What Is a Dane Axe? The Two-Handed Viking War Axe

A Dane axe (Old Norse breiðøx, "broad axe") is a large two-handed Viking war axe with a wide, thin, flaring crescent blade set on a long haft of roughly 0.9–1.5 m. It was the signature weapon of the late-Viking warrior elite — huscarls and the Byzantine Varangian Guard — and is most famous from the Bayeux Tapestry at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Built for reach and cleaving power rather than for chopping wood, it is one of the most recognisable weapons of the Viking Age, and a very different tool from the small hand axe most people picture.

What is a Dane axe?

The Dane axe — also called the Danish axe — is a purpose-built weapon that emerged in the late Viking Age, roughly the 10th and 11th centuries. Its Old Norse name, breiðøx, means simply "broad axe," a direct description of the wide, sweeping blade that sets it apart. The English terms "Dane axe" and "Danish axe" came from the Anglo-Saxon and Norman world, where the weapon was strongly associated with Scandinavian and Anglo-Danish warriors.

The key thing to understand is that this was a two-handed weapon, not a wood-cutting tool that happened to be swung in anger. Everything about it — the long haft, the thin flaring edge, the light overall weight — is optimised for combat. It belongs to the same broad family of Viking axe types, but it sits at the large, specialised end of that range.

The head and haft

The head is the Dane axe's defining feature: a broad, thin, single-edged crescent whose corners are drawn out into pronounced points, often called horns or lugs. The cutting edge typically measured around 20–45 cm from horn to horn, yet the blade itself was ground remarkably thin — on some surviving heads as fine as roughly 2 mm near the edge. Because the steel is so thin, the whole axe still weighed only about 1–2 kg. That light head on a long shaft is what gave the weapon its speed.

The haft generally ran about 0.9–1.5 m, with larger status pieces reaching up to roughly 1.7 m. A still-longer later English form is sometimes called the sparth, and some scholars have seen this long two-handed war axe as an ancestor of the medieval halberd. As with all Viking-age arms, these measurements are ranges drawn from surviving finds rather than a single fixed "standard" — individual axes varied with the smith, the owner, and the occasion.

Who wielded the Dane axe?

The Dane axe was a weapon of the warrior elite rather than the common levy. Its most famous users were the huscarls (Old Norse húskarlar), the household bodyguards of Scandinavian and Anglo-Danish kings. Under King Cnut, who ruled England and Denmark in the early 11th century, the huscarls were organised into an elite standing corps, and the two-handed axe became almost their emblem.

Further east, the Byzantine emperors' household guardsmen carried it too: the Varangian Guard, drawn largely from Norse and later Anglo-Saxon fighters, were known to Byzantine writers as the "axe-bearing" guard. By the mid-11th century the weapon had spread beyond Scandinavia entirely, and even the Normans — who fought against axe-armed Englishmen at Hastings — adopted it in the generations that followed.

The Dane axe in battle

Wielding an axe in both hands meant giving up a shield, and that trade-off defined how the Dane axe was used. In exchange for losing the shield, the fighter gained reach and tremendous cleaving power. A skilled huscarl standing in or just behind a shield wall could sweep the long axe over the top of the front rank to strike men — and horses — beyond the shields, a threat that ordinary one-handed weapons could not match.

It was a melee weapon, not a thrown one: the length and balance that made it so dangerous up close made it useless as a projectile. Medieval chroniclers describe fearsome single blows — an axe felling a horse and rider together, for instance — but it is worth being honest that these are reports from the sources, not measured results. They tell us how contemporaries perceived the weapon's power, which is itself valuable, without giving us a laboratory figure.

Famous appearances and finds

The most famous depiction of the Dane axe is the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered in the 1070s, which shows two-handed axemen fighting around King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Those scenes are the reason the weapon is so tightly bound in the popular imagination to the last stand of Anglo-Saxon England.

The clearest surviving purpose-built example is the Langeid broadaxe, excavated from an early-11th-century grave at Langeid in Norway and now held by the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. Its edge measures just over 25 cm, and traces of brass wire that once wrapped the upper haft show it was a decorated, high-status weapon rather than a plain field tool — a rare physical confirmation of everything the written and pictorial sources describe.

