Helmet from the Staffordshire Hoard

[Ruarigh]

They’ve reconstructed the helmet from the 7th century Staffordshire Hoard if you want some inspiration for painting an early Anglo-Saxon army. There’s a zoomable image here: https://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/explore-the-hoard/helmet-reconstruction

It’s a beautiful piece of work and well worth checking out, although I wish they talked about what compromises they made in making it. For example, one of the helmet plates looks like it’s straight off the Sutton Hoo helmet. On the other hand, you can clearly see the relationship to the Vendel and Valsgärde helmets in terms of shared iconography, and I think that’s awesome.

Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

https://roderickdale.co.uk/
https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

That is some truly amazing shit! I just saw the anglo-saxon kingdoms exhibit at the British Library, so this made my day!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Deleted User]

Would this have been worn in combat?

I saw a program featuring Dark Age re-enactors, one of whom had a very expensive replica of the Sutton Hoo helmet. If anyone even glanced in his direction, far less fighting in it, he had a fit.

But the real thing might value prestige more than wealth?

donald

[zippyfusenet]

Would this have been worn in combat?

Interesting question. The Bayeux Tapestry shows King Harold Godwinson wearing ordinary helmet and harness, like any knight, on Senlac Hill.

You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

[Etranger]

Deleted User wrote:

Would this have been worn in combat? I saw a program featuring Dark Age re-enactors, one of whom had a very expensive replica of the Sutton Hoo helmet. If anyone even glanced in his direction, far less fighting in it, he had a fit. But the real thing might value prestige more than wealth? donald

Possibly not, but perhaps a ‘best helmet’ for show, rather as was often done in the later medieval period when the well dressed monarch had a very showy suit for formal wear and often a plainer one for battle.

That wasn’t always the case though as with Henry VIII, this being his ‘field armour’.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23936 see also https://steel-mastery.com/henry-viii-wives-and-armour

 

Here’s an academic paper on the Sutton Hoo armour if you want a considered opinion!

Seen in toto the highly decorated arms and armour, like the
more prosaic mail, axe-hammer and spears buried in Sutton
Hoo Mound 1, characterise the functional reality of an elite
warrior’s life in the Germanic-Byzantine military world. The
image projected by the Mound 1 assemblage was that of a top
military commander, perhaps identifiable by his shoulder
clasps as a high-ranking member of a particular tribal or
military order whose emblem was the crossed boars. How
these trappings were seen in a far corner of Europe, of course,
might have been another matter.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/9%20Adams-opt-sec.pdf

[Ruarigh]

Deleted User wrote:

Would this have been worn in combat?

I think the balance of opinion among early medievalists is that this type of helmet would have been worn in combat. Prestige was massively important and being recognisable on the battlefield would be part of that. There is also an argument that the helmet plates have an apotropaic function, so wearing highly decorated helmets like this might have been the norm for those who could afford them. It’s a shame that helmets don’t seem to have been considered important enough to be used as grave goods, or we might know a lot more about them.

Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

https://roderickdale.co.uk/
https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

[zippyfusenet]

“‘Ow can yer tell ‘ee’s a king?”

You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

[Cerdic]

Showy? Moi?…

http://28mmreview.blogspot.co.uk

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