland, was that everyone spoke English at least this well. It was easy and fun to engage with lots of light-hearted people.
Its easy to think that forgotten weapons is all about guns, but this video reminds us that it isnt! A thumbs up for the Island museum staff that told us some of their history!
These swords are probably more powerful to witness in person. One must certainly feel the energy eminating from them, and to think these swords still exist is unimaginably complex.
Excellent video, would like to see you tread this path a bit more often. You have an ideal "in" with the friends you've made at the likes of the Royal Armouries Museums. May take a little practice to do a "quiver dump" at the end of any archery videos though. 🏹😆
Love Love Love the fact youve done a video on ancient swords of the Viking Era absolutely fascinating thank you Ian and thank you Armann & Reynir for your brilliant knowledge!
It's interesting how we've come to believe that this channel is only supposed to do firearms when in reality videos like this are fitting the channel name just as much - if not more - than videos about 20 year old guns from small, obscure countries such as "Germany" or "USA". Kudos, this is a really great video, and kudos to the friendly Viking from the museum showing us his ancestors' forgotten weapons.
I've been scrolling forever and I haven't found a single comment complaining about the video not being on firearms. Only people defending it. Im pretty sure 99.99% and Ian's fans are fans of weapons and history I general, I don't see his viewers getting upset about him discussing weapons outside of firearms.
On top to this, listening patiently and letting those whose first language isn't English to feel comfortable to articulate the best they can and share their thoughts. Bravo
Very cool! And a very rich field for you to dig into, Ian- I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d be fascinated to see more! Swords, battle axes, polearms, etc… even shields could be weapons!
Ian! WOW man nice job here. I think you really have a great idea venturing into other kinds of weapons. Most of the worlds forgotten weapons arent even guns! Thankyou for this one Ian incredible work my man
Been listening to this channel for years. Loved the videos on craft weapons and conversion of home made guns using sten magazines. So cool to see a branching out of gun topics. If you ever cover “Hammer” axes from the beaker culture or earlier that would be pretty cool. Although my tree of life is different, there is a lot of similarities in runes, warfare and religion with the Ash tree. Older yet we used to gift our weapons to the sea or water. Mainly I was told by my father to preserve them for the next ice age. Didn’t believe a lot of his teachings until genome testing. Cool that Iceland has such diverse genetic origins. Even if the Irish monks didn’t like the uncouth barbarians and left. “Arth Wen or Isbjorn” is my nickname but I’m just a part time nerd. Love the content Ian, keep it up!
6:07 In the 10th century, an English bishop wrote, that all good iron in England came from Wilandisdorp (today Wilnsdorf, Kreis Siegen). Wieland (Velent, Völund, engl.: Wayland) is acc. Germanic mythology a master blacksmith who forged the swords Mimung and Balmung.
When I saw the title I had to check that the date wasn't April 1st and when he mentioned the rock it made me laugh :-D Very interesting video, more of this please, if you get the chance.
If you can bring on a sword/melee weapons guy full time at some point that would be awesome. This can be a complete historic weapons education channel.
Wonderful account of the Peaceloving Icelandic Farmers doing recreational honor building. MANY THANKS for introducing us to the excellent curator and his work. We are hearing much about the Norse travellers in this distant past. Much seems to have depended on their iron working skills. Seems to have been proven now that the first Europeans in N America were Vikings. There are reports that they made bog iron in their Labrador settlements - to renew the iron nails in their boats - and thus get home. Versatile improvisers is the Take Away I get from this. An unusual episode but very welcome. I wonder what ancient items the UK Royal Armories has in storage ? (Broad Hint there Ian & Jonathan). Good luck to Icelandic Archaeolgy in their systematic search for pre christian burial sites. Fascinating Country and more power to it's people. (from 🇬🇧)
Eric the Red was expelled from Norway to Iceland over an armed dispute with his neighbours. His son Lief Erickson was similarly excluded over a similar dispute in Iceland.
@@allangibson8494 Were they the same family legend has it 'discovered' Vinland ?? Legends often have a lot of truth in them. EG, the Sunstone crystal.(Iceland Spar ) I got hold of one and it really works.
He’s really the gold standard when it comes to swords, and he also knows a fair bit about black powder firearms. Some collab on 16th-19th weapons, including firearms, swords, pikes etc. would be very cool
@@AGS363 Shadiversity is a moron, sorry to say. Just like we shouldn’t discredit the work of people based on their views, we also shouldn’t credit people for their work based on their views. Shad is an ignorant charlatan, regardless of me actually agreeing more with him than Matt politically. I only see people supporting Shad because he’s “not woke”, never because of his knowledge of history and archaelogy (which is non existant).
This is awesome fun. Reminds me of a book I purchased decades ago, it was about Small Arms. Small Arms to me are our firearms but the book prefaced ancient civilization, different age weapons until the modern times. There are real forgotten weapons more than out muskets.
