Design Practice 2 // good is Vikings as Warriors

From producing my lists after the workshop i have derived that I would quite like to focus on 'The Voikings' as a topic, after trying to find brief histories of the vikings it seems that it is an extremely broad subject spanning over hundreds of years and revolved around a huge amount of unique cultures and different histories. Therefore I have decided to focus the topic down further and just focus on the vikings as warriors. I want to try and find out what made the vikings so successful when it came to battle and hopefully through research into this area I will be able to form some sort of concept idea for the brief. 

What made them good fighters? 

I took a trip to the library to see if LCA had any literature on Vikings what so ever, I managed to find 2 books, the first called 'A Treasury of Viking Design' by Courtney Davis, which shows examples of patterns and designs that were commonly found in boat calving, architecture, pottery and weaponry  from the viking era, I thought this would be useful for visual development throughout the brief.

I also found the book ' The Vikings : Lords of the Sea' by Yves Cohat which is a guide focused on the  brief history, culture, trade, gods, legends and facts of Vikings.

This Extract is from the section Weaponry and Strategy of the book

' The main strength of the Viking warrior lies in his ship, but his armies, designed for fighting on land are also outstanding

the Viking warrior was protected by a breastplate padded with leather, or by a sort of mailshirt. His head was covered by a conicle helmet with a plain nose-guard mad of leather or iron. His Normal weapon consisted of a medium - sized bow of yew, reinforced with leather , of which the string (if legend is to be believed) was made from the long tresses of women's hair.
In the thick of hand-to-hand fighting the combatant, protected by a shield of lime wood, reinforced with iron panels, could handle a javelin, dagger, or sword with great skill. Foot soldiers were chosen for their height and impressive strength, and wielded a very heavy long-handled battle-axe. During combat the infantry would form a solid front against opposing cavalry. Then the fearsome battle-axes, which could fell a horse or cleave a shield at a single blow, would slice into the enemy.

The cavalry was chiefly made up of Magyars, superb horsemen from Hungary. Capable of shooting an arrow at full gallop, they evolved a method of fighting in formation. Their favourite weapons, besides the bow were the dagger, sword and lance.

But it was at sea that the Vikings were at their most effective. the dragon ship was able to sail on the high seas, to penetrate into the heart of foreign lands by river and to withdraw without turning round; the identical design of prow and stern allowed it to reverse simple by rowing in the opposite direction.

In their battles the Vikings did not hesitate to use cunning, They would carefully choose just the right moment for attack: above all on Sundays. saints' days or at the time of religious service, when the inhabitants were otherwise occupied. Thus they entered Nantes on 24th June 843, a feast day with a fair; at Paris in 885 Easter Day was chosen, early in the morning; at Tier in 882 it was Holy Thursday. In 841 the Danes went up the Seine without one act of violence. It was only on their return down river that they attacked villages and monasteries under the eyes of petrified inhabitants.'