D&D 5E Norse World

One feature that distinguishes the arrival of the Early Viking Period is the widespread use of high quality steel. The Norse are typically proficient with metalworking. Most make their own tools from steel bars. It is also common to recycle steel from earlier items. Talented metalworkers are in demand and enjoy high social status. Those who can produce consistently good steel from raw iron ore can amass wealth.

Analogous to the high quality fabrics and clothing, the Norse excel in craftsmanship, including metalwork, woodwork, and other high-skill labors. Esthetic values prefer goods that are effective, look good, and last across generations. Heh, Nordic lands have long winters. Finding something useful to do helps to pass the time.

Nordic lands are rich in iron deposits. During the Viking Period, mining for iron is known. But most iron comes from wetland peat bogs, where anaerobic microorganisms concentrate the iron molecules that wash down from the mountain rivers, to form iron ‘bog ore’.




A stone protector insulates the bellows from the heat of the furnace.




Examples of a ‘bloom’ of steel from a furnace.




Furnaces of various sizes are known. Archeologists are still puzzling out the metallurgy of the Viking Period. Yet the following is clear enough, and modern experiments can repeat the processes. The results produce high quality steel that compares somewhat to archeological remains. The experiments suggest metalworkers have control over the amount of carbon in the steel.

To make steel, the metalworker builds a furnace out of clay, sand, and fiber-rich dung. The mixture is highly effective for the furnace walls and insulates well. The smelter supplies iron ore and coal thru the top of the furnace. Bellows blow air periodically into the lower half of the furnace to intensify the heat of the fire. The slag liquefies away from the iron, flows to the bottom of the furnace, cools along the walls, forming a bowl. The steel ‘bloom’ collects in this bowl. The bloom is molten but nonliquid, and ideally welds together to resemble a fiery sponge. Normally, the bottom of the clay furnace is broken open to extricate the bloom.

The metalworker hammers and folds the bloom to manually squeeze out any inclusions and consolidate the steel mass. Ideally, even specs barely visible to eye must be removed.

Afterward, the bloom can ‘quench’ (in water, oil, or other liquid) to rapidly cool to make it harder it, but then ‘temper’ in moderate heat to soften the hard but brittle textures to make it tougher.

The process of making steel is complex, and the same methods that can improve the quality of the steel can also harm it.

Metalwork is typically outdoors and low to the ground. Metalworkers squat and kneel while working. Normally a larger stone bolder with a suitably smooth work area serves as the anvil. But a small iron anvil on an upright stout log is also known. A wooden box carries the iron tools, including hammer, tongs, file, and so on. Thus the equipment for metallurgy is easily portable. For example, the vikings in Canada needed new iron nails to repair their ship. So they found iron ore locally in a bog there, built a clay furnace to smelt it, and forged the nails into shape on a large stone.




Here is the stone anvil of a famous metalworker in Iceland, who pulled it out from ocean floor.




Norse steel is medium-carbon steel, with the percentage of carbon ranging from about 0.4% to 0.7%. There is also Norse iron that is low-carbon about 0.2% to 0.4%. Lower carbon tends to be softer but tougher (but impurities and inclusions can make it brittle). Higher carbon tends to be hard but brittle.

The minute presence of carbon, the high heat while the bloom forms, the quenching, and possibly other processes, imbue molecular structures in the iron (pearlite, martensite, cementite) that can make steel dramatically harder.

The Norse metalworker employs pattern welding, welding together sheets of alternating higher and lower carbon, then folding and twisting the layers. The final steel is high quality, both hard and tough, and forms esthetic patterns of light and dark.

For an item such as the sword, the body of the blade predominates the lower carbon for toughness, while the sharp edges welded on separately on each side, predominate the higher carbon for hardness. Note the separate patterns in the blade along the central fuller and along each edge.




The Norse of the Viking Period made good steel.

Yaarel said:

The Norse of the Viking Period made good steel.

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Indeed. I've been fascinated with pattern welded swords since I read Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom 13 years ago. Just the way he described the twisted and straight bars of iron begin combined into a single blade was amazing. Seeing it done is nothing short of art IMHO.

I was also under the impression that the Norse also had access to Crucible steel from the east via the Volga trade route from the 9th century to the early 11th century. But I am only regurgitating what I say on some documentary.

Very interesting.

Do you think it's also possible that some of those blades were re-hilted in the style of those who carried them, possible further muddying the waters of they're origin?

BookBarbarian said:

Very interesting.

Do you think it's also possible that some of those blades were re-hilted in the style of those who carried them, possible further muddying the waters of they're origin?

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In the case of particular ulfberht swords, they seem to be made locally.

The ulfberht steel exists for various types of blades. These blade types are what one expects corresponding to the hilt types. It seems the blades, the guard and the pommel, are all being created around the same time in the same place.



