Timeline for What weapons would be used to kill giants by a viking era civilization?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
41 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S Oct 13, 2021 at 18:54 | history | bounty ended | Nyakouai | ||
| S Oct 13, 2021 at 18:54 | history | notice removed | Nyakouai | ||
| Oct 12, 2021 at 18:49 | answer | added | Daron | timeline score: 1 | |
| S Oct 12, 2021 at 18:13 | history | bounty started | Nyakouai | ||
| S Oct 12, 2021 at 18:13 | history | notice added | Nyakouai | Reward existing answer | |
| May 26, 2020 at 15:31 | comment | added | Tom Anderson | In my experience of fighting Viking giants (in the mobile game Bad North), spears are extremely effective. They're long enough that they keep the giants out of their weapon range, and they do enough damage to take a giant down before long. Position a disciplined phalanx of spearmen at a choke point where they can't be flanked, let the giants come straight at them in a blind rage, and stab away! | |
| May 26, 2020 at 11:51 | answer | added | Chris H | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 26, 2020 at 4:08 | answer | added | Kilisi | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 25, 2020 at 20:02 | answer | added | bobflux | timeline score: 7 | |
| May 25, 2020 at 17:40 | answer | added | UrQuan3 | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 25, 2020 at 15:22 | comment | added | Nyakouai | Comments are not for discussion. Personal beliefs unbacked by fact are not answers. Lastly, logical leaps and fallacies are not answer either, not matter how much you try to change the question. I won't comment on the matter further, other than to point it's pointless. WB is both my favorite and less liked stack because some people come to answer their own question, not the one asked. Have a good day. | |
| May 25, 2020 at 14:57 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | @Li Jun but specifically, Scandinavians went viking all over the western costs of the Roman Empire. 8-9 c is pretty much mid-Dark Ages and still, d'you think someone cast a Spell of Oblivion to make half of Europe forget such things. | |
| May 25, 2020 at 14:12 | comment | added | Nyakouai | @Nzall There is magic, but it is not relevant to the question, since most people rely on steel and this question is about weaponry. As in "What do I want to kill a giant in combat". | |
| May 25, 2020 at 13:56 | comment | added | Nzall | I assume a world without magic, even though having 3.5 meter humanoids probably isn't possible without it? | |
| May 25, 2020 at 13:20 | answer | added | Bojan Hrnkas | timeline score: -1 | |
| May 25, 2020 at 12:16 | comment | added | Li Jun | @RobbieGoodwin but OP specifically ask about scandinavia not rome. | |
| May 25, 2020 at 11:54 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | @Nyakouai Lone hunters v settlements is about tactics, not weapons, as is avoiding direct confrontation… as hopefully your villagers know. The giants’ existence, not vulnerability, looks like your challenge. Struggling against history as well as physics and biology won’t make your work easier. Remember, powder isn’t canon - guns came to China circa 1100. That Rome had ballistae does mean prolly the most travelled, prolly the most feared warriors in Europe prolly knew about them. Don’t you think readers love consistency? | |
| May 25, 2020 at 10:52 | comment | added | pinegulf | Disease and starvation. Size usually correlates with food consumption need. Burn the fields and kill the livestock. (See: Burned earth tactics) Another is to poison springs and leave corpses. Disease were the killer in medieval campains. | |
| May 25, 2020 at 8:51 | comment | added | Mast | Just like killing a mammoth, I presume. | |
| May 25, 2020 at 4:06 | vote | accept | Nyakouai | ||
| May 25, 2020 at 0:08 | comment | added | Nyakouai | @RobbieGoodwin To answer you in order. First, the difference: the other question deals with a lone hunter, chasing a single prey, with the option to move, to use stealth. All the answers advised not taking the direct confrontation. This is a question where the humans will have to face the giants whether they like it or not, and they will end up close and physical. Hence my question specifically being about weaponry. Second, your example does not achieve much. Asians had gunpowder centuries before Europe had its first canon. Fact that rome had ballistae, does not mean Norse had. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 23:58 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | If this is only "vaguely" related to What a giant slayer might… where does it differ? Rome had rock-flingers and giant crossbows centuries before your 8th/9th c Norse; “ordinary" crossbows were around even earlier. Elephants are surely not slow, small or stupid but primitives killed them with spears for centuries, and mammoths before that. Whether or not it really slew the Sockburn Worm and even though it has only a three-foot blade, anything like the Conyers falchion in Durham Cathedral might make the average giant think he’d stepped on more than a thorn bush. | |
| S May 24, 2020 at 18:21 | history | suggested | Glorfindel | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
typos corrected
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| May 24, 2020 at 17:10 | comment | added | John Dvorak | Slingshots and divine blessing. Warning: divine blessing is critical for this tactic - but if it works, it works flawlessly. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 16:45 | comment | added | Nullman | I think a classic phalanx will work here. the enemy is too stupid to outmaneuver your troops and the long spears will negate the giants superior reach | |
| May 24, 2020 at 16:03 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S May 24, 2020 at 18:21 | |||||
| May 24, 2020 at 15:46 | answer | added | David Hambling | timeline score: 9 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 15:17 | answer | added | tbrookside | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 14:37 | answer | added | Adrian Colomitchi | timeline score: 3 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 11:02 | history | became hot network question | |||
| May 24, 2020 at 10:03 | comment | added | Li Jun | two hand axe like dane axe for example,spear,javelin, throwing axe, sling. trick them to dry grass plain and then ignite it, or trick them to swamp or marsh or quicksand to sink them to incapacitate them or drown them. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 5:24 | answer | added | Mr. Anderson | timeline score: 9 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 4:07 | answer | added | KerrAvon2055 | timeline score: 18 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 4:05 | comment | added | John | Aslo keep in mind the viking had siege weapons, they built catapults. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:59 | comment | added | John | Vikings were not big on using bows anyway, so it is not much of an issue. for battle they preferred throwing spears which will work fine. keep in mind there are humans close to 3 meters tall. viking defenses which relied on palisades and slopes work better against giants. as I said the giants will kill more effectively but will not be much better at surviving. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:54 | comment | added | Nyakouai | @John They make such a big deal out of it in medieval movie/series, I thought it be a lot more of a problem. Still, not sure arrows would be that effective in this precise case? Don't know. (That's why I'm asking, thanks for the comment, glad I learned something) | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:51 | comment | added | John | normal viking weapons will work fine on a giant. boar hide is not that tough. Plus their blood will be under high pressure so they will bleed a lot. chances are they will kill more vikings than a normal opponent but they likely can't replace their numbers nearly as fast. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:28 | answer | added | gmatht | timeline score: 4 | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:17 | comment | added | Nyakouai | @gmatht It's okay, you can leave Mjolnir alone, we're not dealing with Jotuns here. But I liked the reference. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:14 | comment | added | gmatht | Reputedly the antler of a hart would do the trick, but it might not work for you since it may have to be wielded by Freyr. IIRC traditionally giant slaying was left to the gods. | |
| May 24, 2020 at 3:01 | history | asked | Nyakouai | CC BY-SA 4.0 |