Norse Shield fittings

Torvaldr · Post by **Torvaldr** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:40 am

Anyone know a good source to find drawings or pictures of the fittings used on Norse Shields? Or a merchant who sells castings of those fittings?

Garth · Post by **Garth** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:53 am

Are you thinking Sutton Hoo? I cannot think of any cast sheild fittings used by the Viking age Norse. I've seen rivets, shield bosses, edge reinforcements and... that's about it.

Garth

Dave Womble · Post by **Dave Womble** » Tue May 03, 2005 8:29 am

I agree....there doesnt seem to be much evidence for the same types of shield fittings you see on earlier Anglo-Saxon shields used on Viking Age shields. There are also no drawings really, because all extant viking age shields dont support their use, and I have yet to come accross any artistic or literary instances of those types of shield fittings.

Grips are about the only thing that may have been more ornate than a piece of wood, I'll look over my sources today after work and post anything I find.

Dave

Torvaldr · Post by **Torvaldr** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:41 am

There were a couple at least. I have one drawing of metal facings from one shield, found in Valsgarde. And I know of at least one literary source. Ragnarsdrapa was written by Braggi Boddason the Old about the fitting on a shield given to Ragnar. Each casting was reminded him of a different Norse legend.

Garth · Post by **Garth** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:32 pm

I'd be curious to see your references, might be pretty cool. If you've not already looked, check out this site for one of the best writeups on the subject.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisand ... hield.html

Garth

Torvaldr · Post by **Torvaldr** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:43 pm

Well, I gave you one. Ragnarsdrapa. It is about as famous, or the most famous, Skaldic Verse Drapa there is. My copy of it is in "The Skalds, a selection of their Poems" By Proff. Lee M. Hollander. A webseach will probably bring it up. The other I have from the Dover book Viking Designs Page 31. I would really like to find a site of the Valsgard excavation and see the original myself.

Kían · Post by **Kían** » Tue May 03, 2005 9:26 pm

Torvaldr,

Is this what you're looking for?

I have copies of the Valsgarde excavation reports and I scanned them to avoid ruining my copies. There's quite a bit of info on the shields and I'd be more than happy to email them to you separately if you'd like. Or I might could be talked into burning a CD with all the Valsgarde books on them :wink:

Dave Womble · Post by **Dave Womble** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:41 am

The Anglo-Saxon Shield by I.P. Stephenson also discusses shield fittings, but I dont recall if there are any photos.

KÃƒÂan, very slick book...I'd love to get that on CD.

that shield article link is pretty much the Shield Bible, and if I had a nickel for every time I've used it or referenced others to it, I'd be sitting on a nice Carribean beach sipping Pina Coladas.

The only thing I'd like to add, is that for viking age shields, you dont see a lot of fittings...like I said, the grip being pretty much the only part decorated like that...the other fittings on the face pre-date the viking age, and I'm not sure I'd call them Norse.

I have often wondered why they fell out of use after the Vendel and Valsgarde periods along with splinted limb defenses and full aventailed helms.

Dave