Free Sounds - Nordic War Horns
Free Viking War Horn Sound EffectsStrike Fear with These Viking Horns of War
The Vikings are coming! The horn blasts pierce through the fog as they warn of the coming horrors of war. The shields begin to rattle as the raiders pound them with their swords; they begin to shout, and when the last horn blast has sounded…
These high-quality FREE NORDIC WAR HORNS were recorded at the Stenhamra quarry outside Stockholm, Sweden. The quarry is situated upon the ruins of an old Viking village settled on the route to the spiritual city of Uppsala. To record this pack, we brought in Eilif Gundersen from the band Wardruna, who presented a collection of horns for the library:
Bronze lur – The finest example from the Scandinavian Bronze Age and different notes can be played by over-blowing. We used a replica of a 3,000-year-old horn that’s on display at the National Museum in Copenhagen.
Bukkehorn – One of the oldest kinds of lip-vibrated instruments, this bukkehorn was carved from a billy goat’s horn with finger holes added to make different notes.
Neverlur – This horn is made from slow grown pine. The pine is split into halves, carved out and then kept together with strips of birch bark. This is the most common horn mentioned in the Viking Sagas.
The resulting sounds are perfect for scenes of medieval battle in films and games, or anywhere you need to add a sense of mystic sonic wildness.
The FREE sound effects in this pack can be used anytime you need it. Completely FREE, you’ll always have the license to boom.
What’s Inside
Technical Specifications
What we recorded
The medieval Nordic peoples were fearsome warriors, famed for their sea-born raiding and pillaging, or “going a-viking”. To signal their fellow raiders and to strike fear into the hearts of their victims, the Vikings would blow upon brass and wooden war horns, or lurs. The oldest lurs were made of wood, first mentioned in the great Viking sagas.
Since the old days of raiding and pillaging, these fearsome horns have also been used to herald terrifying sheep and cattle by many a great Scandinavian farmer and milkmaid.
These sublime horns were recorded at a distance to enhance their mystery and otherworldliness. We used our faithful Schoeps ORTF3D rig set in a stone quarry outside of Stockholm. Included with each of the 294 files are 6 variations, with legato and sforzando articulations, and some melodies.
What's so special about this library?
Joining us for our rocky, outdoor sonic exploration was none other than professional musician and horn-blower Eilif Gundersen, known for his part in the phenomenal music group Wardruna. Wardruna is the neo-folk group made famous for writing and recording the theme of the award-winning Vikings show.
Get a feel for the sound and mood of the horns in this video of Eilif playing in Wardruna (he comes in at 3:50):
Image used:
Viking War Horn – Copyright by Jairo Cardenas on sketchfab ; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License | Perspective was adjusted, more layers and image effects were added and color adjustments were made by the BOOM Library team for our purposes. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/viking-war-horn-8f75b83c095e48fdbad57593259ea0cb
