The typical Viking ship, the longship, is absolutely iconic and as such a staple in books, movies, and tv-series. But how many warriors were on such a longship? And how many Longships made up the fleets that terrorized large parts of England and France, and even made it to the Mediterranean sea?
The number of warriors onboard a Viking longship ranged from around 35 to 80 men. The size of Viking fleets also varied. While only 7 longships were involved in the attack on Southampton in 980 AD, 67 longships were involved in the sacking of Nantes in 843 AD. And in 852 AD a fleet of 160 Norwegian longships fought against a similar number of Danish longships in a naval battle off the shore of Ireland while an English fleet managed to destroy a Viking fleet consisting of only 4 longships in 882 AD.
Especially that last part, the fact that longships could also be used as fighting platforms in naval battles, might be surprising. If you want to find out more about that then I would like to recommend you my article here.
But let`s now take a closer look at the number of warriors onboard a typical Viking ship!
How many warriors were onboard a Viking longship?
Both the number of warriors onboard a Viking ship as well as the length of the ship depended on the time that we talk about.
The classic Viking longship in the 9th century was 76,5 ft (23,33m) long, 17,2 ft (5,25m) wide, had 16 pairs of oars, and a crew of around 35 warriors onboard. An example of such a ship was found in Gokstad (Southern Norway) in 1880.
That kind of size and crew is also supported by medieval sources that claim that in the 9th century, king Alfred experimented with longships with around 30 pairs of oars. And these longships are explicitly referred to as being twice the size of the longships used by Danish Vikings.
By the way. While today the term Viking is mostly used to describe every early medieval Scandinavian that is technically not correct. Only those early medieval Scandinavians who left Scandinavia and went on seaborne adventures, travels, or raids were called vikingr. The Scandinavian peoples themselves did not have an overarching name (like Vikings) for themselves but identified themselves through their clans or tribal loyalties.
However, the number of warriors onboard a Viking ship rose over time.
And a source from the year 1040 reports Viking longships with 80 warriors onboard. That is also supported by other sources like the one reporting about the capture of 3 Danish longships and their crews off the North-East coast of Ireland in 986 AD.
The source reports that 140 of the warriors onboard the 3 captured longships were killed while the rest was sold into slavery. So that means that a substantial number of warriors must have been sold into slavery which allows estimations that roughly 60 warriors must have been on each of the 3 captured longships.
By the way, selling captives into slavery was a relatively riskfree and profitable way to make money even when the captive was not important enough to bring in ransom money.
Ok, so to sum it up:
The size of the Viking longships and the number of warriors on board rose over time. While the classic longship in the 9th century was 76,5 ft (23,33m) long, 17,2 ft (5,25m) wide, had 16 pairs of oars, and a crew of around 35 warriors, longships in the year 1040 had around 80 warriors onboard.
Ok, but how many Viking warriors were involved in the attacks on cities and settlements all over Europe? To find that out we have to look at the size of different Viking fleets.
The number of longships within a Viking fleet
As stated, the number of warriors onboard a Viking longship rose from around 35 in the 9th century to around 90 in 1040. And that combined with the number of longships within a Viking fleet allows us some insight into the size of Viking armies.
By the way, if you want to find out more about how expensive it was to build a longship I would like to recommend you my article here.
Generally, it is important to note that the size of different Viking fleets could vary quite drastically. Some, like the ones fighting in a naval battle in 852 AD, were made up of more than 150 ships, while other fleets consisted of less than 10 ships.
Do you wonder how longships could be used in naval battles even though unlike Roman and Greek warships they lacked a ram? Then I can recommend you my article here.
In 896 AD a fleet of 6 longships attacked the Isle of Wight while 7 longships were enough to kill or enslave the majority of the population of Southampton in 980 AD. But in 843 the crews of 67 longships (roughly 2400 warriors) were involved in the sacking of the French city of Nantes.
The size of Viking fleets involved in naval battles also varied greatly. That can best be shown by two examples.
In 882 AD a Viking fleet that consisted of only 4 longships was defeated by an English fleet. And in 852 AD a fleet that consisted of around 160 longships with Norwegian Vikings on board fought a naval battle against a similar number of Danish longships off the coast of Ireland.
That battle actually lasted for 3 days and nights.
However, such a length was not the standard for a medieval battle. Here you can find out more about how long medieval battles lasted.
And here you can find out more about what happened after a medieval battle and who took care of the dead and wounded that both sides had suffered. And in case you are also interested in the casualty rates of medieval battles, I would like to recommend you my article here.
Take care of yourself because you deserve it. You really do.
Until next time
Yours truly
Luke Reitzer
Sources
Maurice Keen: Medieval Warfare. A History (1999 Oxford).