This was very interesting! There is a lot of interesting history regarding all kind of weapons and you've got a very good flair for presenting and telling the history in a good and interesting way. Thanks a lot!
Ian, this was extremely interesting and entertaining. Enjoyed it very much. One of your best. Please do more of these on this subject and with the Scandinavian people. A+
One of the most interesting and enlightening videos Ian has done in a long time. An insight in to the cultural use of 'forgotten weapons' - really excellent.
“Using one of these left-handed is not as much of a problem for the user as you might think. Against a right-handed opponent it can be an advantage if they haven’t fought a lefty before. But to keep things fair, today I will be competing against my guest, the Sinistral Rifleman.”
18:13 "Away from his arms in the field, a man should fare not a foot, for never he knows when the need for a spear shall arise on the distant road". My absolute favorite stanza in the Havamal.
Really interesting topic! If possible I really would love to see the suontaka viking sword in a video. Please make more these kinds of videos. Thank you.
remarkable that we have as much as we have, mostly it`s small bits of bronze, silver and gold jewelry, because iron and steel rust away in the harsh climate. It needs particular surroundings, like oxygen deprived clay covering the site etc.
Great episode! Please cover more alternative or pre-firearm weapons as you find them. Crossbows, bows, edged weapons of all types are very interesting. Thank you.
Great video. Bit surprised they didn't talk about the construction of the swords or the one account from the sagas (iirc, Egil's) where in the middle of the fight both sides paused to straighten their swords. I highly recommend Lee Sauder's work on the construction techniques. As a blacksmith, and viking living history nerd, his solution exactly replicates the manufacturing artifacts of original swords.
The best swords were generally Spanish of Frankish import and were very expensive. A sword could cost the equivalent of 16 cows, according to Icelandic sources, so it was a weapon for the wealthy. Many other swords were sub par, and there are several sources telling of swords breaking during dueling.
While I'm normally her for the pews, I do appreciate videos on the pokes. I really enjoyed hearing about how the culture dictated duels, because understanding their culture really helps explain their tools.
So the Vikings worked with steel that wasn't as clean as European Toledo steel. Their little improvised clay forges couldn't go the temperatures of the Japanese and they didn't fold the steel, but they twisted it instead. Twisting it kinda worked, but it was so rough there were actual little lumps of coal in there. That steel was not very good, but it stopped their weapons splitting down their length and that was good enough.
There's an episode of PBS' Nova called "Secrets of the Viking Sword" that postulates some swords were made of steel acquired at the end of the trade routes in India, with a brand name hammered into the blade. There were even knockoffs with the name misspelled.
@@moosemaimer Was the brand Ulfberth, perhaps? Wikipedia: "Ulfberht swords were made during a period when European swords were still predominantly pattern welded ("false Damascus"),[7][8] but with larger blooms of steel gradually becoming available, so that higher quality swords made after AD 1000 are increasingly likely to have crucible steel blades. The group of Ulfberht swords includes a wide spectrum of steel and production methods[....] _Another example appears to have been made from high-quality hypoeutectoid steel possibly imported from _*_Central Asia._*_ [9]."_ Interesting that you mention India because, IIRC, pre-war Imperial Japan struggled quite a bit with producing high-quality steel and had become very reliant on India's export of pig-iron, especially after USA embargo'd it (along with vital HQuality scrap-iron, cuz of Imp. Japan's rampage in China. This embargo happened prior to the oil embargo, IIRC).
This is very cool and extremely interesting. Hearing that the swords used had "spatula" tips, and not used for piercing, is very interesting to me. Great project.
In a parallel universe, this channel is completely focused on swords, and this is the first video about a pistol
Shadiversity doing a video on a gun lol
@@TheWraith1413 Shadiversity's a LARPer, you'd need someone more scholarly for this joke. Matt Easton, maybe? 😁
@@TheHalflingLadMatt does gun videos sometimes
This isn't actually Ian's first Sword video though.
Exactly
How I wish all CZcams history were done like this. No irritating background music, no hyperbole, no reconstructions, just learned people talking about their subjects, admitting they don't know everything, but sharing their huge depth of knowledge and their passion for the subject with us. Superb, absolutely superb, video, thank you.
History Squad is like that
You say that, until someone fanarts the Museum Curator as Sword Thor of something like that.
@@slashes22Okay, now we need a sword Thor. Skallagrim has said many times that he’s not the sword equivalent of Gun Jesus despite looking the part of sword Thor, and so have all of the other sword tubers I can think of including perhaps the best qualified, Tod Cutler.
Any other candidates?
@@markfergerson2145how about sword superman
Checkout robinswords
Yes, I like that they only report what they know with little conjecture and no guessing.
Well done!
Its a weapon so forgotten we forgot not only guns count as weapons
Next video talking about the Samurai's blade
Damn Caesar, you're right.
