D&D 5E Norse World

[Yaarel]

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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’.

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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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The Norse of the Viking Period made good steel.

 

[BookBarbarian]

The Norse of the Viking Period made good steel.

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.

 

[Yaarel]

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.

Yeah, in addition to the high quality Norse steel of the Viking Period, there is also ... crazy good steel.



I actually tried to post about this crazy good steel earlier, but the post ended up asking more questions than providing useful information. Currently, archeologists dispute the origins and techniques for this exceptional steel. Some assume it is steel made by the ‘crucible’ technique, but possibly it isnt. The evidence is spotty, surprisingly conflictive, and involves far-flung locations. At this time, conflictive hypotheses are all plausible.

Here are facts that I am aware of so far.



During the Viking Period, crazy good steel becomes known in Nordic countries, mostly Norway. This advanced steel is created by some archeologically unconfirmed technique. It is comparable to the modern steel that only becomes common centuries later, during the industrial revolution in the 1800s.

As far as is known, this crazy good steel only corresponds to sword blades that exhibit a distinctive logo, inscribed and inlaid with iron across the fuller of the blade, outward from near the hilt. This logo must be exactly:

+VLFBERH+T
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The second cross must be before the final T. The name Ulfberht is Frankish, and the letters are in the Latin alphabet. Only this logo has the exceptional steel.

For example, there are also blades with a similar logo, +VLFBERHT+ , and these are also high quality steel blades, but not the crazy good steel. There are also many blades with various garbled versions of this logo (for example, +VI┐ IFR I + ┴ ), whose steel is terrible. So, including the mimics, the ulfberht-related blades are both the best blades and the worst blades possible.

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The crazy good steel is possible because some technique allows high temperatures that make the iron ‘hypereutectoid’ integrating more than 0.8% carbon. At this minute amount, the carbon allows the iron to form very hard microscopic structures. Later quenching can make these structures even several times harder. Genuine ulfberht blades have over 1.0% carbon, tending to range from 1.2% to 1.6%. The carbon percentage tends to be variegated, often with sharp edges higher and body lower, thus the percentages represent an average from several locations on the blade.

Surviving today, there are roughly 170 blades with some kind of ulfberht inscription, depending on where the threshold for ‘ulfberht-like’ is that one wishes to include.

Of these 170 or so ulfberht-related blades, about 50 have the relevant +VLFBERH+T logo. But only 14 of these have undergone metallurgical analysis.

Of these 14 +VLFBERH+T blades, only 9 are the crazy good steel.

Crazy good steel is rare.

Of these 9 crazy good steel blades, 4 of them are in today Norway. Some are a local type.



Here is an image of a Norwegian style sword (Petersen hilt type H) with one of the ulfberht inscriptions.

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The remaining Non-Norwegian 5 of the 9 locate as follows.
• 1 comes from the southern coast of Finland, along the Swedish viking river routes.
• 1 is from a ‘private collection’, meaning, grave-robbers have destroyed the vital scientific data.
• 2 come from the German area of the Danish Peninsula.
• 1 comes from the Frankish borders of the Rhine River, near the western border of today Germany.

It is possible that all 14 blades had their steel created using the same technique, but if so, only 9 of these were successful. But even among these 9, one was hard but too brittle and broke, and one was damaged by later forging at temperatures that were too high. The crazy good steel must be forged at lower-than-traditional temperature, or else it looses the carbon that makes it special.



So out of these rarefied 9 swords with crazy good steel, we have the following facts.

All of them that archeologists are currently aware of carry the +VLFBERH+T logo.

The name Ulfberht is a Frankish name, in the Frankish dialect relating to Old High German. The inscription is in Latin. Probably, a Frankish man named Ulfberht originated the tradition of producing this special steel sword.

At least the +VLFBERH+T sword that was found in Frankish territory of the Rhine River, was probably created locally. The hilt includes parts that are made out of a lead-tin alloy, and this lead comes from a nearby local source, as evidenced by the distinctive isotopes of this lead. The hilt type is a local Frankish design.

Even more significantly, the special steel of the blade itself has high levels of the trace mineral manganese, which is common in Europe. In other words, this advanced steel probably comes from Europe, not Asia.

The +VLFBERH+T swords and the mimics come from the 800s to the 1000s. Therefore, people have been creating ulfberht swords for over 200 years. Even if the originator was named Ulfberht, there are many people across the centuries who are using his logo.

Different kinds of sword types (Petersen hilt type H, X, etcetera) are made out of this advanced steel.

It seems, at least one of these metalworkers that learned the ulfberht technique, migrated to Norway and produced swords there out of this advanced steel.



Note, it is uncertain if the persons who are making the ulfberht blades are the same persons who are creating the advanced steel.

Before the ulfberht swords, the only known archeological source for advanced steel is ‘wootz’. Only English calls this steel wootz, apparently deriving from ‘ukku’. It only comes from India.

