The particulars concerning the sieges of towns given in the Sagas are very meagre and very rare. We only know that the catapult, called val-slöngva (war-sling), or manga (“mangonel”), seems to have been used for sieges, &c.
That these were well known to the Northmen at an early time, we have ample proofs.
Great strength of arm was requisite for their use, as several stones at a time were often shot from one catapult.
The Frankish annals, describing one of the sieges of Paris by the Northmen, show us how these machines were used by them. We have minute and graphic descriptions of their mode of warfare, and especially the methods they adopted in besieging towns—subjects that are very little noticed in the Sagas, which generally give only results, and consequently are not of much value to the student of history.
We will proceed to quote a few extracts from the writings of Eginhard, the historian of Charlemagne, which bear testimony to the formidable power of the Northmen in his time.
In 777 Charlemagne had summoned an assembly of chiefs at Paderborn.
“All came before him except Witekind, a Westphalian chief, who, feeling himself guilty of many crimes, and fearing in consequence to present himself, had fled to Siegfried, king of the Danes.”
788. “An arm of the sea of unknown length [the Baltic], but exceeding nowhere a hundred thousand paces in width, and in many places much narrower, extends from the western ocean towards the east. Many nations inhabit its shores; the Danes and the Sueones, whom we call Northmen, occupy the northern shore and all the islands; on the southern shore are Sclavonians, the Aistes and other people.”
800. “Spring having returned, the king (Charlemagne) quitted Aix-la-Chapelle, about the middle of March, traversed the shore of the Gallic ocean, constructed a fleet on the same ocean, then desolated by the piracies of the Northmen, and placed garrisons along the shores.”