Are splinted arms and legs...
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
...viking?
This is a topic thats hotly debated amongst re-enactors and historians. The short answer is no. Splinted arms and legs if they existed (theres fragments, and depending on what scholar you talk to, theyre interpreted differently) would have been 6th-7th century, which predate the Viking Age by a century or more.
I havnt run accross any evidence at all for splinted arms and legs in use by Vikings...no archeological, artistic or literary evidence.
Some argue they were issued in rare instances to Scandinavians serving in Byzantium in the Varangian Guard, but then those Scandinavians would not be vikings in that capacity.
They certainly look cool with the rest of viking kit, but there's no solid basis for them.
Dave