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Viking swords found in the Thames and River Witham: all belong to the period after c. 950.

supply a man, together with his eąuipment and sustenance. The similarity to the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd is obvious.

In the event ofan invasion (unlikely at this datę) the whole Ecidang could be called out, including even the thralls; but a Half-Leidang, a levy of the jarls and their hirdmen or housecarls, was called for attacks launched against an enemy. This meant the Scandinavian kings now had a highly organized military system on cali, and in the ioth century military expeditions were conducted for political and commercial gain. Probably the finest example of the Yikings waging calculated warfare is the series of invasions of England under Svein Fork-beard, planned to yield treasure hitherto un-dreamed of and ultimately to secure the crown and all the lands of England. This was no series of haphazard campaigns, but a twenty-year war carefully planned by Svein.

Four military camps were built in his kingdom of Dcnmark, at Trelleborg, Aggersborg, Fyrkat and Odense. Trelleborg, on a headland in western Zealand, was built between 975 and 1050, primarily as a naval and military base. It had easy access from the sea, yet was protected against attacks and sheltered from storms. The camp was surrounded by a ditch and earthwork and con-tained sixteen boat-shaped ‘barracks’, in four groups of four. It has been estimated that it could house 1,200 men.

Aggersborg, in northern Jutland, is almost in the centre of Denmark’s largest fjord system, the Lim Fjord—in Viking times the starting point for many raids on England. The camp’s layout is similar to Trelleborg and dates from the same period, bul it is much bigger, with forty-eight barracks in twelve blocks.

Fyrkat is in north-eastern Jutland, at the head of the narrow Mariager-Hobro fjord. Again, it closely resembles Trelleborg and is dated at about the end of the ioth century. Odense is at the head ofa long fjord, in the middle of modern Odense, and is also dated as late 1 oth century.

All four camps are strategically placed for communication by land and water; all could serve either an army, a fleet, or both; and all were constructed to the same geometrie pattern at about the same datę. There is little doubl remaining that these camps were the staging areas for the Danish conąuest of England under Svein.

Arrns and Armour

For the Viking, the sword was the principal weapon, with the axe a close second and the spear relegated to third place. (Spearmen often carried bows, which tends to conhrm the relative lack of status of both these weapons and the men who carried them.) All lhose comments madę concern-ing the value attached to Saxon swords, and to the use of hilt rings, apply eąually to the swords of the Yikings.