Viking Age Blacksmithing

The Viking Age had many metal objects that blacksmiths would have been producing. Weapons, of course, but also household items and tools.

Weapons

Household Items

  • Ladles
  • Bowls
  • Saucepans
  • Frying pans
  • Spits
  • Fire starters
  • Tripods
  • Chains
  • Candle holders

Farming and Fishing

  • Fish hooks
  • Sickles

A Viking Age blacksmith would have had the following equipment at their disposal:

  • Mild steel
  • Hammers
  • Anvils
  • Bellows
  • Charcoal (but not coal)
  • Whetstone

We are not aware that they had:

  • Grinders

Myths and Stories

Blacksmithing is an ancient, revered, and even feared craft. Here are some places where it featured in Norse stories.

Bibliography

Rethinking Petersen’s Sword Typology, Ann Feuerbach

I reexamined Petersen’s sword typology and found the hilts and pommels represent religious sects and infer mating systems. It is inappropriate to use his typology (classification) as typological seriation (dating).

The Smith on the Edge of Worlds: New Perspectives on Technology and Ideology in the Late Norwegian Iron Age, Sverre Christoffer Guldberg, 2014