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D: Details of Viking ship construction

Most Viking ships were built in winter, after the end of the farming year. They were made completely of oak whenever possible, so that today there are very few oak trees to be found anywhere in Scandinavia. As oak became more scarce pine, ash, birch, alder, linden (lime) and willow began to be used for various parts of ships, though the keel remained invariably of oak. Oak was also preferred for the stem and stern, and the kerling (kjerringa, or 'old woman')—a timber block on which the base of the mast rested. A long and hard search must have been undertaken to find an oak tree tall enough to provide the keel of the Long Serpent, of which the portion that rested on the grass during its construction was 74 Scandinavian 'ells' long (i.e. about 113 ft), excluding stem and stern. The building procedure was for the keel to be laid down first, to which the stem and stern pieces were then fitted. The hull was then constructed from rows of strakes, nailed together overlapping downwards (i.e. clinker-built) and caulked with tarred rope.

On warships the strakes were thin so as to save weight. There was a well-known episode during the construction of the Long Serpent in which the shipwright, Thorberg Skafhogg, deliberately hac­ked chunks out of its planking and then smoothed down the strakes individually to the depth of the notches he had thereby inflicted, 'and the king and all present declared that the ship was much handsomer on the side of the hull which Thorberg had thinned, and bade him shape the other side the same way, and gave him great thanks for the improvement'. The strakes of the Gokstad ship were about an inch thick on the bottom, up to 1.7 ins. thick at the waterline. One of the topmost strakes contained the oar-holes, each with its own little pivoted shutter to prevent water from coming through when the ship was under sail. The ribs were only put into place after the ship had been constructed up to the waterline, the strakes being lashed to them with spruce-roots rather than being nailed on, which gave the hull a considerable degree of flexibility.

D1 shows a reconstruction of the type of rigging that may have been used on Viking ships, complete with what the sagas call a beiti-ass: apparently, a diagonal spar which was used to hold a corner of the square sail and thereby enable the ship to sail closer to the wind. The various other details depict the 'mast-fish' (D2 and D3); the steering-oar (D7); the Oseberg ship's shield-rack arrangement (D4); an oar from the Oseberg ship (D6); and the oar-ports of the Gokstad ship, with their individual shutters (D5). D8 is a midship section through the Gokstad ship.

E: A sea-battle

Though naval tactics have already been covered, the following passage from King Olaf Tryggvasson's Saga is included in order to convey the true 'feel' of a Viking sea-battle. It is an extract from the saga's account of the Battle of Svöldr, describing the closing moments of the conflict after Olaf's ship, the giant Long Serpent, had been surrounded by those of his enemies, including Earl Eric Hakonsson of Lade in the Iron Beard:



'Earl Eric was in the forehold of his ship, where a shield-wall had been set up. Hewing weapons—the sword and axe—and thrusting spears alike were being used in the fighting, and everything that could be used as a missile was being thrown. Some shot with bows, others hurled javelins. In fact so many weapons rained down on the Serpent, so thickly flew the spears and arrows, that the shields could scarcely withstand them, for the Serpent was surrounded by longships on every side. At this King Olaf's men became so enraged that they ran on board the enemies' ships so as to have their attackers within reach of their swords and kill them. But many of the enemy ships had kept out of the Serpent's reach so as to avoid this, and most of Olaf's men therefore fell overboard and sank under the weight of their weapons.

'Einar Tambarskelve, one of the sharpest of archers, stood by the mast, shooting his bow. He shot an arrow at Earl Eric which hit the tiller-end just above his head so hard that it penetrated up to its shaft. The earl looked round and asked if anyone had seen who fired, just as another arrow flew between his hand and his side and sank so far into the head­board that its head came out on the other side. Then the earl said to a man called Fin (or who was a Finn, and an expert archer), "Shoot that tall man by the mast." Fin fired, and his arrow hit the middle of Einar's bow just as he was drawing it, and split it in two. "What was that, that broke with such a noise?" called King Olaf. "Norway, king," cried Einar, "from your grip."

'Desperate was the defence of the Serpent, and the heaviest loss of life was inflicted by the defenders of the forecastle and forehold, for all of them were picked men and the ship's sides were highest there; but those defending the middle of the ship had been thinned, and when Earl Eric saw how few remained around the ship's mast he boarded there with 14 men. But Hyrning, the king's brother-in-law, came against them with some others and there was a stiff fight, at the end of which the earl was forced to leap back aboard the Iron Beard, some of those who had followed him having been killed and others wounded.

'Now the fighting became really intense on all sides; many aboard the Serpent were killed, and her defenders were thinned yet further. The earl decided to reboard the Serpent and again met with a warm reception. The forecastle men, seeing what he was doing, fell aft and made a desperate fight of it, but by now so many of the Serpent's defenders had fallen that in places the ship's sides were entirely undefended, so that the earl's men were able to pour in on all sides. The surviving crew then crowded aft to protect the king.

'The battle was still raging even in the forehold, but there were by now as many of the earl's men on board the Serpent as could find room and his ships lay all round her. There were nowhere near enough defenders left to repel so great a number, and before long most of the Serpent's men had been killed, brave and stout though they were. Finally King Olaf and Kolbjorn the marshal both leapt overboard, one on each side. But the earl's men had set out their ship's boats all round the Serpent and were killing those who leaped overboard. These men tried to seize the king in order to take him to Earl Eric, but King Olaf threw his shield above his head and sank beneath the surface.'


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 831


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A & B: Viking warriors, 9th—10th centuries | F: A strandhögg
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