dark age/ early medieval leather jerkin?

Mike Garrett (Orc) · Post by **Mike Garrett (Orc)** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 11:08 am

I've been asked if I can make

a thick leather jerkin-type thing, suitable for Regia, to go over mail and a jack.

Any idea if such a garment existed and where one might go to find a pattern or similar?

Regia, if you don't know, covers roughly 950AD - 1150AD. This gentleman is a Saxon, IIRC.

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:10 am

Um . . . confusion of terms, here.

A jack is a garment from, at the earliest, the 14th century.

And no, as far as I know there's no evidence for leather jerkins in the period 950-1150 - at least not in England.

And I'd be very surprised if Regia would find such a thing acceptable anyway. They're pretty tough with their standard of accuracy.

Mike Garrett (Orc) · Post by **Mike Garrett (Orc)** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:19 am

As I thought - and he e-mailed me this morning saying that he'd been given the "No" on it by hie AO

Dave Womble · Post by **Dave Womble** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:53 am

Sounds like he was looking for a stereotypical "barbarian" vest. I dont think it was very common to cover mail with anything at that time...mail was a status symbol...you wanted to show it off.

Dave

T. Finkas · Post by **T. Finkas** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 11:58 am

I think the leather jerkin adorned with metal studs might have been handed down to us by Kirk Douglas' The Vikings and perpetuated by folks like Museum Replicas Ltd (who now seem to have "retired" theirs from their offerings). It's a fun, flashy garment to be sure, and one that appeals to our love of those sword and sandal fims of the 40's and 50's (?). We are tempted to want to believe 'Vikings" wore such "manly" gear. But sadly, it seems instead to be the stuff of Hollywood (and Elstree) costumers---like horned helmets and steel-cupped Valkyrie brassiers.

Cheers,
Tim

Halvgrimr · Post by **Halvgrimr** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:22 am

actually they MAY be refering to this:

[img]http://www.vikingsna.org/temp/Loch_Glashen_crannog.jpg[/img]

This piece is now thought to be a bag of some sort and not a shirt at all.

IIRC there is another 'leather jerkin' from Scotland as well.

Regia's main proponent (a fellow named Nathan IIRC) of this being a shirt has also reevaluated his stance last I spoke with him on the RANA list.

Halv