| Norwegian edged weapons 1500's-1814 |
| Denmark seemed to love going to war. They were evidently not very good at it and lost chunks of Norway to Sweden several times, but they made some very nice weapons! The two countries used more or less the same weapons in this periode - that is, Denmark had a number of models that never were introduced in Norway as Norway usually got all the "old-fashioned crap". As a result, Norway has a lot of great old stuff and the Danes today hardly even know what was in use in Denmark prior to 1790. On the picture to the right, there are six of the M1788 hirshfänger. The vertical hanging broadsword in scabbard is the M1773 dragonpallask, on each side of this are the M1785 dragonpallask with the beautifull Kalmar Union badge with the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish coat of arms. The lighter and somewhat cut down version M1789 of the M1773 and finally the shortened version from 1815 of the M1750 dragonpallask. When Norway entered the union with Sweden in 1814, all remains of the Danish king's monograms were removed from the hilts and blades. |
| This page is very unfinished. More models will be added in the near future. The M1791 & the M1802 are Danish produced arms. The beautifull grip on the M1802 comes from the artillery knife M1777 (see bellow). |
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| M1791 Bosniaksabel |
| M1802 Artillerisabel |
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| Norway was important from the Viking age until the mid 1300's. Then Norway entered a "union by marriage" with Denmark - a "400 year night" with Norway in the back seat and Denmark doing all the driving. Norway did not have any regular army, but from the early 1600's the farms should be be equipped with arms depending on their size and a number of farms should go together and supply the King with an armed soldier when needed - bondebevæpningen. The most commonly spread weapon for this was the tessak. Most of them produced in Germany in the late 1500's and sold to Norway in the early 1600's. Most tessak's are like the one on the right hand side of the picture (but here the blade is shortened down som 5-6"), but they are also found with a straight blade like the one on the left hand side. Many farms had the Norwegian battle axe with the angled handle (I need one of these, take a hint!), lances and sometimes even a musket. The sword in the middle is the M1701 soldatkorde, used in both the Danish and the then established Norwegian regular army. Most of the edged weapons in Denmark/Norway were iron monted until the 1740's. The picture bellow showes a M1748 musketerkorde and a M1753 grenadersabel. These are two of the first brassmonted swords. |
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| M1750 with M1726 blade, only used in Norway |
| M1750. 1815 shortening etc. only used in Norway |
| M1773 in original used both countries(?) |
| M1785 in original used both countries(?) |
| M1789 a lighter M1773 in used both countries |
| Three "artilley knives" - faskin kniver - from the left, M1777 with a beautifull, but not very practical, grip with a lions head. This grip was moved to the M1802 artillery sable and the "knife" got the simplyfied rip as shown on the M1808 in the middle. The faskinkniv to the right is Swedish from the mid 1800's, Denmark had a simular one from the same period. |