Yup
U.K. wants to ban "assault" kitchen knives. Everything can be a weapon. I was suspend for 2 days in grade school, for having an "assault" paper clip...
Hey not me man lol. Swords are part of my loadout.
0:15 my brain registered that as "authentic viking-age AKs" at first
A relic of the Wars of the Ragnarok.
@@samuelmendoza9356 More like a relic of the Aesir-Vanir War. Ragnarok hasn’t happened yet.
Finno-Korean Hyperwar relic
Pretty sure those are called Norse crossbows
@@fridrekr7510The vikings are gone so maybe it has..
"Couldn't find a cool rock to show you":
I love the Icelandic humour! :)
They do have a rather good sense of sarcasm.
Considering how much of Iceland consists of rock, much of it molten…
@@markfergerson2145 well, molten rock is definitely not cool!
@@markfergerson2145Lava-thrower ?
@@markfergerson2145 You could own a chunk of lava for home defence, but there was a mandatory 14 day cooling-off period...
I'll get my coat.
Finally we got there. Waiting for magical artefacts now
+4 Frost Damage, when fighting on snow-covered ground.
A +5 Vorpal Sword would be great. 😎👍
@@lancerevell5979 best enchantment
"Now this is a really unusual Blade Of Westernesse, with a really interesting provenance. You'll have noticed some damage to the blade..."
Did someone say [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker] ?
"Next up on Forgotten Weapons, we have a fine selection of Icelandic Rocks."
LOL 🤣🤣🤣
LET'S GOOOOOOOO!
Well he did do the April Fools Day video about a rock a few years back, so it's not completely outside the realm of possibility.
The problem with rocks that were used in combat in Iceland during the Viking age, is that most of them are at the bottom of the sea in Húnaflói, Northen Iceland. That is the only real large scale sea battle (strangely enough) that was ever fought in Iceland.
There were other instances where rocks were assembled to be used in battle, for example Borgarvirki the only siege in Iceland. But since the defenders were able to trick the attackers into thinking they were far better supplied then they really were, the attackers decided to give up and go home, so no actual battle took place.
So any rocks that were not used, were just repurposed for building later.
You know, having thrown a few rocks myself, I wouldn’t mind hearing a specialist in the field talk about the best size, shape, weight and composition of rocks for throwing. The thrown rock is allegedly our oldest weapon after all.
A surprise but a welcome one for sure!
get out of here palpatine
@@sebastienlopez165excuse you, his name is “The Senate”
@@sillygoose7646 yes please don't order 66 me
I am so here for sword arc Ian. You might want to look into Ulfberht swords. The first brand of weapons to be faked, that we know of.
Edit: I spelled Ulfberht wrong, Old Frankish is hard, yo.
Yes, immediately thought of Ulfberth too. Actually there are still "Ulfberth" swords made today... 😅
Agree, now I guess people faked wine back in Rome and probably much earlier.
And copyright or patents was not an thing, but the Ulfberth swords might be the first weapon brand.
I've got an 'Awaguchi Ikkanshi Tadatsuna' branded kozuka knife from about the late 18th century. The brand is still produced in Japan today, and the period knives were so heavily and successfully faked that few experts would even hazard a guess as to whether one was 'real.' I expect the first brand-name forgery is exactly as old as the first brand name!
"Ulfberht" not "Ulfberth".
@@andersjjensen oop, thats my b, corrected it
Buried in Pagan grave for centuries? That’s a forgotten weapon alright
Weren't worth desigrating the grave for
@@Puffball-ll1ly Not a chance. This guy is the most popular dude in Valhalla today. His bros are buying him drinks even though the mead free and infinite.
@@Puffball-ll1ly : In my swabian homeregion in nearly every village graves of allemanic persons from 3th to 6th/ 7th century had been found, those grave items tradition of non christian reason ended in 7th century, noblemen practiced this after adoption of christianity some time longer than commoners. Those graves, sometimes large graveyards, are mostly found , when there are large constitution works, for example a new complex of houses, a new rsliway line or similar things. In many cases the use of old pagan graveyards ended, when churches had been build, and christian graveyards are , or had been until few decades ago, arround church. So with christianity the nonchrisrian gravesites had been forgotten, and are found now by coincience. Sometimes it also happens, that when old churches are enlarged, modernized or renovated, a grave with items is found. Assumingly the grave of a nobleman, who switched to christianity, ordered to build First church, but was burried in germannic tradition.
@@Puffball-ll1lyordinarily I agree but you can't own all land forever. People have existed for thousands of years and yet people only see/care abo5 normal graveyards from the past 100 years. Being buried somewhere shouldn't condemn it for human occupation forever.
🚫 Yeah, but this sword was originally owned by my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great(x3) grandfather....... ^He handed down a scroll that described in detail how this particular pagan Viking stole it from him! He made it clear in his will that he expected later generations to ensure that its returneded to our family where it belongs.
