The Armour Archive

Egfroth recently sent me some fascinating information on the Carlingian Period. I was attempting to put together an earlier period kit utilizing this ridge/spangenhelm, and was making the common mistake of looking for evidence to back up a preconceived notion.

[img]http://www.geocities.com/area51/rampart/8771/spangen1.JPG[/img]

(The only way I can get this picture to work is to right click on it, left click on properties, copy the address, paste on the address bar, then hit go, then back. Then it shows on the post.)

A similar helmet can be seen here:

[img]http://www.geocities.com/area51/rampart/8771/spangen4.JPG[/img]

His documentation was on helmets resembling a morion as being appropriate to this time period.

[img]http://www.geocities.com/egfrothos/Frankish.jpg[/img]

The information he sent me had some other interesting observations that merit discussion:

The picture of the Carolingian light cavalry shows the horsemen clearly riding without stirrups. I had thought that by 820 - 830 AD stirrups were fairly common.

The picture of the hose belonging to St. Germain, 700 AD, as well as the trousers from the Anatomy of a Footsoldier (New Hedeby) both show belt loops, rather than a draw-string sewn inside the top hem or being rolled in braies.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">In the winter he protected his shoulders and chest with a vest made of the skins of otters or rat*</font>

*sable or ermine

I am assuming this "vest" is a mantle, and the sable is fur side out?
Would the stockings be wool? What about the garters binding his legs?



[This message has been edited by Bascot (edited 03-23-2002).]

From Egfroth's site, the helmet in use:

[img]http://www.geocities.com/egfrothos/Fig10_Paslter2.jpg[/img]

Here it appears they are using stirrups.

Bascot (and others similarly interested); I've just added another picture of the same helmet reconstruction, from a much more informative angle, along with mail broigne (hey, these are Franks, otherwise I'd be calling it a byrnie or brnja), sword and convex round shield. It's at http://www.geocities.com/egfrothos/Frankhelm.html

The convex round, BTW, has marked advantages over the flat shield, including better visibility with better protection, and "shock absorption".

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Egfroth

"I can't help it. I was BORN sneering" - Pooh Bah
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

Thanks for the e-mail. I saw it when i was looking for that last picture. GeoCities doesn't support hosting very well though do they?

No. Basically theey suck. I saw someone's request for a free server that didn't have all these drawbacks, and someone mentioned one, but I didn't think to make a note of it and now I forget where I saw it.

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Egfroth

Major Bloodnok, Queen's Forty-Third Deserters (retd.) "Do you know what it's like to be in the thick of a bloody battle, with bullets flying and sabres clashing?"
Ned Seagoon: "No."
Bloodnok: "Pity; I was hoping you could tell me . . ."
see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

Nice info all around -- Bascot, or sooner later we have to get together and bang on each other... I'm slowly assembling a late Avar/early conquest-era Magyar kit... if you ply me with beer, and I'll betray some Moravians for you!!

Bascot, do you do SCA or metal weapons combat? Just interesed. there's no way known the Frankish helmet can be SCA legal and still look good . . .

Egfroth

PS: GOD how I hate bar-grills . . .