Talk:Danish axe

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[edit] Richard Coeur de Lion

What on earth is the evidence for Richard Coeur de Lion making use of a Danish type Axe? He is reputed to have used an Axe, but as far as I know it is much more likely to have been a shorter Battle Axe type, which saw fairly common use.--M.J.Stanham 19:33, 14 October 2006 (UTC)


Danish Axe? Danish axe sounds somehwat funny to me as Denmark hardly have any trees at all. The Axe is originally a workmans tool, and considering how few trees there are in Denmark I say this article is POV at best. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nastykermit (talk • contribs)

Around 14 % of Denmark is covered by forest.[1] True, this number was once much lower. Around 1800, there was hardly any trees left. However, this was the result of excessive logging much later than the period we're talking about here. 1,000 years ago, much land in Denmark was still covered by forests. According to this website, the figure was around 80-90% at the dawn of the Viking Age. Anyway, the main issue here must be how the English-speaking world normally refers to this tool. Valentinian T / C 18:23, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I did a fairly broad re-write of this article. I tried to fill in the description of the axe with more detail, organized and re-wrote the sections on usage and history, and changed the reference to Richard, as there is no way to verify that he used a Danish axe specifically, only that he used axes in several battles. I am going to continue to add references once I figure out how, sorry about that. I'm also working of getting an image, as i think this will help a whole lot. --User:Agent032125 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agent032125 (talk • contribs) 02:45, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure why someone changed the thickness from 2mm to 3mm, I got the 2mm measurement from a conversation I had with Hank Reinhart, who has been recongized as an authority on weapons for the last 30 years. I have the conversation archived if you would like a direct quote. I realize that 2mm seems thin, but that's what he reported. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agent032125 (talk • contribs) 05:31, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone actually of a depiction of a Danish axe over about 4ft being used in combat? I can only of ones that are obviously serving ceremonial contexts.

  • Yes, there is a carving from Byzantium of a man stripped to the waist holding an axe that is as tall or taller than he is. Since I don't own the image, though, I couldn't add it. wooden hafts are highly perishable, abd noone at the time bothered writing down or describing these things in detail, so for haft length were going off of visual depictions such as the Bayeux tapestry, which can be subject to artistic conventions and therefore distortions. One common element, though, is that the axes depicted tend to be about chin high. Of course this would vary considerably based on the user. - Agent032125
    • So no Scandanavian contexts. Did the carving actually have the warrior wielding it in combat or is it like the Bayeaux Tapestry where the only chin length ones are those used as symbols of status?
      • How would a depiction of a Varangian be something other than Scandanavian? I'm not making any judgements of whether the image is symbolic of status or intended to depic "realistic" combat, I'm simply reporting what was depicted. Here is the ivory carving, FYI. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/relics/relics.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by Agent032125 (talk • contribs) 06:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
        • I trhink we can rule out this particular carving as providing any sort of decent reference for length of the haft. Unless we wish to try and go against archeological evidence for viking sword blades as this reference would have us wielding swords with 4 1/2 feet long blades. --82.28.44.83 (talk) 18:16, 3 February 2008 (UTC)