Viking Warfare and Battle Tactics: The Norse Art of War
Explore Viking warfare — the longship fleets, the shield-wall, the berserker, the sagas of battle, and the great engagements from Lindisfarne to Stamford Bridge.
The warfare of the Viking Age was the warfare of a seafaring people, and it was based on the longship, the shield-wall, and the great skaldic tradition of praise for the warrior. From the first raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the great battles of the eleventh century, the Norse fought a series of campaigns that transformed the political and cultural landscape of Europe, and they left a permanent mark on the language, the literature, and the institutions of the peoples they fought. The Viking Age is conventionally defined by the great engagements of the period, and the great battles of the period are the subject of this page, with the wider political and cultural history of the period treated on the Viking Age page. The Viking ships and exploration are treated on their own page.
The Outbreak of the Viking Age (793–800)
The outbreak of the Viking Age is conventionally dated to the raid on the English island of Lindisfarne of 8 June 793, and the opening engagement of the period sets the pattern for the rest of the Viking Age. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the event with shock: “In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of the Northumbrians, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive whirlwinds, lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. These signs continued for many days after, and a little after that the heathens came and destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne with fierce plundering, and they slew all the people they found there.” The attack struck at the heart of the cult of St Cuthbert, the most sacred shrine of the Anglo-Saxon Church.
The first wave of Viking attacks was, in many ways, an intensification of an existing pattern of small-scale raiding. What made the Lindisfarne raid shocking was its scale, its target (a major monastic house rather than a coastal village), and its timing (the eve of the feast of St Cuthbert). The Northmen returned to Ireland in 795 (Rechru, now Lambay Island, off the coast of Dublin), to the Hebrides in 798, and to Iona in 802 and 806. By 800 the Irish annals speak of the fomhóraigh (“the foreigners of the sea”) as a recurrent presence, and the kingdom of Dal Riata was already crumbling.
The early raids were not, in the main, the work of great fleets but of small bands of Norse warriors who arrived on the coasts in a single longship or in a pair. The Norse warrior of the period was equipped with a spear, a shield, a sword, an axe, a bow, and a helmet of the period. The seax (a single-edged knife) was a common weapon of the Norse warrior, and the mail-shirt (hræða-ljóss, “the storm of the mail”) was the principal body-armour of the Norse warrior.
The Great Heathen Army and the Danelaw (865–954)
The Great Heathen Army (micel here of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) landed in East Anglia in 865, and within a few years it had conquered the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, and (almost) Wessex. The army was led by Ivar the Boneless (or Ívarr inn beinlausi), Ubbe, and Halfdan, the sons of the legendary Danish king Ragnarr loðbrók (“Ragnar Shaggy-Breeches”) of the Ragnars saga loðbrókar.
The campaign of the Great Heathen Army is one of the great campaigns of medieval military history. The army took York in 866, killed the Northumbrian kings Ælla and Osberht at the battle of York in 867, and installed the puppet king Æthelred as a client king. The army took Nottingham in 867 and Thetford in 869, and it killed the East Anglian king Edmund (later St Edmund) in 870. The army took Reading in 871, and it fought a series of engagements with the West Saxon king Æthelred and his brother Alfred (later Alfred the Great).
The Battle of Edington of 878 was the decisive engagement of the period. The West Saxon king Alfred rallied his kingdom and defeated the Norse army at Edington in Wiltshire. The treaty of Wedmore that followed divided the kingdom of the English-speaking peoples between the Anglo-Saxon state of Wessex under Alfred and the Scandinavian-settled Danelaw in the north and east. The Danelaw is one of the great transformations of medieval Europe. The Scandinavian settlers, who had been arriving in small numbers since the 780s, were joined by a great wave of migration in the 870s and 880s, and by the time of the second treaty between Alfred and the Viking leader Guthrum in 886, the eastern and northern half of England was Scandinavian in language, law, and material culture.
