pentagathus said:
At this time "warriors" very rarely used bows. It was cowardly and to learn how to use a bow properly takes a hell of a long time. Longbowmen had to be trained from childhood so that they could simply use them. Javelins are a period weapon and maybe having Dane infantry armed with javelins and a separate missile tree.
I have read the opposite. Bows were commonly used, especially when boarding ships but also on the battlefield,
where some sagas refer to a 'missile phase' before the melee battle.
It's true that we have only have little 'written' evidence from before 10th century about the use of bows in battle,
but there is no reason to believe that bows were not used in battles.
"We know that the Vikings made use of the bow quite extensively both on land and at sea,
especially the Norwegians (recorded as 'Famous bowmen') and the Swedes
(the word 'bow' sometimes being used to denote a warrior in Sweden)".
Reference: http://www.regia.org/warfare/SaxonArchery.htm
Master bowmen can't suddenly have turned up around 10th century.
The tradition for use of bow in battle is probably very old, much older than the 8-9th century.
And of course it took a long time to learn how to use a bow, but practically all vikings handled a bow for hunting (and thus also battle).
More reference:
http://www.chichesterinc.com/TYMEAGAINSwordsetc.HTM
http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk/resources/articles/archery.html
When it comes to javelins, I haven't found anything supporting the use of that among vikings.
(Not saying that it wasn't used, I just don't know).
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Well seeing as normal hunting bows are next to useless against armoured warriors it's unlikely that all theese "viking" warriors used there hunting bows in battle. Good bowmen are useful in ship warfare but are also rare. Welsh longbowmen trained a lot and many ended up with messed up shoulders as they had to be traiened from childhood and this affected the way thier bones grew. So a warrior sould'nt simply be able to pick up a longbow at any stage in thier life and start shooting people with it.