That said, mixing and matching blades, guards, and pommels, is common. But the seriation of sword types is fairly well understood, so odd combinations tend to be obvious.



Archeologists mention a desideratum to reexamine all known medieval blades that exist today! To confirm if there are any blades that are high carbon but without the +VLFBERH+T logo.

An other issue is, the clay furnaces (as well as any hypothetical crucibles) tend to be broken open and destroyed to extract the steel bloom. So there is lots of evidence of slag, but scarce evidence for what the furnaces themselves look like. If there are unusual firing methods, such as crucibles, they are difficult to detect. But maybe an analysis of the slag can reveal the presence of a process that produces high-carbon steel blooms. At that point, it would help to pinpoint where and what the technique is.



Sigh. More questions. More questions.

Crazy good steel is awesome, but I'd still rather have pattern-welded. They're just so darned pretty.

I updated the post above on shields. There are more details about how one is created. The wood itself is very thin, about 6 millimeters. The roundshield is very light and maneuverable.

Spears.

Norse warriors prefer the sword for one-on-one combat.

However, for mass combat, Norse warriors prefer the spear. The spear attacks beyond a shield formation. The spear keeps an opponent away at a distance. At range, the spear can spy and hit a distant opponent.

Viking Period spears comprise a shaft of ash wood, and spearhead of steel. The shaft of a spear ranges between 2 and 3 meters.

All kinds of spears are in use. Around 3 meters and up to 3.5 meters, the spear performs as a polearm, like a pike. With a light thin shaft around 2 meters and down to 1.5 meters, and a smallish spearhead, the spear performs as a dedicated throwing spear, a javelin. With a heavy stout shaft around 2 meters, and sturdy spearhead, the spear performs as a dedicated lance for horseback.




The spearhead is steel and comprises the blade and the socket. Occasionally the socket engraves with decorations. The total length of spearheads corresponds to the function of the spear, whether all-purpose spear, or lance, polearm, or javelin, and can range between 20 and 80 centimeters.

Especially if reminiscent of earlier Pre-Viking Period Frankish spears, a spearhead might occasionally feature ‘wings’ on the socket below the blade. These wings derive from hunting spears, where their function is defensive to prevent a speared dangerous prey, such as bear and boar, from approaching any closer. However, these wings are less useful in human combat, and during the Viking Period fall out of use. But occasionally a later spearhead might feature smaller vestiges of wings, perhaps for symbolic reasons, or possibly to hook an opponents weapon or shield.

The wings might retain use when wielding a lance from a charging horse, to prevent the lance from thrusting so deep as to become irretrievable, or to knock an opponent off from an other horse. Below is a Viking Period figurine depicting two warriors. One is on horseback with an early winged lance fastened to the horse saddle. (Her long hair is knotted in the back.) The other carries a shield. (Her long hair is tucked in a hood.)




The spear and javelin are common. The lance for horseback combat is less common, because mountainous terrain discourages horseback combat. The polearms below are uncommon and rare, but can happen. Polearms require the use of both hands, while Norse warriors strongly prefer to use the offhand for a roundshield.

Some spearheads are barbed like a harpoon, namely the fleinn.



D&D weapons represent the Viking Period spear types well enough. All feats relating to spears and polearms are appropriate. But there is still a need for certain spearfighting mechanics: conducive to the spear-and-shield fighting style and preventing an opponent from entering an adjacent square.

Atgeir is a rare Norse term whose referent is disputed. On balance, the textual evidence suggests, it is primarily a thrusting weapon with a long shaft, probably resembles a pike, but it can slash too, thus likely corresponds to the archeologically known, very long, very thin blade, at the end of a 3 meter or longer shaft. An other term for something like a pike is broddspjót, referring to a long thin blade forming a four-edge point, whose cross-section is diamond-shape, at the end of a extra-long shaft.

There is also textual evidence in the sagas of polearms that primarily deal slashing damage, namely the hǫggspjót and bryntrǫll. But the identity of these blades remains archeologically uncertain. Possibly, they are simply one of the known spearheads that feature a large wide blade. Or possibly, the terms refer to foreign imports of a continental halbert or glaive. Tentatively, treat the hǫggspjót as a wide-blade spearhead that is equivalent to a two-edge glaive.




There are also several other obscure Norse terms relating to spears that possibly refer to specific spear types or to Non-Norse polearm types.

Archeologists sometimes refer to a sling-like ‘spear-thrower’. But they use a (Non-Norse) modern Norwegian term ‘snor-spyd’ to refer to it. Presumably, the device is unknown in Norse texts thus uncertain or rare. If of interest for D&D, its costs a bonus action to double the range of any spear or javelin throw. For what it is worth, the Norse term for a ‘sling’ is slønga, to sling stones, heh, mainly for use by shepherds to punish sheep who stray too far away.