The reconquest of the Danelaw by the West Saxon kings of the House of Wessex was a long process. The Edward the Elder (r. 899–924) and his sister Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, took East Anglia and the Five Boroughs (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, and Stamford) in the 910s and 920s. The Æthelstan (r. 924–939) consolidated the conquest, and the Brunanburh of 937, in which Æthelstan defeated a coalition of Norse, Scots, and Strathclyde Welsh, was one of the great battles of the period. By the time of the Edgar the Peaceful (r. 959–975), the Danelaw had been fully absorbed into the English kingdom.
The Norse Longship in War
The Norse longship was the principal weapon of the Viking Age, and the great fleet-actions of the period are among the most spectacular of medieval military history. The Norse longship was a fast, manoeuvrable, and shallow-draft vessel that could carry a large crew and that could be beached on almost any coast. The longship was propelled by a single square sail and by oars.
The great fleet-actions of the Viking Age include the Battle of Svolder of c. 999, in which the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason was defeated by a coalition of the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung, the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, and the Norwegian earl Eirik Håkonsson. The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason in the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson preserves a vivid account of the battle, in which Olaf fought from his great longship the Ormrinn Langi (“the Long Serpent”) until it was boarded and he leapt overboard to his death. The Battle of Helgeå of 1026, in which the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson and his Swedish ally Anund Jacob defeated the Danish king Cnut the Great, is one of the great battles of the period. The use of the longship in river warfare was a major feature of the Viking Age. The Norse used their longships to ascend the Seine to besiege Paris in 845 and again in 885–886. The Norse used their longships to ascend the Rhine and the Meuse and the Scheldt to attack the towns of the Frankish heartland, the Shannon and the Liffey to attack the Irish kingdoms, and the Neva and the Volkhov and the Dnieper to attack the Slavic kingdoms of the Russian heartland.
The Shield-Wall and the Battle Array
The shield-wall (skjaldborg) was the principal battle array of the Viking Age. The shield-wall was a formation in which the warriors stood shoulder to shoulder, with their shields overlapping each other, and with their spears and swords bristling from the wall. The shield-wall is described in the Battle of Brunanburh of 937, in the Battle of Stamford Bridge of 1066, and in the Battle of Stiklestad of 1030, and it is one of the great set-pieces of the Old Norse tradition.
The Battle of Brunanburh of 937 is the great English victory of the period. The Æthelstan of England defeated a coalition of the Norse king Olaf Guthfrithsson of Dublin, the Scottish king Constantine II, and the Strathclyde Welsh. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the battle in one of the great set-pieces of Old English poetry, with the description of the shield-wall, the noise of the battle, and the great slaughter of the defeated. The Battle of Stiklestad of 1030, in which the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson (later St Olaf) was killed by a coalition of Norwegian chieftains, is one of the great set-pieces of the Old Norse tradition, and the Saga of St Olaf in the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson is the principal narrative source.
The formation of the Norse army in the open field was based on the wedge (svinfylking), a triangular formation in which the principal warriors formed the point of the wedge and the less experienced warriors formed the base. The wedge was the principal assault formation of the Norse warrior, and it was used to break through the shield-wall of the enemy.
The Berserker
The berserker (berserkr) is the most famous of the Norse warriors, and the figure has become a permanent part of the European imagination. The berserker was a warrior who fought in a state of ecstatic fury, and who was reputed to be immune to iron and fire. The berserker is described in the Hversu Nóregr byggðist (“How Norway was settled”), in the Vatnsdæla saga, in the Grettis saga, and in the Hrólfs saga kraka, and the figure is one of the great legendary figures of the Norse tradition. The berserker is also described in the Íslendingabók of Ari Þorgilsson (c. 1130), which records that the berserkers were suppressed by the Icelandic laws in the eleventh century.