Honestly, I’d love a series on the weapons of the Aztecs.
The atlatl is one I find interesting, and the shields look beautiful in the manuscripts.
Just sayin' the atl-atl predates human occupation of the New World.
yessss these's some folks today who still practice the art of making them and Ian talking with someone like that would be awesome
Yup, it'd be awesome to see Ian reviewing a macuahuitil and a tecpatl. 😎👍
@@ragingjaguarknight86 oh yeah, the atlatl is impressive, but hardly Aztec exclusive, while I don't think we have any evidence of anyone else using embedded flint/obsidian for swords.
@leonardo.1024 No, not an atlatl ( but that would be cool) but a tecpatl. A flint knife, basically.
"Matt Easton here, from Forgotten Weapons and I'm Ian McCollum from Schola Gladiatoria"
The crossover I didn't know I needed.
Matt has been talking about those dueling pistols lately....
*These are a few of my favorite thiiings* 🎶🎵
Fantastic video!
A most excellent video!
To explain about the tip thing.
The Spatula tip actually cuts through cloth and flesh as you stab through with it and does this quite well. It's not so good at piercing maille or plate, for that a pointy tip is better. So cutting more than thrusting oriented but vs soft armor it can do it.
The rounded tip can be used to do a cast blow that hits with the tip (a percussive tip shot rather than a normal cut in a way that is good at defeating cloth armor.
Probably on Iceland at this age maille was not common but wearing heavy clothing was, due to the weather. So the spatula tip is optimal for a sword.
The spatula tip was common in Scandinavia at the time as well but there were sharp tipped swords also used.
Maille was better defeated by a Spear anyway.
That's a strangely interesting point. Odds are swords were sort of an "EDC" and would face cloth frequently, while if battle called you would reach for a spear, less easy to carry, with better range and penetration.
remember its quicker to switch to your bearded axe than resharpen your sword
More like it's quicker to switch to your sword than go running back to get a new spear. Swords and axes were both side weapons; the primary weapon of the era was usually a polearm like a spear or longaxe.
@@yetanother9127 true
I_understood_that_reference.jpg
@@FreiherrDinkelacker
No, the main weapon of most vikings was a spear, which uses even less metal than an axe. Also, viking battle axes were definitely not used as tools, they have very different geometry than any cutting or splitting axe (battle axes were thinner, sharper and lighter than tools)
@@FreiherrDinkelacker That quote is from the retail website Horns of Glory, which is not an academic source; it is a commercial operation whose business model is to sell fantasy "Viking" tchotchkes to people who can't tell a thegn from a seidkonur. The claims it makes are highly suspect for several reasons.
Firstly, it treats wood axes and battle axes as the same. In reality, battle axes were purpose-built weapons with much thinner blades that wouldn't be suitable for chopping wood, and a wood axe would be much too heavy and unwieldy to be use in combat except in the direst of circumstances.
Secondly, it associates the axe with Thor, even though Thor is far more associated with his hammer Mjolnir than with any axe. In fact, very few gods are directly associated with axes.
Thirdly, it doesn't address the massive importance of spears to Viking Age formation warfare; spears were the foundation of all battlefield tactics, whereas the axe was merely a personal weapon. Where other gods wield swords, hammers, and rarely axes, All-Father Odin wields a spear.
Nobody is arguing that axes weren't common and effective weapons. But they weren't foundational to Viking Age warfare the way spears are. As in both earlier and later periods, a battle axe in the Viking Age was a side weapon, something you'd wear on your belt for occasions when close combat became necessary. Swords served much the same purpose. For fighting in formation on a battlefield, the spear was overwhelmingly dominant.
Mikko Moilanen has done a lot of research about Viking age swords in Finland and has at least one book about them which I own. Can highly recommend!
I have to check on that. I was born and raised in a region of Finland that according to a local legend kicked viking a$$. I had an article of that incident that was on our local newspaper some 30 years ago. I can just picture in my mind these caveman like hillbillies, waking up drunk/hangover, to some vikings boating past their village and gettin pi$$ed off of the noise so much that they sink the boats and beat the sh!t out of the vikings, followed by more drinking, because Finland.
My buddies in Finland still have the article framed. I've been living in USA for the past 20 years or so, but still proud of my heritage, perkele!
@@jten1116 It is very likely that they, or at least the men of the highest ranking in the area, went on raids themselves. It's a misconception that people were either raiders or victims. The law at the time was pretty much "It's only yours if you can defend it".
And alcohol distillation wasn't common until some 300 years later, so they would have been drinking mead and ale like everyone else. It's not until the Russian occupation that Finland developed a vodka culture (which is a perfectly valid reaction to Russian occupation if you ask me).
Yes, I'm fun at parties :P
@@andersjjensenSahti-drink is about 2000years old invention.
But they did not drink all the time, more like couple times a year during festival time...
