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Vikings, Knights & Blood-Wadin’ Lumberjacks Mark Hatmaker

 


 

THE VIKING

“Now just for fun we’ll each name what we place our trust in. I’ll choose first, and there are three things I place reliance on---one is my purse, the second my axe, the third my storehouse.”—Spoken by Glum in Killer Glum’s Saga, Ch. 14 

The battleaxe has been a weapon/tool of war and survival for millennia.

Be it a halberd, axe and spike, the Pacific Broadaxe or the diminutive tomahawk of the Eastern Woodlands, this tool/weapon has been a staple of Warring and Frontier cultures the world over.

I am no forger of fine weapons but I am a passionate wielder of axes and old axe ways.

Be those times fara á víkingu to this redolent passage from Roger de Hoveden’s 12th century account of King Stephen’s axe wielding at the Battle of Lincoln.

“Then might you have seen a dreadful aspect of battle, on every quarter around the king's troop fire flashing from the meeting of swords and helmets – a dreadful crash, a terrific clamour – at which the hills re-echoed, the city walls resounded. With horses spurred on, they charged the king's troop, slew some, wounded others, and dragging some away, made them prisoners.

No rest, no breathing time was granted them, except in the quarter where stood that most valiant king, as the foe dreaded the incomparable force of his blows. The earl of Chester, on perceiving this, envying the king his glory, rushed upon him with all the weight of his armed men. Then was seen the might of the king, equal to a thunderbolt, slaying some with his immense battle-axe, and striking others down.”—The Annals

We have an instructional DVD that runs 2+ hours in length. It is comprehensive to say the least. 

Without giving the cow away for free I can offer you a sampling of cream to taste. 

First… 

We must acknowledge that The Norseman, hell, any axe, is a piece of history that you can hold in your two fists. 

The axe was a primary formative tool of this species; it stands alongside the wheel, and the taming of fire for helping those who preceded us to forge afar as successfully as they did. 

An axe was used to harvest fuel for fires, build shelter, craft other tools/furnishings, clear land, kill running game, and, our main area of focus, warfare. 

The instructional material draws deeply from axe-wielding warrior traditions the world over AND the deep woodsman/lumberjack culture that knew a thing or two about swinging an axe. 

We spend much time in the lumberjack tradition as most of us will not be wielding said axe while under a shell of armor. Rather we will be brittle bone and naked flesh and require tactics that reflect this level of strategic circumspection.

As you can imagine, “flesh wounds” and “grazing blows” are something one cannot afford in battleaxe battle.

We must never forget that as a tool, the use was constant, usually daily and familiar to all and those who swung it more often than most [woodsman, lumberjacks, frontiersman] often have the most to offer regarding application. 

Side-Bar: The material presented is not specific to The Norseman or any specific battle axe. One can perform any and all training with an axe purchased at your local Home Depot, it simply won’t have the romantic heft or durability of The Norseman. 

We will go deep into the technical know-hows of battle-axe use and forgo the Game of Thrones choreography that in no way, shape or form resembles battle use in any axe-wielding Warrior culture. 

Myth-busting saves us time in combative training and allows us to get to the bone-rending realities that more than make up for loss of good camera angle flash. 

In other words, we want the nitty, the gritty, the accurate and the realistic. 

“Gimme that double-bit and I shall go wadin’ in blood.”—Overheard Before a Lumberjack Melee with “Savages” in the Pacific Northwest, circa. 1880.

We want to know the brutal realities of the battleaxe inside and out. We want specialized knowledge that allows us to see as soon as someone lays a hand on an axe if they know of what they speak.  [And trust me, there is a tell—hand someone an axe, a true axe man carries in ONE way and ONE way only.]

We want to see someone carry the axe from Point A to Point B and decide if he is in our Warrior Wall or not. 

We want to see his Facing Line, we watch his wrist for Angle of Deflection. 

Yes, the Battleaxe warrior wants every wild-ass bondafide use that can be made of the fearsome weapon that is inertial steel, but the Wise Warrior wants every interface with the weapon from the casual to the Blood-Frenzy Fed Battle Usage to be fueled by proper mechanics from the first touch of hand to haft. 

An axe is more about accuracy and the finesse of the human who swings it than the steam-power of the human itself so—don’t skip the details. 

The Battleaxe Devil is in those details. 

“A manly attack, that!”—[Spoken by Kari Solmundarson after Skarphedin Njasson kills Thrain Sigfusson with an axe strike to the jaw.] Njal’s Saga, Ch.92 

Ready to start your own manly attack? 

Right now we have Battle Axe Secrets on Sale.

And…as a Premium, all who order Battle Axe Secrets in the month of September  I’ll kick in the 11-page Training Syllabus. 

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life

The Black Box Store

https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/

The Indigenous Ability Blog

https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fTpfVp2wi232k4y5EakVv...

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