Although Viking longships were employed for ordinary travel and for voyages of exploration, they are perhaps most famously known for their use in warfare. Their most common wartime application was ferrying warriors to and from the sites of land-based raids or battles. However, longships also took direct part in sea battles, mostly fought between rival Viking groups.
Because they were essentially foot soldiers, Norse fighters sought to make their sea battles as much like land battles as possible. To this end, once the rival groups had reached the site of combat, each side lowered their sails and lashed several of their own vessels together, creating a large floating platform. The chief strategy was to land one's warriors on the enemy's platform and defeat that enemy in hand-to-hand fighting. If victory was achieved, the winners cut the opposing ships loose and either sank them or kept them for their own use.
A few such sea battles were described in the Icelandic sagas. The following passage from King Olaf's saga in Sturluson's Heimskringla describes the climax of the battle of Svolder, which occurred in the western Baltic Sea circa 1000. Olaf, then king of Norway, led a fleet of eleven ships to oppose an alliance of foes, including the kings of Denmark and Sweden, who had at least seventy ships. The attackers,
Viking ships clash in a battle fought between rival groups of Norse. Such encounters featured a great deal of hand-to-hand combat.
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