Interestingly, there are more than 400 viking swords found from Finland although Finland was not ethnically "viking" as such.
@@basillicus3959 A large part of Finland, as the bordres stand today, is old Swedish territory (and they have a large Swedish speaking minority).
I am german, Brittas boyfriend, ln my swabian homeregion in nearly every village , especially when the name ends with -ingen, graves of our allemanic ancestors have been found. Depending on warriors wealth, you can find blades of seaxes and spathas, axeheads, and speartips, lesser arrow tips. Helmets or armour are rather rare, but shield bosses very common. For the case, some readers of my comment want to visit Waffen( weapons)museum Oberndorf am Neckar ( Mauser, Heckler & Koch, Feinwerkbau, Königlich Württembergische Waffenfabrik), pllease visit also the Heimatmuseum (Homeregion museum). It is in the same building, you can visit both museums with the same ticket. In Heimatmuseum there are the allemannic weapons relicts, found next Oberndorf.
Grüße aus Tuttlingen 🙂
@@MikeUSA67 : Wohne im Raum Stuttgart, und da sind solche Schwertklingen nun wirklich nichts ungewöhnliches.
@@brittakriep2938 Bei uns haben sie vor ca. 2 Jahren eine Neubausiedlung gestoppt, weil sie was römisches gefunden haben 🙂
Ooooo Something Roman? How novel!
@@marietteestabrook4098 : Is in those areas of Germany ,which had been in time of Imperium Romanum the roman provinces Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Rhaetia nothing uncommon. For example in region Ellwangen/ Aalen you can walk for kilometers along former fortified border Limes, similar to Hadrians Wall. Was formerly a stonewall , the relict is a well visible little rampart (?) ,covered with many bushes. Strange (???) coincidence: In Aalen once a large roman cavallry unit Ala had its fortified barracks. A note: In english wall means a wall of stones, bricks or concrete, in german a Wall is made of wood, earth or sandbags. And in addition to Roman relicts, alemannic relicts , my homeregion has relicts of celtic fortifications/ Towns, inform yourself about Heidengraben, Heuneburg or Ipf. But thats not all, there are dozens of medieval Castle Locations. So finding relicts, being very old is in european countries nothing unusual. A huge problem are this Treasury hunters with metal detectors, this criminals destroy historical sites for their greed for historical items, they make historical sites often worthless for serious scientists.
I know he's describing the way historical judicial duels were fought, but that's basically turn-based RPG mechanics there.
Building up that limit break meter!
Definitely one of the coolest episodes here. Only thing I'd ask be added to it would be - if there are any who do it - a smith who specializes in forging new swords like these, using the original methods if they are known.
What's especially cool here is that it seems the decorations on the sword pommels served as a kind of personal heraldry for their owners.
There are plenty of channels who forge things as traditional as possible. There's always going to be someone who has to complain "that specific hammer head wasn't made a bazillion years ago tho" who can kill the fun in the comments. Iliya made a viking style sword as traditional as possible even going so far as to have an iron Puck smelted from rudimentary stuff and all. I believe that video was in the channel "AWE me" or "Man at Arms" or something like that before he and another guy went and started the channel "That Works".
I suggest you watch Iliya work in ANY of those channels because it is really interesting stuff.
Have you heard of the mastermyr find? Black bear forge on CZcams has a couple videos making anvils and hammers based on this find out of a Viking archaeological site, but he doesn't make swords. I would look up the mastermyr find for more content related to authentic tools, weapons, materials and methods.
@@brightblack0CZcams probably wouldn’t allow a demonstration of sword smithing.
People might start making ghost swords…
@@markfergerson2145They do though. That Works, Yasha Yukawa, Taro Asano, Man At Arms, Alec Steele, Forged in Fire etc. are all on youtube
thors forge, a swede makes viking era swords, dane axes, spears etc, highly skilled, and every one that has bought one of his dane axes are giving rave reviews. He uses both modern steel, and goes bog hunting for iron ore to make it in the traditional way, but with power hammers and modern heat treatment to save time and labor. The more historically accurate you want it, the more expensive it gets for obvious reasons. He has a youtube channel if you like to check him out.
ian hittin us with the "Today, we have a very special episode"
The only Viking blade I've ever seen in person was one of the Type X Ulfberht blades when it came to Denver. Absolutely gorgeous, heavy steel quillion and oversized rectangular pommel, in shockingly good condition with virtually no delamination. Really happy Ian's covering this sort of material, discussing the who, what and where of sword-making a millennia ago.
Cant wait for him to start showcasing crossbows.
If only!
"let me show you its features"... Oh, sorry, wrong channel :)
That would be awesome!
Oh hell yeah. Give me the weird stuff. Way more interesting than "Random AK knockoff that looks just like a normal AK"
Never clicked on a video so fast
Me neither lol
Ditto!
