Vikings didn’t wear two-horned helmets, making themselves look like bulls, and they didn’t carry giant battle axes into war. They carried light-weight, fast-moving longaxes that could drink your milkshake from all the way across the room. Hurstwic offers some photos and description of the Viking axe.

This shows three clashes between reenactors at Ravensborg, near Knox City, Missouri, in 2012.

Too bad the tall guy didn’t land his blow about nine seconds in. He almost had it won.

We used to share many videos from a couple Viking era combat reenactors, who worked hard to demonstrate the real fighting skill of the Viking while avoiding injury. If you search our blog, you’ll find many Friday fights. This one is a great example, an unarmored man versus a fully armored man. Who will win?

This comes from the Åland Saltvik Vikingmarket in 2009. It’s far more demonstration than the fights we’ve seen in Minot, ND. They aren’t playing by the same rules, but there’s some appeal here. It’s a crime they cut the video too soon.