If anything, I'm pondering "what else" were they equipped with? Assuming Mord is right, which I see no reason NOT to do! - we are looking at a situation where most fighters on any battlefield of the era were probably not wearing metal armor at all. So what were they doing? Like I said - I've been a...

It looks like yor stitches are too loose for such stout leather. Seconded - each stitch should be as tight as humanly possible. Some folk i know even tie knots in the thread after every stitch, though I've never felt the need to go that far. another trick is to do a second set of stitches through t...

On a slight tangent - I've been experimenting with a square buckler (or the type depicted on a few stones) and single hand spear for a wee while, no armour and steel weapons. I can report that this combination is superb for light, fast skirmish style combat and is possibly the most enjoyable style o...

Three very minor comments for you (and 2 of them are quite geeky). First off - while black is doable with period dyes (I know a couple of folk who have managed it) it has a tendancy to fade incredibly quickly - this is one of the reasons why certain UK based groups don't use black cloth. Secondly yo...

Heh, cool - sounds like you are wanting to read Hand and Wagner's articles in the 2 SPADA anthologies! (by way of explanation - in these 2 articles they examine the idea of backdating Talhoffer's duelling shield techniques to "viking" style sword and shield BUT what they mostly do is give a superb i...

No need to bring your own coconut shells, you can borrow them at the gift shop.

the audio tour is also being revamped - the new version will be narrated by non other than Terry Jones!

If you are planning on making it up to scotland then try Doune castle (best known from Monty Python's Holy Grail), Stirling Castle (beautiful place) and Edinburgh Castle (pricey but really impressive).

I was with Grantanbrycg as a squishy so my shield was red and black. I had a green wool tunic with red and yellow embriodery on it if that helps Lol.

dark hair and beard?

You shouldn't worry too much about it being side - the shield should be tot he scale of the user - if you are tall and/or wide then a big shield is perfect.

Um, how thick is that wood?

a warrior used what wood was avialable. I can't disagree, I can only say that ash is/was quite a common wood and with good care taken of the land can yeald large amounts of useable staves. I've read some stuff on wood for shields, your earlier comments seem to fit well with that reading, but I'll s...

Seems we've stood together in the shield wall then, I was at Chester with Regia and did my spear test there with Mike and Paddy.

Nice one!
sadly my memory for names is terrible - what colours did you have on your shield?

"Where was this wood found?" I've not found anyone who has tried to answer this question--interest in early medieval arms and armor is rather limited--but I'm willing to bet that ash wood was not universal to Scandinavia or any of the parts of Europe that were invided or colonized. I'm anything but...

Aye, I am, and I was.
Infamy, Infamy, they've all got it infamy!

hope this works.. something of a luddite here...
I'm the armoured warrior about to impale the squidgy.
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Last I heard re the Sutton Hoo helmet images:

current theory is that the guys depicted are wearing jackets/coats of a similar (but shorter) design to the caftan style coats from Birka.

no idea if this is correct, but they do kind of look like coats.

Your best bet is to look at the Hurstwic site - they've done some step by step practical research into basic fighting styles... BUT like all of us involved in LH for the early medieval period it is just best guesses, backdating later styles and supposition. on a more personal note - I've been workin...

Just a quick note to say that while there is some evidence for how shieds were made back them (Hurstwic's site covers that very nicely - they are a superb resource) most UK steel re-enactors/LH people make their shields slightly differently - for 2 reasons... 1) a little extra safety on the field 2)...

It was the best defense against the most common weapon of the time, the spear maille isn't the best defence against spears - a strong thrust can punch through the little holes and tear into the warrior. maille is however very good at stopping sharp edges from cutting you and when combined with dece...

Dalloch - you've forgotten two other items!

1) shield, never leave your "net of spears" at home!

2) a good pair of shoes - they allow you to move out of danger without worrying about what you step on/in!

There is still very little evidence of a ‘cult’ of bear killing in connection with ‘berserkers’, that’s my main contention here. You have stated on several threads that this (a berserker only getting a special name and a bearskin) is what happened, based on what you have read in ‘the sa...

bears aren't as bad as people make them out to be...so long as you don't piss them off

am I the only one who feels that attackign a bear with a knife might just count as "pissing it off"

as for berserkers, when they went into a berserkergang there was no way they would register the danger. some believe this state was due to a birth defect or could have been brought on by hallucinogenic drugs. please, give me one piecce of evidence for this that is not from the Sagas! as for taking ...

Not impossible, but how often do you think it really happened? to be totally honest I don't think it happened much at all - if only because of the pressure of combat and the amount of space you need to do so without cracking any of your friends in the face with the thing! there are a few small refe...

with practice you could do it with arrows too only a very few could ever manage that - a 100lb (or more) bow casts and arrow at much greater speed than a spear can ever be thrown - with the 30lb bows used by most LH groups it is entirely possible - but they are very weak bows (for obvious safety re...

moose were/are still hunted in what use to be the vikings domain...they wouldn't have just left the hide out there so they had to do something with it. and about bear hides well there is a reason bears were revered by warriors...now i don't have exact references for what i'm about to say, and i may...

I always liked Grettir snatching spears out of the air while in mid-jump, then throwing them back at their owners. perfectly doable with a little practice - did some messing around with throwing spears this summer and it only took about 15 minutes to get to the stage of catching and returning the t...

and i can't go into the UK...especially with the weapons i have for my costume. the joys of the interweb - you can easily look up photos and information (and, most importantly - look at their sources and reasoning) from UK based groups, at least two of which have small but eager branches over in no...

does anyone know anything about whether the viking really did wrap their boots with fur during the winter? if your feet are cold then check out the naahlbinded sock found in the Coppergate digs in York - I can vouch for the warmth of good homespun wool that's been naahlbinded. if your feet are very...

Ok, been lurking here a while now and just joined due to this thread. as has been mentioned upthread it is a very good idea to make yourself good quality soft kit before ploughing into the headache of high status arms and armour - I'd even go so far as to suggest making some simple low status clothe...