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Viking knife, based on the finds exhibited at Jorvik Viking Centre. Two distinct classes of knives were in use by Vikings. The more common one was a rather plain, single edge knife of normal construction, called a knifr. These are found in most graves, being the only weapon allowed for all, even slaves.
Vikings, according to Clare Downham in Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, are "people of Scandinavian culture who were active outside Scandinavia ... Danes, Norwegians, Swedish, Hiberno-Scandinavians, Anglo-Scandinavians, or the inhabitants of any Scandinavian colony who affiliated themselves more strongly with the culture of the colonizer than with that of the indigenous population."
The king of Mercia requested help from the king of Wessex to help fight the Vikings. A combined army from Wessex and Mercia besieged the city of Nottingham with no clear result, so the Mercians settled on paying the Vikings off. The Vikings returned to Northumbria in autumn 868 and overwintered in York, staying there for most of 869.
Sometimes a capable warrior volunteered to fight in the place of a clearly outclassed friend. The 13th-century Västgötalagen (Westrogothic law), is a fragment from a unknown late Viking Age law document from Västergötland , Sweden , which stipulates the conditions for a type of judicial duel , either referring to holmgang or einvigi (trial ...
Fear of the Franks led the Vikings to further expand Danevirke, [67] and the defence constructions remained in use throughout the Viking Age and even up until 1864. [ 68 ] The southern coast of the Baltic Sea was ruled by the Obotrites , a federation of Slavic tribes loyal to the Carolingians and later the Frankish empire .
The siege of Paris of 845 was the culmination of a Viking invasion of West Francia.The Viking forces were led by a Norse chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar, who tentatively has been identified with the legendary saga character Ragnar Lodbrok.
The Viking king of Northumbria, Halfdan Ragnarrson (Old English: Healfdene)—one of the leaders of the Viking Great Army (known to the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army)—surrendered his lands to a second wave of Viking invaders in 876. In the next four years, Vikings gained further land in the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well ...
Related to the wedge formation, it was used in Iron Age Scandinavia and later by the Vikings. [2] It was also used by Germanic peoples during the Germanic Iron Age and was known as the "Schweinskopf" or "Swine's Head". [3] Its invention was attributed to the god Odin. [3] [4] The apex was composed of a single file.