Category:Siege Warfare

Viking Siege Warfare

Vikings were not overly well known for sieges. The distinction between a viking raid and a viking seige is a bit vague, but is often when a raid is repulsed and the Vikings do not retreat and decide to ‘dig in’ for a prolonged confrontation. A good distinction is viking attacks on lindisvarne and paris – lindisvarne was attacked and the monastery sacked within a day, whereas the second siege of paris in 885-886 lasted for over a year, could easily be described as a siege.

In modern terms, a siege is defined as: "when the attacking force encounters a fortified position (like a city or fortress) that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault and refuses to surrender"

Viking age fortifications

Unlike later ages, i.e. post 1066 Norman invasion of modern Britain, Viking age fortifications consisted of mostly earth-based structures and wooden palisades, most of which were around large towns or key control points of the time.

There are a few types of structures that the Vikings will have come up against during their raiding and pillaging purely dedicated for defence. This does mean that vikings never truly had the need to develop siege weapons as there was ‘nothing’ that really required it - i.e. no great norman built stone castles. The main defensive structures in the viking age are:

• Small stone churches – located in most villages/towns, while not a military structure, it can be a place of refuge.
• Palisade walls – walls designed to keep out invaders, often made of wood, piled earth and/or stone.
• Walled towns – large settlements that have decided to build walls for defence. Examples are: Paris, York, Anglo Saxon Burh’s, Hedeby and Birka.
• Hill forts – large earthworks with wooden walls and piled compacted earth arranged often in defensive circles. Examples are: maiden castle in dorset, Trelleborg denmark, aggersborg in Sweden.
• Defence Towers – large towers offer good viewpoints and platforms to launch stones/arrows/spears from and are well within known viking construction abilities to build. They were not built completely of stone but instead of thick wooden timber, wattle and daub or packed earth/turf. Examples are: Aggersborg and Fyrkat, Jorvik. There is a french example of using towers along a riverbank to defend at the siege of paris.

Viking siege weaponry

There is very little evidence for Viking age siege engines used by ‘Vikings’. As such it is difficult to produce any replicas as a there isn’t anything to go off. There are some vague references that at the siege of Paris, Vikings used Rams and catapults, and managed to ‘scale the walls’, so it can be inferred that they had/used ladders. It could also be argued that they used their longships to surround and ‘lay siege’ to the city, being able to block off access. Use of bows, arrows and slings are well know to have been used in the viking age (see section on weapons). There are numerous records of Vikings setting alight buildings, either by accident or on purpose once the defences have been breached. So it can be therefore argued that fire could have been used in attempts to breach fortifications.

Recorded Viking sieges:

• Paris (885-886 AD)
• York (867AD - Great heathen army)
• Chester (907AD) - use of strategic beehives as seige weapons, along with boiling ale.(see reference 1)

Portraying Sieges in LHE/Shows

As there is no physical evidence of Viking siege equipment, and only vague second hand references to it, accurately portraying siege equipment in living history can be quite difficult. It could be argued that a battering ram for use against gates, ladders and a mangonel style catapult could be built by viking age peoples and as such, displayed at a show.

There is vague reference to the building of a rolled tower at the siege of Paris, but whether this was well known or a one off in the Paris siege is difficult to ascertain, and any details of it are sketchy at best (currently).

In terms of fortifications done by people of the society, There has been static Wooden Towers used before at Viking shows (see the vikefest 2022 'major-major' show), aswell as wooden woven fences/palisades (see Rhuddlan shows) during scripted combat, aswell as scaled down versions of longships on show at multiple shows.

• The use of fire to burn/destory any fortifications is a NO due to health and safety.
• The use of boiling ale is also a no due to health and safety.
• The use of Beehives on the battlefield is suspected to be prohibited, although an exact ruling has not been found...
• There is no evidence Vikings has trebuchets style siege weapons.
• There is no evidence Vikings had gunpowder cannons.
• There is no evidence of a ‘Scorpius’ ballistae roman style used by Vikings. (possible citation here as they may have had something at paris)

References:

Reference 1 = J. N. Randler, Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Dublin, 1978)

Disclaimer: This article has ‘generic Viking knowledge’ with some references to solid evidence, there may also be some grammactical or spelling errors. Please be patient as it is still under construction/review. This article has been created as a response to the question: 'Did vikings lay siege to places or just raid everywhere then run off?' (Skallagrim Ursabane - 08/12/2025)