I hope Ian talks about swords more in the future as well! From the Arabian to Persian all the way to Japanese and Southeast Asian blades!
There are several hundreds of swords found in Finland, and more are earthen as metal detecting hobbyists grow in number-including some of those most famous swords. In Finnish media archaeologist, author and blacksmith Mikko Moilanen is often the person, who has been interviewed about the swords found in Finland. The National Museum of Finland might give a private tour too, who knows. They have in their collections E.g. The Suontaka Sword and this ring-sword: "Collections of the National Museum of Finland: Sword from Pappilanmäki, Eura". Thinking of bladed weapons topic, in Finland there are also puukkos, which have their own history and collections.
"Forgotten Weapons, not Forgotten Guns" was my first thought, when this ep. showed up. Very cool. I hope we get to see more of stuff like that, even if it means "episodes that have nothing for Ian to play with". 😉
Thanks, Ian.
at first I thought I was tripping, then I clicked. Its good seeing a modern weapons channel cover pre firearm era weapons. This just gives me Tod's Workshop, Skallagrim, Metatron and Shadiversity vibes
shad? how is this video in any way comparable to that lolcow larper?
Not only is the back drop beautiful but the culture that produced these incredible relics is a fascinating life of the past that still has a very wide impact on the world culture
A nice change of pace. Nice to hear from Ármann Guðmundsson, and Reynir Óskarsson.
"That's a heavy knife."
"That knife is supposed to be heavy!"
nákvæmlega
What I found wonderful about Iceland, was that everyone spoke English at least this well. It was easy and fun to engage with lots of light-hearted people.
25 min..... wish this one was an hour and 25 min...... great video thank you
Outstanding information- history, usage, and general things.
More like this !!!
You're onto something good, keep it rolling
forgotten weapons was onto something good almost 20 years ago, thats why its still here :)
@@thepjup4507 You just replied to a bot.
SILENCE, ASSBOT!!!
Its easy to think that forgotten weapons is all about guns, but this video reminds us that it isnt!
A thumbs up for the Island museum staff that told us some of their history!
These swords are probably more powerful to witness in person. One must certainly feel the energy eminating from them, and to think these swords still exist is unimaginably complex.
Excellent video, would like to see you tread this path a bit more often. You have an ideal "in" with the friends you've made at the likes of the Royal Armouries Museums. May take a little practice to do a "quiver dump" at the end of any archery videos though. 🏹😆
Quiver dump, that's funny. I'm still laughing 5 minutes later....
A splendid video and a wonderful example of collaborative work with museum professionals. Thank you very much!
Their duelling sounds insane! Would be interested to hear more about how it worked.
i love gun jesus for truly deferring to an expert and listening intently. prompts, but does not try to talk over his guests. a thoughtful man.
Love Love Love the fact youve done a video on ancient swords of the Viking Era absolutely fascinating thank you Ian and thank you Armann & Reynir for your brilliant knowledge!
It's interesting how we've come to believe that this channel is only supposed to do firearms when in reality videos like this are fitting the channel name just as much - if not more - than videos about 20 year old guns from small, obscure countries such as "Germany" or "USA".
Kudos, this is a really great video, and kudos to the friendly Viking from the museum showing us his ancestors' forgotten weapons.
I've been scrolling forever and I haven't found a single comment complaining about the video not being on firearms. Only people defending it. Im pretty sure 99.99% and Ian's fans are fans of weapons and history I general, I don't see his viewers getting upset about him discussing weapons outside of firearms.
As much as I like firearms, it was really cool to see swords. It'd be cool to wxplore other weapons like bows, slings, etc.
This is an excellent episode!
A follow up on how they used rocks as weapons would be really interesting
I am literally in the process of making a langseax. Thank you for this
Excellent history lesson. Thanks, Ian. 👍 May we expect more videos focused on rocks as forgotten weapons and the cultures that employed them?
Ian really showing his interview chops here; really good open ended questions to bring out more information. Great video
On top to this, listening patiently and letting those whose first language isn't English to feel comfortable to articulate the best they can and share their thoughts. Bravo
I'd love to see more swords covered if possible please. This was absolutely fascinating.
Very cool! And a very rich field for you to dig into, Ian- I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d be fascinated to see more! Swords, battle axes, polearms, etc… even shields could be weapons!
Too rich? Very much studied in the last 200 years with the surface only scratched.
I saw the Viking sword and thought "Well, it is weapons not just guns. How's Ian going to present this one?"
Ian! WOW man nice job here. I think you really have a great idea venturing into other kinds of weapons. Most of the worlds forgotten weapons arent even guns! Thankyou for this one Ian incredible work my man
I love this. It’s a change up from the normal content but still welcome. Any videos on old non firearms would be super interesting
Can't wait for Ian to review the tesseract
I love Viking history. Very important to understanding northern Europe.
“The Last Kingdom “ series is a must if any of you haven’t seen it.