The origin of the berserker is uncertain. The figure may have its roots in the older cult of Odin, the god of war and death, who is described in the Ynglinga saga of the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson as a god of the war-band, and who was believed to fight alongside his chosen warriors in the shape of a bear or a wolf. The berserker may be a development of this older cult, and the figure of the bear-shirted warrior may be a relic of the older hunting cult of the bear. The figure of the berserker is preserved in the Haraldskvæði of Þorbjörn Hornklofi (c. 900), in which the berserker is described as a member of the war-band of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair.
The arousal of the berserker was a state of ecstatic fury in which the warrior was believed to be possessed by the spirit of the bear or the wolf. The berserker fought with superhuman strength and with no regard for his own safety, and he was a formidable opponent in battle. The berserker was also a dangerous ally, since he could not be controlled once he had been aroused. The berserker was, in this sense, both a gift and a curse of the Norse art of war.
The Weapons of the Norse Warrior
The weapons of the Norse warrior are well-known from the archaeological record and from the sagas. The sword (sverð) was the principal weapon of the Norse warrior, and the Norse sword was a single-handed weapon with a straight, double-edged blade. The Norse sword was a costly weapon, and only the wealthier warriors could afford a sword. The great swords of the saga tradition (the Gram of Sigurd the Völsung, the Tyrfing of the Hervarar saga, the Hrotti of the Hervarar saga) are all named swords with legendary origins.
The axe (øx) was the principal weapon of the Norse foot-soldier, and the Norse axe was a single-handed weapon with a broad, single-edged head. The Norse axe was a cheaper weapon than the sword, and the Norse foot-soldier of the period is often shown with a long-handled axe (the dane-axe or breið-øx) as his principal weapon. The figure of the Norse axeman is one of the great iconic figures of the Viking Age. The spear (spjót) was the principal weapon of the Norse warrior, and the Norse spear was a single-handed weapon with a leaf-shaped head. The Norse spear was the most common weapon of the Norse warrior, and it is the principal weapon of the shield-wall.
The bow (bogi) was a less common weapon of the Norse warrior, but it was used in the opening stages of a battle and in the defence of fortified positions. The helmet (hjálmr) of the Norse warrior was a leather or iron cap with a nose-piece and a neck-guard, and the mail-shirt (hræða-ljóss) was a long shirt of iron mail that hung from the shoulders to the knees. The shield (skjöldr) was a round shield of wood, with a diameter of about 80 to 100 cm, and with a central iron boss.
The Great Battles of the Viking Age
The great battles of the Viking Age are among the most spectacular of medieval military history. The principal battles of the period include the Battle of Edington of 878, in which the West Saxon king Alfred defeated the Norse army of Guthrum; the Battle of Brunanburh of 937, in which Æthelstan defeated the coalition of the Norse, the Scots, and the Strathclyde Welsh; the Battle of Svolder of c. 999, in which the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason was defeated; the Battle of Stiklestad of 1030, in which the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson was killed; the Battle of Stamford Bridge of 1066, in which the West Saxon king Harold Godwinson defeated the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada; and the Battle of Hastings of 1066, in which the Norman William the Conqueror defeated the English.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge of 25 September 1066 is the conventional closing date of the Viking Age. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada, who had served in the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor in his youth and who had won the throne of Norway in 1046, invaded England in 1066 with a great army of Norse and Orcadian warriors. He was defeated and killed at Stamford Bridge by the English king Harold Godwinson, and the Battle of Hastings that followed three weeks later, in which the Norman William the Conqueror defeated the English and killed Harold, brought the Anglo-Saxon period to an end and, with it, the Viking Age in England.
The Norse War-Band and the Gift Economy
The Norse war-band (lið) was the principal military unit of the Viking Age, and the war-band was based on the gift economy of the heroic tradition. The Norse king or chieftain gathered a war-band of free warriors who served him in return for a share of the loot and for a share of the king’s gift. The gift economy is described in the Hávamál of the Poetic Edda and in the Ynglinga saga of the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson.
