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Murder Holes, Machicolations, and Other Medieval Warfare Facts

Khalid Elhassan March 6, 2020 34 min

Pike and shot - Pike and Shot : Campaigns — A pike and short formation, with pikemen protecting those wielding firearms while they reloaded. Pintrest

34. Scandinavian Spiritual Beliefs Accidentally Led to Stronger Swords

Sword-waving Vikings in diorama at Arkeologisk Museum in Stavanger, Norway. Wikimedia

Scandinavians in the Iron Age only had access to bog iron – an impure and soft metal. That put Scandinavians at a disadvantage when fighting neighbors who were armed and armored with better iron. However, Scandinavian religious beliefs led them, unwittingly, into forging an early version of steel swords. That gave them a literal edge over their opponents.

Scandinavians believed that mixing the bones of killed animals with the iron used in forging swords would imbue the resultant weapon with the spirit – and strength – of the killed animal. That was mumbo jumbo, but the swords that emerged were pretty strong, nonetheless. It was not because of spirituality, however, but science.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.