Now, a week after our return from Moesgaard, after confirming memories with pictures and videos, it is time for a preliminary analysis of the battles; the largest yet in its 40 years of history, with 610 warriors participating.
As I am no longer a commander, I have limited view of the entire battlefield and will thus by necessity focus on Ask. I will try to include what I can of the rest of the battles, and will gladly hear the comments of anyone who had a better view and idea of what was supposedly happening.
You should also all beware that I try to be an objective observer and analyst, so that any criticism or suggestions for improvements are not meant as degrading (I am no diplomat), but as a possible help; right or wrong, for I also am not infallible.
For a description of the terrain, see here, and the pictures below. In combination with the weather, this would prove significant.
Briefly, the best viking reenactment fighters globally in the "Western Style" fighting meet as part of Moesgaard Viking Market for a week every year. Here we train and exchange new methods and ideas (and drink and boast and wench) during the four days leading up to the weekend, with Friday being reserved for a division into two sides of equal strength and a few test fights, then culminating during the weekend with four large battles and four "circles" (every man for himself in a huge melee till only one is left standing). The winners of these battles and circles are the unofficial world champions for a year. And just as not all individual fighetrs are equally strong, not all groups are- not to mention size as they range from one to 117 present fighters- so it is a difficult task; not least because three large and two medium/small groups are usually considered stronger than the others.
These are in order of size:
- Ask (Aarhus, my group), 57 fighters present.
- Ulfhednir (Cph, our best friends and worst rivals), appr. 35 figthers.
- Einwik (Germany, I can never spell it right), also appr. 35 fighters
- Trek (Holland), appr. 15 fighters.
- Atgeir (Sjælland), appr. 15 fighters.
The Battlefield
- The Battlefield itself
- The reconstructed Stone Age Burial House
- The "Knee" a small hillock.
- Entrance for the Forest Side
- Entrance for the Beach Side
- the small red dots are photo
Entire market and combat area
- A is the beach side muster-site
- B is the forest side muster-site.
- C + beach is the market
- D is the audience area during the shows
The exit from the forest side muster-site (B)
First part of the march route from the forest muster,
appr. from adge of photo above.
The hill seen distantly on the photo above.
And the path down from it...
And down to its worst part
Muddy tracks, slippery authentic soles
The soles close up
Entrance from forest, view towards the Burial House
further up the field from the forest
From the small "knee" on the field and down across it at it widest point
The same location towards the beach
From the beach entrance towards the burial House
Same location, towards the beach, firm but sligthly narrow path.
the bridge across the stream seen below
is at a 90 degree angle on this path, down where the people are loitering
The march route from the beach side mustering point to the path above.
Firm, nice gravel.
With the sides split, Ask was on one side, with the other four strong groups as our opponents, with us we had the huge Army of Jomsborg (117 fighters, from subgroups of the same major group spread across various nations, but thus not used to fight in a large group) and small groups from Ireland, Scandinavia - including Denmark- and Germany (that I know of, there were likely more groups I do not know) of varying strength. On the other side our opponents also included Icelanders, other Danes and Germans (again that I know off).
There were Austrians, Italians and French as well, but I am uncertain where they fought.
Judging from the week's fighting and our estimation of sides, things looked bleak for Ask, our main ally was not used to fight as a group and as we did not actually feel our best we expected to loose, but to give it our very- VERY best before we fell. Our beloved and hated Wolves (Ulfhednir) spent Friday evening celebrating their impending victory, or at least felt very secure they would win.
Our side won the contest (often tug-of-war) on Friday to choose where to muster in the first battle, and our Norwegian General decided to muster on the Beach Side.
Saturday Morning Battle
The plan was to deploy Ask on the left and use us as a hammer to grind away the enemy, while the rest of our line provided a hammer. Then when we had thinned out the enemy, the Norwegian groups allied as Nord would break through as our reserve.
However, as Clausewitz noted; "war is the province of uncertainty" and our reserve never showed up. I hear from one of the Norwegians that The Army of Jomsborg deployed in such density that Nord had to close a hole between them and the other groups in the front line, but as The Army was left of and behind us as we pushed forwards strongly, I cannot verify this- in light of later events, it sounds likely though.
So now we were supposed to attrit the enemy, create a hole and break through it. And it started out slow. There are pros and cons to our numerous one-handed spears, and at the start it seemed to me as bannerbearer that we were not pushing strongly and offensively enough. Our enemies had deployed only one of their strong groups, either Trek or Atgeir (I cannot recall), against us and were pushing hard on our far left in front of the audience (I am as yet unaware of their plan). The battle was thus quite Hellene with both right flanks pushing hard. Eventually we broke through the enemy and started both rolling up the enemy and "liberating" our left flank by running up (and uphill) behind and round the Burial House and hitting them in the back.
We had no left flank left though, it had collapsed, and as we engaged, most of Einwik turned with others (I presume reserves) and we faced a really hard faight against strong enemies who we love to fight as they are a hell of a challenge, but who we can usually not kill fast, and who can sometimes beat us. This time we pushed through them though, our right flank maintaining its momentum and pushing forwards. The battle had turned 180 degrees and some of thought we were now done, but I looked up and to the left as we pushed through their remnants and saw Ulfhednir and their remaining friends down where we started, having killed our last friends and forming up to hit us in the flank. Ask and our surviving friends faced a really hard and equal struggle yet if we were to pull victory from the grasp of defeat.
Here are some of them in a posed picture, nice guys- really- but not what you want to see coming at you after fighting through the enemy line twice and running uphill.
Yet our blood was up, we had momentum and we would let nothing stop us. We rallied as we moved downhill to fight them and as the remnants of two major Danish group, reinforced by our surviving friends faced off they probably stood no chance; their expected certain victory had turned into a hard fight and our expected defeat had turned into a slaughter of anyone who faced us.
It was a hard fight still, but eventually the heroic Wolves fell and the "King" of that side was killed to the cheers of the audience. The "dead" were resurrected by Odin, and the following "Circle" was won by Thomas Smith from Ulfhednir (training and living with us in Aarhus though), they are very good individual fighters too.
So snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Ask and our side were happy. We believe, as one of our Norwegian allies said it; that it was Ask winning that battle. We often do well, and the tactic is often that we are to win the battle, which is a bit risky, for if we do bad (as happens) or the enemy finds a way to neutralise us our line is also neutralised and very few viking reenactment groups practice Auftragstaktik, though I try to change that.
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