The principal war-bands of the Viking Age include the Jomsvikings of the tenth century, the Ulfhéðnar (the wolf-warriors) of the tenth century, the Berserkers of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Empire, and the Hird of the Norwegian kings. The Jomsvikings are described in the Jómsvíkinga saga of the thirteenth century, and the war-band is said to have been based at Jomsborg (perhaps Wolin in Pomerania) under the leadership of the great warrior Pálnatóki. The Jomsvikings are said to have been defeated by the Norwegian king Haakon Sigurdsson at the Battle of Hjörungavágr c. 986, and the saga is one of the great set-pieces of the Old Norse tradition.
The Skaldic Praise of Warriors
The skaldic praise of warriors is one of the great literary traditions of the Norse art of war, and the skaldic tradition is the principal source for the modern understanding of the Viking Age. The skald was a professional poet who composed praise-poems for the kings and chieftains of the period, and the skaldic verses are the principal source for the great events of the Viking Age. The skaldic verse of the Viking Age includes the Haraldskvæði of Þorbjörn Hornklofi (c. 900) in honour of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, the Eiríksmál of Eyvindr skáldaspillir (c. 954) in honour of the Norwegian king Eirik Bloodaxe, and the Hákónarmál of Eyvindr skáldaspillir (c. 961) in honour of the Norwegian king Hákon the Good.
The skaldic verses of the period are characterised by their extraordinary formal complexity. A typical skaldic stanza has eight lines, each with three main stresses, and binds them together with a system of internal rhyme, alliteration, and syllabic count. The skaldic vocabulary was the technical language of praise and blame, and every name for a king, a ship, a sword, a battle, a woman, a shield, or a body of water could be replaced by a kenning — a periphrastic compound such as “sea of the sword” for “battle” or “destroyer of the door-ridge” for “fire”. The skaldic tradition is the principal literary inheritance of the Viking Age, and the tradition continues to be studied in the modern world through the Skaldic Project of the University of Sydney and the University of Iceland.
The Norse Camp and the Norse Fortifications
The Norse camp of the Viking Age was a temporary affair, and the Norse warrior did not have the elaborate field-fortifications of the later medieval tradition. The Norse warrior of the period preferred to fight in the open field. The Norse warrior also built temporary earthwork camps on the model of the older Germanic tradition, and the great Danevirke of Denmark is the most spectacular example of the Norse earthwork tradition. The Danevirke was a system of earthworks that stretched across the base of the Jutland peninsula, and it was first built in the eighth century and rebuilt in the tenth century by the Danish king Harald Bluetooth. The Norse fortifications of the Viking Age include the great Trelleborg fortresses of Denmark (built by Harald Bluetooth c. 980), the Fyrkat fortress of Denmark, the Aggersborg fortress of Denmark, the Birka fortress of Sweden, the Hedeby fortress of Germany, the Kaupang fortress of Norway, the Jorvik fortress of York, the Dublin fortress of Ireland, the Novgorod fortress of Russia, and the Kiev fortress of Ukraine. The Norse fortifications are some of the great engineering achievements of the Viking Age, and they are the basis of the modern understanding of the Norse art of war.
The Legacy of Viking Warfare
The legacy of Viking warfare is one of the deepest inheritances of the modern world. The Norse longship was the most versatile military vessel of its time, and the Norse shield-wall was the basis of the medieval European infantry. The Norse skaldic tradition of praise for the warrior is the basis of the modern Western tradition of military biography, and the Norse gift economy of the war-band is the basis of the modern Western tradition of military service. The Norse art of war is the foundation of the modern European military tradition.
The modern study of Viking warfare is one of the most active and exciting fields of medieval scholarship. The great new editions of the sagas, the great new runs of the Skaldic Project, the great new archaeological investigations of the period, and the great new historical studies of the Norse kings and chieftains have made the Viking Age one of the best-documented periods of medieval European history. The Viking Age is, in this sense, a continuing subject of investigation, and the Norse art of war continues to be a subject of great interest to the modern scholar.