Forged in Fire: The Seax (2022)

The seax, a distinctive hunting and fighting knife, is found regularly in the graves of Germanic peoples throughout the migration and Viking age (400-1066 AD), but not as commonly as are swords and spears. This research seeks to determine why these relatively expensive weapons might have been interred instead of cheaper tools by testing the seax’s effectiveness and durability at different bush-craft tasks (skinning, batoning, and delimbing). Another question, conducted using academic sources and secondhand testing of blades, is whether the seax’s design lends itself to combat. My aim was to establish a more well-rounded appreciation of the seax and its cultural context during Northern Europe’s early medieval era.