The following table lists Norse weapons. By far, the most frequent Viking Period weapon is the standard spear, the spjót. Other types of spears are also known. The table omits any weapons from foreign lands, but certain Norse individuals are occasionally known to use them, and on rare occasions they appear in viking burials.



NORSE WEAPONRY

Simple weapons
spjót (spear) 1d6 piercing, 1d8 versatile, thrown (20/60)
gaflak (javelin) 1d6 piercing, thrown (30/120)

Martial weapons
atgeir (pike) 1d10 piercing, heavy, reach, two-handed
hǫggspjót (double-edge glaive) 1d10 slashing, heavy, reach, two-handed
burtstǫng (lance) 1d12 piercing, reach, special − disadvantage v target within 5 feet

During the Viking Period, Norse men have both a right and an obligation to carry weapons. The men of a clan serve as the clan militia to defend fellow clan members.



The aboriginal Norse government is the local parliament, the Þing. It is a democracy, where all adults arrive to vote. The main responsibility of the elected leader, the jarl, is to coordinate the clan militias to function as a collective army for the common defense of the locality.

The jarl was necessarily elected because each clan needed to be able to trust him or her with the lives of their fellow clan members. The jarl must also resolve conflicts between clans before combat between clans becomes mass violence, and must be trusted to be impartial.

During the Viking Period, the increasing expansionism, conquest, violence, as well as continental European imperialistic influences strained the sacred democratic traditions. Different Þing made different arrangements. Some Þing replaced the jarl with a konungr. Etymologically, konungr is the origin of the term ‘king’. But in this Viking Period context, the konungr is essentially a jarl who is elected from the family of the previous jarl. This transition of leadership helped stabilize succession during an era of military emergencies. Even so, democratic processes still remained in play, and there were Þing whose clans impeached the konungr.

In the process of the unification of Noregr (roughly today Norway), various local Þing allied with each other to create a regional Þing. This federal Þing included representatives (usually the law sayer) from each local Þing. The prevailing regional Þing elected a konungr as its executive and military leader. This konungr led the armies of multiple Þing. Yet the local Þing remained intact, each one making its own arrangements with the federal konungr, according to the desires of the local voters. Thus the extent of ‘unification’ remains complex and debatable.

In the Post-Viking Period, 1100s-1200s, the power of the konungr gradually becomes more autocratic, such as having the military power to force the appointment or the replacement of a local jarl or a local konungr. By the Late Medieval Period, 1300s-1400s, the konungr is effectively a ‘king’.

Note, sometimes women who were effective militarily leaders also served as a jarl or konungr, with the feminine title dróttning (‘master’). In Ísland, the jarl is called a goði, and the female jarl a gyðja.

The Viking Period is still mainly democratic and local.



Certain Þing voted to pass laws that require all men to have and maintain weapons, including an annual inspection where the men of each clan must bring their weapons to ensure satisfactory military readiness. Failure to pass inspection incurred financial penalties, fines.

Note, even tho both men and women trained in combat from childhood, serving in the clan militia tends to be a requirement for males and an option for females. There were men who, for various reasons, failed to fulfill their military responsibilities, but the ergi, one who failed to ‘man up’ for the clan militia, suffered dishonor and shame.

In the Post-Viking Period, documents from certain Þing survive that itemize the local legal obligations relating to clan militias. Two Þing in particular required every man to have one shield and one spear, plus a choice of either an ax or a sword. The spear is mainly for mass combat, while the sword or ax is mainly for one-on-one combat. Additionally every twosome of warrior buddies, must have at least one longbow. In other words, about half of an army can also function as the artillery. All weapons must be in working order and pass inspection each year. These laws generally describe the Viking Period culture, relating to the weapons and the obligation of Norse men to have them, whether or not a particular Þing legally or socially enforced it.

A good sword is extremely difficult to make − and extremely expensive. Yet the sword is such a status symbol, Norse men make extreme efforts to acquire one. Virtually all fulltime warriors have a sword. Even warriors who prefer to fight with a different weapon are still likely to own a sword because of its status, and wear it in social contexts. Even men who rarely fight might have a sword. In a fight for ones honor, even one without a sword is likely to borrow one from a friend. The Viking Period culture cherishes swords and are knowledgeable and discerning regarding the sword quality and design.



In result, roughly equal numbers of Norse warriors fight with a sword, ax, or spear, as Viking Period burials evidence.

• shield
• spear
• sword
• ax
• longbow

Zardnaar said:

Very good. I have thought of using Earth before but replacing cultures with D&D ones.

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Same. And one time I did it. http://connorssettings.wikidot.com/summer-isle-home