Around the 500s, southern India invented crucible steel, which English calls wootz steel. The ‘crucible’ is a clay container that is sealed air-tight. Inside this crucible, they add high quality iron ore (magnetite), plus coal, plus a certain local species of leaves. For some reason, these leaves are essential for the successful outcome of the steel bloom. The entire crucible heats in a furnace for several hours and cools slowly. Despite the fact this heat cannot melt iron, it is hot enough to melt the steel iron-carbon alloy. In other words, the outer surface of the iron that comes into contact with the carbon smoke, turns into steel and melts away, thus eventually all of the iron dissolves into steel. India is the absolute master of the metallurgical technology for producing steel. This secret Indian technique was carefully guarded.

Southern India exported bars of this crucible steel, namely wootz, across Asia, to Persia, to Bagdad, to China, and elsewhere. It reaches Persia by the sea traderoutes. Also Persia resells it across its own traderoutes. In Syria, metalworkers import wootz ultimately from India in order to create their distinctive damascus steel blades. These blades have an esthetic ‘watery’ pattern. Somewhat resembling pattern-welding, the damascus pattern looks like a water surface of light and dark. The technique to make damascus steel has been lost. But apparently the wootz itself lacks this watery pattern, and it is the process of forging the steel blade that somehow creates this watery pattern. There are metalworkers today who claim to have rediscovered how to reproduce damascus steel, but there is no scientific verification of these claims, as far as I am aware.

Hypothetically, the Swedish vikings transported this Indian wootz from Persia via the river routes, thru the Volga River in today Russia. This correlates with the existence of an ulfberht sword in Finland, as well the ulfberht-like swords in Finland, Estonia, and Russia. However, none of the advanced steel has been found in Sweden, which is explainable but still frustrating if the Swedish vikings are supposed to be the ones who are transporting this wootz steel.

According to this hypothesis, ulfberht swords are made out of the same wootz that damascus swords are made out. But the ulfberht swords lack the watery pattern because they are made according to a different forging process after the wootz arrives.

There is a related hypothesis. The crucible steel for the ulfberht swords is thought to be made in or near Bagdad, not in India. There is textual evidence that alchemists in the Bagdad caliphate (Serkland) developed their own version of crucible steel. In this non-Indian technique, they mixed ‘hard iron’ and ‘soft iron’ in a crucible with coal. Today metallurgists guess that this ‘hard iron’ might be cast iron. Cast iron is something like crucible steel that was left too long in the furnace and got too much carbon, over 2.0%, thus became useless for making steel blades. Cast iron is harder than low-carbon iron, but is very brittle, and cannot be additionally hardened by quenching. With this hypothesis, the ulfberht blades are made out of this ‘Serkland’ version of crucible steel that ameliorates the cast iron with low-carbon iron in a crucible. If so, the Swedish vikings are transporting this Bagdad steel.

These two hypotheses that involve the viking river traderoutes still enjoy currency among archeologists.



But recent evidence suggests the advanced steel of the ulfberht blades comes from Europe − not Asia, neither India nor Bagdad. Namely the presence of manganese in the special steel of at least one of the blades.



Here are my guesses on the topic of ulfberht.

• In the 700s, a Frankish man named Ulfberht, or his descendant, discovered some kind of technique to make advanced steel.
• Probably Ulfberht lives in Frankish territory, but possibly he immigrated northward to the German area of the Danish Peninsula.
• Maybe he somehow learned his steel-making technique abroad, or else he independently discovered it.
• His technique may or may not use a ‘crucible’. Perhaps a variant furnace achieves similar results.
• His technique is patchy − sharp edges tend to be super hard steel but the body is often more normalish good steel.
• He used this advanced steel to make sword blades. He made both the high-carbon steel and its blades.
• He made lots of money selling his famous ulfberht swords.
• Ulfberht and his family − and eventually his descendants and their friends − learned this technique.
• He people in diverse locations are making ulfberht swords in local styles.
• These ulfberht metalworkers migrated to other locations to make swords and money there.
• At least one ulfberht sword seems to be made in Frankish territory with a Frankish hilt type − near the place of origin?
• Several ulfberht swords seem to be made in Norway with a Norwegian hilt type and corresponding blade type.
• One ulfberht metalworker immigrated to Norway.
• Norwegian vikings are more likely to bury with swords, but also seem to have access to genuine ulfberht swords.
• In Norway, the remarkable ulfbehrt swords comprise less than 1% of the over 2000 swords that survive.

 

[BookBarbarian]

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?

 

[Yaarel]

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?

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.

 

[BookBarbarian]

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

 

[Yaarel]

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.

 

[Yaarel]

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.

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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.)

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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.

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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

 

[Yaarel]

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

 

[Connorsrpg]

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

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