Dane axe vs the bearded axe

People often confuse the Dane axe with its smaller relative, the bearded axe. The distinction is simple: the Dane axe is the long, two-handed war axe described here, while the bearded axe, or skeggøx, is a one-handed axe with a hooked lower blade that was used alongside a shield. For a full side-by-side breakdown, see our bearded axe vs Dane axe comparison, or read the dedicated guide to what a bearded axe is.

Is the Dane axe a "great axe"?

In the loose modern sense, yes — the Dane axe is the real-world "great axe" of the Viking Age. "Great axe" (or the fantasy spelling "greataxe") is not an Old Norse category: the Norse simply said breiðøx, and later English writers spoke of the long axe or the sparth. Today the term mostly lives in fantasy games, where the "greataxe" is the standard two-handed axe class — an archetype modelled, ultimately, on weapons like the Dane axe, though usually drawn with a huge double-bladed head that no Viking ever carried.

The same goes for the other modern labels. Reenactors and collectors call the Dane axe a "long axe" or "two-handed axe," and both fit: it is the long-hafted, two-handed war axe of its era. Where fantasy convention separates the one-handed "battle axe" from the two-handed "greataxe," the historical record is less tidy — "battle axe" simply means any axe made for war, from the one-handed bearded axe to the Dane axe itself. If you meet a two-handed Viking axe in a museum, a game, or a shop, the historical form behind it is the one described on this page.

The Dane axe today

The idea behind the Dane axe — a long haft carrying a broad, single-edged head — still makes for a striking display and re-enactment piece. Our hand-forged Ragnar Lodbrok two-handed long axe carries the same profile, with a carved handle and leather wrap, and it sits alongside the rest of our range in the Viking axes collection for anyone building a historically-minded set.

Frequently asked questions

What was a Dane axe used for?
It was a two-handed war axe. Used in both hands, it traded the shield for reach and cleaving power, letting a warrior strike over the front rank of a shield wall to reach men and horses beyond. It was a close-combat weapon, never thrown.

Who used the Dane axe?
The warrior elite. Its best-known wielders were huscarls — the household bodyguards of Scandinavian and Anglo-Danish kings, organised into an elite corps under Cnut — and the Byzantine Varangian Guard. Normans later adopted it as well.

How heavy was a Dane axe?
Surprisingly light: roughly 1–2 kg for the whole weapon. Although the blade could be 20–45 cm across, it was ground very thin (as fine as about 2 mm at the edge), so the head stayed light and fast on its long haft. Figures are ranges from surviving finds.

How long was a Dane axe?
The haft usually ran about 0.9–1.5 m, with larger status pieces reaching up to roughly 1.7 m. A still-longer later English form is sometimes called the sparth. These are ranges from surviving examples, not a single fixed standard.

Did the Normans use Dane axes?
Yes. At Hastings in 1066 the Normans fought against axe-armed English huscarls, and in the generations that followed the Normans adopted the two-handed axe themselves, spreading it well beyond its Scandinavian origins.

What is the difference between a Dane axe and a bearded axe?
The Dane axe is the long, two-handed war axe; the bearded axe (skeggøx) is its one-handed cousin, used with a shield and named for the hooked "beard" of its lower blade. See our bearded axe vs Dane axe comparison, linked above, for the full point-by-point contrast.

Is a Dane axe a great axe?
In the modern sense, yes. "Great axe" is today's loose term — and fantasy games' "greataxe" class — for a large two-handed axe, and the Dane axe is the historical two-handed war axe of the Viking Age. The Norse themselves called it breiðøx, "broad axe"; "great axe" is a later label, not an Old Norse one.

What is the difference between a battle axe and a great axe?
In games and fantasy art, a "battle axe" is usually one-handed and a "greataxe" two-handed. Historically the line is blurrier: "battle axe" covers any axe made for war, one- or two-handed, and the Viking two-handed form is the Dane axe described here.

Keep exploring: start with our illustrated guide to Viking axe types for the wider typology, then browse the best Viking axes roundup for hand-forged picks.