Death...
Death is coming....
Death is coming...
DEATH IS COMING!!!
GRAB YOUR SWORDS!!!
Incredible scene from season 2 episode 6.
Been listening to this channel for years. Loved the videos on craft weapons and conversion of home made guns using sten magazines.
So cool to see a branching out of gun topics.
If you ever cover “Hammer” axes from the beaker culture or earlier that would be pretty cool. Although my tree of life is different, there is a lot of similarities in runes, warfare and religion with the Ash tree.
Older yet we used to gift our weapons to the sea or water. Mainly I was told by my father to preserve them for the next ice age. Didn’t believe a lot of his teachings until genome testing. Cool that Iceland has such diverse genetic origins. Even if the Irish monks didn’t like the uncouth barbarians and left.
“Arth Wen or Isbjorn” is my nickname but I’m just a part time nerd.
Love the content Ian, keep it up!
We got swords now! Hell yeah!
6:07 In the 10th century, an English bishop wrote, that all good iron in England came from Wilandisdorp (today Wilnsdorf, Kreis Siegen). Wieland (Velent, Völund, engl.: Wayland) is acc. Germanic mythology a master blacksmith who forged the swords Mimung and Balmung.
When I saw the title I had to check that the date wasn't April 1st and when he mentioned the rock it made me laugh :-D
Very interesting video, more of this please, if you get the chance.
The first weapon, closely followed by the fire-hardened pointed stick and eventually the sling.
Ian should do more episodes dedicated to swords, shields, javelins, spears, crossbows... hence fully earning the title Forgotten Weapons.
Awesome.
As a medieval reenactor, I'm always thrilled to see someone showing originals
I love hearing you talk about guns but this is the video I've always been waiting for! This is perfect more please!
A very cool video! I've been collecting replica swords for years, bit have only one "Viking sword".
I really like the idea of presenting more weapons from before the Advent of modern firearms
If you can bring on a sword/melee weapons guy full time at some point that would be awesome.
This can be a complete historic weapons education channel.
Wonderful account of the Peaceloving Icelandic Farmers doing recreational honor building. MANY THANKS for introducing us to the excellent curator and his work. We are hearing much about the Norse travellers in this distant past. Much seems to have depended on their iron working skills. Seems to have been proven now that the first Europeans in N America were Vikings. There are reports that they made bog iron in their Labrador settlements - to renew the iron nails in their boats - and thus get home. Versatile improvisers is the Take Away I get from this. An unusual episode but very welcome. I wonder what ancient items the UK Royal Armories has in storage ? (Broad Hint there Ian & Jonathan).
Good luck to Icelandic Archaeolgy in their systematic search for pre christian burial sites. Fascinating Country and more power to it's people. (from 🇬🇧)
Eric the Red was expelled from Norway to Iceland over an armed dispute with his neighbours. His son Lief Erickson was similarly excluded over a similar dispute in Iceland.
@@allangibson8494 Were they the same family legend has it 'discovered' Vinland ??
Legends often have a lot of truth in them. EG, the Sunstone crystal.(Iceland Spar )
I got hold of one and it really works.
@@causewaykayak Yes - exactly those guys. They had a “history” of violent neighbourhood disputes leading to a number of deaths on both sides.
@@allangibson8494 Thank you for that.❤
Ive been waiting for something like this for years! Ian you're awesome!
I’m absolutely down to see the channel expand beyond firearms into all weapons of all types
The fact that these are still as intact as they are is mind-blowing
Ok, are you watching this Matt Easton? It's about time for a colab with Schola Gladiatoria, Ian. Some of us have been waiting for this for ages...
He’s really the gold standard when it comes to swords, and he also knows a fair bit about black powder firearms. Some collab on 16th-19th weapons, including firearms, swords, pikes etc. would be very cool
Well Drachinifel has shown up at Matt Easton's shed, a couple times, and also a guest of Othias & Mae (C&Rsenal).
@@AGS363 shad doesn't really know anything historically.
@@AGS363 Shadiversity is a moron, sorry to say. Just like we shouldn’t discredit the work of people based on their views, we also shouldn’t credit people for their work based on their views. Shad is an ignorant charlatan, regardless of me actually agreeing more with him than Matt politically. I only see people supporting Shad because he’s “not woke”, never because of his knowledge of history and archaelogy (which is non existant).
@@AGS363 f*ck shad and his pseudo knowledge
Loved this. Thanks to all involved, very, very cool.
Excellent video. Loved seeing the swords themselves and then hearing about their use in Icelandic society.
This is awesome fun. Reminds me of a book I purchased decades ago, it was about Small Arms. Small Arms to me are our firearms but the book prefaced ancient civilization, different age weapons until the modern times. There are real forgotten weapons more than out muskets.
Very interesting episode!
