The Armour Archive

Egfroth

Unfortunately, you're right. There seems to be very little about. Nicolle's "Arms and Armour of the Crusading Period (or Era? can't remember) has quite a few good line drawings Nicolle took from original sources. It's a big 2-volume book, with pictures in one volume and the descriptions in the other...

Egfroth

Aha! Some actual field research! Well done, Buran!

But now we need more information - what were they made of? How thick were they? What were you walking through? Is it a buzzy found in 11th century England?

Etc, etc etc.

That'll fix you for doing real research . . .

Egfroth

This drawing is presumably a third-hand reconstruction - it's somebody's interpretation of a drawing in the Osprey "Byzantine Armies 886-1118" book which itself is some artist's interpretation of figures carved on an ivory casket. Whether or not they are actually of Armenians is another question. As...

Egfroth

How long do you have . . .? Well, make yourself a cup of whatever beverage appeals to you, sit down in your comfy chair, light up a pipe, get the faithful hound to bring your slippers, and I'll tell you the story of the Name. When I was but a nipper, and the world of re-enactment was no more than a ...

Egfroth

SUGARLOAF, CONICAL, SPANGEN HELM, are all centuries too early, though you could squeeze the Bascinet in at the beginning of your century, I should think. (However, Italy seemed to be ahead of everyone else when it came to developing armour fashions, so maybe not - I'll bow to the superior knowledge...

Egfroth

Oh, and I thought you were referring to the Varangians! (In a couple of sagas they are referred to as the Emperor's "wineskins" [vinbelja] for reasons which escape me . . .

Egfroth

During the 11th century, the criscross leg bindings were done with both trousers and chauses, right? The short answer to this, as with so many others is - we don't know for sure. There's no conclusive proof either way. We are basically forced to make our own interpretations based upon the artwork o...

Egfroth

Very nice. A great improvement in the look. In time the rings will all oxidise and the additions will be invisible. But I dunno. It's good to see them for now.

Egfroth

You dag! Cleaning your OWN sword? Where was your squire? Do you want to get in trouble with the union?

(Right mate - we saw you cleaning your own sword, in direct contravention of article seven paragraph 3, sub-para 12, section (c) (iii) . . . . Black ban! Everybody out! !)

Nice kit, BTW.

Egfroth

There is one battle in the 4th Crusade I think where the crusaders turned and ran rather than fought because they could here the drums (which was claimed to be made out of the skin of Jiska the former Hussite military leader). Couldn't have been the Fourth Crusade, which was in 1204. I'd be quite h...

Egfroth

Wikepedia is incorrect in stating the morning star was the same weapon as the godendag. See http://www.liebaart.org/goeden_e.htm

Egfroth

One of the Byzantine military manuals advises against warcries before battle, as they can sometimes have the opposite effect from the one intended. Certainly, there's one instance of a (Christianised) Viking army just before a battle where the battle cry "Kyrie Eleison" was set up, and a large propo...

Egfroth

Saverio wrote:MilleniumLancelot, I see what you're saying, but I think garters are more likely. Unless of course, wearing your underpants on the outside was the fashion .

Worked for Superman . . .

Egfroth

You take your precious dishing hammers to EVENTS? What's wrong with you, man?

Egfroth

I wouldn't worry about it - the entire population of the United States is in the same boat - English is not their native tongue . . .

(runs like hell

)

Egfroth

Yep, garters. I have no problem with garters in 9th century Francia. They are shown in quite a few sources, including the Golden Psalter of St Gallen and an equestrian statuette of Charlemagne. Not so much in 11th century England, which was what I was particularly interested in. Also this guy (and a...

Egfroth

Thanks, Caithlinn. Never heard of that before. I can do conventional tablet weaving, but tubular sounds quite wierd. If I want a tube, I'll French knit - no length restrictions.

Egfroth

Note to self. Do not explode. He is just yanking your chain. Do not get annoyed about the fact that in the Viking period a comb would actually look NEW. Do not get upset. Do not get ANGRY . . .

[head explodes]

PS: What's mung? A kind of bean?

Egfroth

Ny Bjorn, these things are TINY!!! I had no idea of scale until I started looking closely. Is that one on the far left of the middle row of the first picture (with the criss-cross pattern) the same one in the picture below, sitting on someone's fingers and being about the size of the last joint? I t...

Egfroth

crazysaxon wrote:p>s> i hunt normans

Don't we all?

Egfroth

Yep - looked like aluminium to me, too. Steel just has a different sheen, somehow.

Egfroth

Could be someone in the marines, or the coastal defenses, or almost anything. It might just be a pun on a name . . . is your name "Boatcastle" by any chance?

Egfroth

Well, he did to me . . . you should contact him and ask. Are you on the LH list? He is a regular contributor to that.

Egfroth

Here's a whole lot of stuff on the outfits of the soldiers of Emperor Constantine the Great - http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... 172#656172

Egfroth

Egfroth

The arch of Galerius (built in 305 AD)at Thessaloniki in Greece has some excellent carved representations of soldiers from this period - in fact the photos on this site are maybe TOO detailed - it gets a bit hard to see the forest for the trees. The Arch of Constantine in Bologna (Italy) is also ver...

Egfroth

And finally, the comb and case separate, owner's name side - note the different colours of the horn, particularly between this shot and the other side of the separate comb and case. It's a fairly tight fit, but This is probably a good thing. There is a hole in the case, apparently to thread a cord t...

Egfroth

Well, here's the completed comb. Pretty happy with it. I've inscribed "INDVNNA ME AH" (Indunna owns me) on one side and (in Anglo-Saxon runes) "Egfroth Me Geworhte" (Egfroth made me). In the end I didn't cut the teeth the way I described above. I found that, if you clamp the horn panel flat on the e...

Egfroth

Have a look at the thread here for a discussion on possible methods of manufacture. I am currently looking at doing some experimentation - once the current rush of projects is over - in making convex round shields out of tapered planks arranged radially from the boss, with a chamfered overlap betwee...

Egfroth

For a contemporary illustration of sax handles, see below. These are pretty typical of all the ones I've seen, at least in an Anglo-Saxon context.

Egfroth

If you don't mind the legs being straight rather than curved, you can find examples of this style right throughout the Middle Ages - variously named, though the germanic name is Faldstuhl (fold stool).

More like a "director's chair" really, and they were even used in Japan.

Egfroth

Yep - one good example is the Liber ad Honorem Augusti (c. 1195) written by Peter of Eboli. See m . The helmets are not only painted, but reflect the warrior's coat of arms. That's the most definitive of them, but there are other sources with "coloured" helmets (apart, of course, from the Mispronous...

Egfroth

Not so much that you can't use antler - though I can't think of any handles in the archaeological record, there are some of bone - but hardly any handles have survived, whatever theyw ere made of - but that it shouldn't be left in the state nature provided. We moderns like the rough, textured look. ...

Egfroth

The oldest one I know continuously kept anywhere in plain view is the helmet and mail-shirt attributed to St Wenceslaus in (I think) Prague cathedral. If it did belong to him, it would date, IIRC, to the 10th century AD. However, there has been doubt cast upon its dating, with some saying it's as la...

Egfroth

Um . . . just a tiny detail. If this is real, why is it not either dressed or sewn up? Would anybody really leave this serious a wound untreated? I think not.

I also don't think a person with wounds this serious would be capable of sitting up, but that's just me . . .

Egfroth

This would probably be what is also known as the "Valsga"rde 8" helmet. There are in fact quite a few "spectacle" style helmets that have been found in Sweden - mostly at Vendel and Valsga"rde - from this period. You can find the Valsga"rde ones (including No. 8 - with construction details) at m and...