Shields: How small is too small?

 Few, or perhaps no items of personal warrior gear are more important to our image of an Anglo-Saxon, or Viking warrior than the shield. Our understanding of this most essential piece of war-gear is informed, to some extent by pictoral depictions and written references, but, mainly, by patchy but nonetheless reliable inferences from cemetery archaeology.

Of the studies of Anglo-Saxon shields, arguably the most frequently cited, and informative, is Dickinson and Härke (1992) which, among other issues, seeks to shed light on the murky subject of shield size. Many readers, particularly those from the reenactment community, will be surprised to read that shields could often be as small as 34cm – certainly of no use for building interlocking 'shield-walls' described in later poetry, which we are led to believe was the dominant combat strategy as far back as the period of pagan burials.

Over 20 years on from the publication of this still critically important work, this observation has gradually exerted influence on some modern impressions of warriors from the period, and even beyond, given the limited evidence for late Anglo-Saxon shields, and limited availability of information on 'Viking' ones. It is further, not uncommon to hear, repeated by respected historians, the assertion that most early Anglo-Saxon shields were “little more than bucklers”. To what extent is this statement accurate? Just how small were Anglo-Saxon shields?

The Shield from Bidford-on-Avon Grave 182 (2/2)

The Shield from Bidford-on-Avon Grave 182  (Part 2) 

Bidford-182 boss  (with permission of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)

In the previous article we discussed the importance of the early Anglian cemetery of Bidford-on-Avon and the unique shield remains found in in a warrior grave known as grave-182, excavated in 1923. While this mixed-burial-rite cemetery has yielded many impressive finds (mostly dated to the 6th and early 7th centuries) the grave-182 shield remains are of huge interest and have few comparisons.

 Following two years of research, acquisition of materials, and after personal examination of the finds (kindly facilitated by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Collections Dept.), we attempted to produce a convincing reconstruction of what this high-status shield may have originally looked like, using authentic materials and techniques.
The result, we hope, will help shed new light on and raise awareness of the long forgotten find, allow the story of the find to be told, and allow greater appreciation of the skilled craftspeople who built the original.

Nb. we are greatly indebted to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Collections Department, without who's help we could not have pieced together the story of the find. Examination of the original fragments in spring 2014, in particular, was crucial to achieving a representative reconstruction. 

The Shield from Bidford-on-Avon Grave 182 (1/2)

The Shield from Bidford-on-Avon Grave 182  (Part 1) 

While some of the Early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have yielded much archaeology, and continue to yield extensive cemeteries and settlement sites for study, others are arguably less well served. The ancient kingdom of Mercia - of particular interest to our group, could in many ways be seen as such a case, and this presents a particular challenge when attempting to recreate the effects of this purportedly powerful, wealthy and sophisticated culture. Beyond the Staffordshire Hoard (itself mostly belonging to the mid-late 7th century and containing a very selective subset of items), at a glance one might be forgiven for thinking the Midlands lacked much in the way of early Anglo-Saxon archaeology.

In fact, there are a handful of archaeological sites which have yielded impressive finds, which are relevant to the earliest times of the Mercian kingdom - it is just that many were excavated in the early days of Anglo-Saxon archaeology, and their finds forgotten, lost, or hidden from view.

One such case; the large cemetery of Bidford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, initially excavated between 1923 and 1924 (Humphreys et. al., 1925) sheds valuable light on early Anglo-Saxon Mercia and has yielded many impressive finds, including a great quantity of feminine items of decidedly Anglian (rather than Saxon) affinities, including one of the most impressive square-headed brooches ever found. Among a number of warrior graves, the most impressive item, however, was a shield-boss decorated in such a way as to make it entirely exceptional, artistically, and of a status (within the British Isles) second perhaps only to the kingly shield of Sutton-Hoo Mound 1.

The impressive shield-boss from Bidford-on-Avon grave 182 is not on public display, residing with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. To raise awareness of this find and explore what this piece of warrior gear may have looked like in its day, in 2012 we embarked on a lengthy process to reconstruct the shield, using authentic materials and techniques.

Nb. we are greatly indebted to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Collections Department, without who's help we could not have pieced together the story of the find. Examination of the original fragments in spring 2014, in particular, was crucial to achieving a representative reconstruction. 

Anglo-Saxon and Viking Shield Words

Anglo-Saxon and "Viking" Shield Words 

The mark of the true warrior in Germanic society, strangely enough, was not the life-taking spear but the life-protecting shield. Warriors fought in the shield-wall and the worst disgrace was to lose one’s shield on the field of battle. As Spartan mothers had told their sons a thousand years earlier:

"Either (with) it (your shield), or on it"

Modern warriors have replaced the spear and the sword but our riot-police still use shields and shield-tactics which would be quite familiar to the Anglo-Saxon or Norse warrior.
To a large extent, the English and Norse names for the parts of a shield have been forgotten, even by historians. In this article I hope to shed some light on the names used by our ancestors for their shields, and their parts.