This was very interesting! There is a lot of interesting history regarding all kind of weapons and you've got a very good flair for presenting and telling the history in a good and interesting way. Thanks a lot!
I can't believe i just watched 25 minutes of two guys talking about old swords.😂 Very interesting. Good video.
I truly appreciate this video. Happy you had such a wonderful opportunity.
Very cool! Please consider doing more of these types of videos.
Great video Ian. Thanks for covering this
Ian, this was extremely interesting and entertaining. Enjoyed it very much. One of your best. Please do more of these on this subject and with the Scandinavian people. A+
One of the most interesting and enlightening videos Ian has done in a long time. An insight in to the cultural use of 'forgotten weapons' - really excellent.
When can we expect a range day with these?
“Using one of these left-handed is not as much of a problem for the user as you might think. Against a right-handed opponent it can be an advantage if they haven’t fought a lefty before. But to keep things fair, today I will be competing against my guest, the Sinistral Rifleman.”
Collab with Shadiversity?..
@@ArcticNemo that guy is a tard
Hurstwic shout-out! That’s very cool!
This is awesome! Happy to see the channel branch out explore other weaponry.
18:13 "Away from his arms in the field, a man should fare not a foot, for never he knows when the need for a spear shall arise on the distant road". My absolute favorite stanza in the Havamal.
Really interesting topic!
If possible I really would love to see the suontaka viking sword in a video.
Please make more these kinds of videos.
Thank you.
And in our next video, Ian and Matt Easton from Scholagladiatoria will now disçuss the ballistic characteristics of early crossbows.
Ian will be the french crossbowman, and Matt the english longbowman.
Greetings from Iceland. I hope you enjoyed your stay here.
Definitely like the idea of sprinkling in cool and interesting medieval weapons going forward
Remarkable how few Viking artifacts we have found.
remarkable that we have as much as we have, mostly it`s small bits of bronze, silver and gold jewelry, because iron and steel rust away in the harsh climate. It needs particular surroundings, like oxygen deprived clay covering the site etc.
Great episode! Please cover more alternative or pre-firearm weapons as you find them. Crossbows, bows, edged weapons of all types are very interesting. Thank you.
This brings me back to writing college papers on Viking swords for my medievalism minor. Great stuff!
So cool!
I did not see this twist of direction comming. Giv us more Ian. 😎👍
An interesting change of pace on this channel. Wonder if you'd cover other ancient weapons forgotten by history at a later date?
Great video. Bit surprised they didn't talk about the construction of the swords or the one account from the sagas (iirc, Egil's) where in the middle of the fight both sides paused to straighten their swords.
I highly recommend Lee Sauder's work on the construction techniques. As a blacksmith, and viking living history nerd, his solution exactly replicates the manufacturing artifacts of original swords.
The best swords were generally Spanish of Frankish import and were very expensive. A sword could cost the equivalent of 16 cows, according to Icelandic sources, so it was a weapon for the wealthy. Many other swords were sub par, and there are several sources telling of swords breaking during dueling.
Superb looking collection in the background, lovely bindings there.
While I'm normally her for the pews, I do appreciate videos on the pokes. I really enjoyed hearing about how the culture dictated duels, because understanding their culture really helps explain their tools.
Awesome! Thank you for sharing Sir!! And 🍻SKÅL🍻⚔🫡
So the Vikings worked with steel that wasn't as clean as European Toledo steel. Their little improvised clay forges couldn't go the temperatures of the Japanese and they didn't fold the steel, but they twisted it instead. Twisting it kinda worked, but it was so rough there were actual little lumps of coal in there. That steel was not very good, but it stopped their weapons splitting down their length and that was good enough.
There's an episode of PBS' Nova called "Secrets of the Viking Sword" that postulates some swords were made of steel acquired at the end of the trade routes in India, with a brand name hammered into the blade. There were even knockoffs with the name misspelled.
@@moosemaimer
Was the brand Ulfberth, perhaps?
Wikipedia:
"Ulfberht swords were made during a period when European swords were still predominantly pattern welded ("false Damascus"),[7][8] but with larger blooms of steel gradually becoming available, so that higher quality swords made after AD 1000 are increasingly likely to have crucible steel blades. The group of Ulfberht swords includes a wide spectrum of steel and production methods[....] _Another example appears to have been made from high-quality hypoeutectoid steel possibly imported from _*_Central Asia._*_ [9]."_
Interesting that you mention India because, IIRC, pre-war Imperial Japan struggled quite a bit with producing high-quality steel and had become very reliant on India's export of pig-iron, especially after USA embargo'd it (along with vital HQuality scrap-iron, cuz of Imp. Japan's rampage in China. This embargo happened prior to the oil embargo, IIRC).
This is very cool and extremely interesting. Hearing that the swords used had "spatula" tips, and not used for piercing, is very interesting to me. Great project.
oh man i never thought there would be a video about the viking age swords and weapons from you but im all here for it