Although the bow is not as prominent in the popular notion of the Viking ? where the image of the axe-wielding berserk dominates? the bow was an important weapon in the arsenal of both the Norsemen and their Sami neighbors in the early Middle Ages. Although few bows appear to have been laid down as grave goods in warrior burials, materials associated with archery, such as arrowheads, are abundantly present in the remains of Norse settlements.
In the Viking Age, two methods of bow production were used in Scandinavia: the self-bow and the composite bow. A shingles arch is made of a single wooden rod, while a composite arch is composed of several parts; These can be different types of wood, horns or tendons. Bows can also be either straight or recurve bows, where the ends bend away from the archer and provide extra resilience. Composite and recurve bows provide more power for their size than shingle arches, but are far more time-consuming to make and can take about a week to produce, unlike a shingle arch that a skilled craftsman can carve out in one day.
Among the Sámi, evidence suggests that the composite arch was the preferred construction method. In a Sami bow, two different types of wood were used for the back and belly of the bow, i.e. the parts that face away from and towards the archer. A more flexible wood was used for the back to give the bow the necessary resilience, while a harder, stronger wood was used for the abdomen to provide structural strength to withstand the firing forces. The Sámi bows from the Viking Age were of the Fennougric type, composed of a thicker belly splint and a thin back brace, glued together and with a recurve for increased power.
The Norsemen, on the other hand, originally made straight shingle arches, usually from yew staves. The wood from yew has long been preferred for archmaking because of the special way it grows. A layer of light, flexible surface wood grows on top of a dense, stiff heartwood. The heartwood adds strength to the arch, while the outer wood acts as a spring that prevents the heartwood from breaking during tensioning, thus providing some of the advantages of a composite arch, but with the simplicity of manufacture of a shingle arch.
Although the Norse arches originally had the simple hell construction common in Europe, the Norsemen were no strangers to adopting technology from other cultures they encountered. In Birka, one of the major trading centres of the Viking Age, traces of Eastern European/Central Asian composite bows and associated equipment such as bow cases and closed quivers, primarily used by equestrian archers, have been found. Such types of equipment were typical of the Magyars, or Hungarians. Bows of the Sami type ? Two-three recurve bows ? has also been found as far away as Novgorod, suggesting that the Norsemen also used Sami bowmaking techniques.
The lack of bows and archery equipment in warrior trenches can be explained by the fact that bows, which are made of wood, break down easily over time, unlike swords and axe heads forged in iron. It is also possible that Norse warriors did not feel the same connection to the bow as a weapon or status marker. A sword, with good care, can last for many years, while a bow will inevitably break after prolonged use when the fibers of the wood are weakened by repeated stress.
Thus, a warrior could carry one sword all his life, but use up several bows, which could lead to less emotional or symbolic attachment to the bow as a weapon. It is also possible that although the Norsemen used bows extensively in battle and were obviously skilled archers, the bow was considered a somewhat less honorable weapon, preferring to be buried with weapons that required close combat and greater personal risk. Similarly, it may be that the bow and arrow were so widespread among the Norsemen, both among warriors and non-warriors, that they were not considered distinctive warrior weapons on a par with the sword, and therefore were not laid down as grave goods. Evidence also suggests that the bow and arrow were mainly used in the opening phase of battle before being put aside in favor of melee weapons, and that no Norse warriors used the bow as their only weapon in battle.
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Lundstrøm, Frederik, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, and Lena Holmquist Olausson. Eastern Archery in Birka?s Garrison. The Martial Society?
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