Thick, heavy, clumsy?

Hello sword & shield enthusiasts.

The shield was the sword’s companion for thousands of years. Alas, in modern books, games and movies it is still mostly misconceived as being unwieldy and heavy (read a fun article here), much in contrast to the archaeological record. Most larger shields were surprisingly thin, usually consisting of laminated organic materials. Despite their lightweight construction, they must have served their purpose, living up to combat requirements.

Read about modern test cutting and historical shield damages in today’s newsletter.

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Pierced and Chopped to Pieces?

High medieval romances and Icelandic sagas are full of accounts of heroes dealing mighty blows, hacking each other’s shields to pieces. Does this reflect historical reality? Or are these descriptions exaggerations for dramatic effect, literary topoi meeting the expectations of an audience that was familiar with fantastic biblical combat tales, such as the one of Samson slaying 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass?

The above 3rd century shield from the Illerup Ådal bog finds sports numerous mounts of copper alloy patching up minor damages which were probably inflicted by spears, bearing testament to the shield having survived such action and treatment.

A deep cut against the grain in the very same shield shows that it is entirely possible to deeply bury a blade in the board. Whether this damage was a result of combat or ritual destruction before deposition in the bog is impossible to say.

As various experiments have shown, a sword with a flat blade profile easily gets caught in a shield, and is not easy to retrieve, thus putting its bearer at a serious disadvantage in combat. (Also compare to respective tests conducted by Finnish group Hirdmenn. Find a video playlist in this previous newsletter.)

A couple of years ago, on the occasion of the grand opening of Ásfólk Viking Martial Arts in Eagan Minnesota, I showed how catching a sword blade with the shield edge could be used to disarm the opponent (watch a video here), deliberately intercepting the incoming blade with the open grain of the shield board. At least with a flat centre-gripped round shield this works really well.

Other forms of historical shields would have been optimised for their intended context of action, their use shifting between one as mobile armour, or as an offensive weapon in its own right (read more in this previous newsletter).

The surviving late 12th century kite shield from Szczecin rather falls into the former category. Never-the less, historical combatants would have still carefully avoided embedding their weapon in such a shield, too. After all, the opponent is the one behind the shield. Fighting the shield instead is a foolish concept in any time period.

The superficial cuts on the Szczecin shield which archaeologist Ingo Petri and myself observed during our examination of the artefact at the National Museum Szczecin in 2018 (special thanks to Dr Anna Kowalska) suggest that careful distance management was paramount. Shields were to be used with the same level of skill required for any weapon. They were never designed to make up for a lack of proficiency.

(More about the shield's combat damages in this post of mine. Watch the first two parts of my video presentation here.)

Now my fellow swordsman Patrick Lasota who has previously created an accurate reconstruction of the Szczecin shield, exposed its preceding prototype some harsh treatment, assisted by Vivi of Kleine Akademie (where the both of them also train mounted combat).

At any rate, I am most grateful to anybody who sacrifices their gear to gaining knowledge, and I find the video of the test cutting highly educating, in particular in light of the cuts on the original shield. Do not miss to take a look yourself, and see what might happen when your blade gets stuck.

Video: Cutting at the shield edge

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Against the Grain

Triangular shields of the High and Middle Ages were usually strapped to the arm, thereby limiting shield mobility to a certain extent. Turning the shield to twist a stuck blade out of the opponent’s hand was therefor less of an option than with more mobile a shield. While you could definitely do shield pins and strikes with the edge or point of the shield (watch a sparring video), I would rather consider this form of shield as mobile armour.

In this context it is interesting to note that the 13th century shield of the Lords Nordeck zu Rabenau (now kept at the Museum for Cultural History, Philipps University Marburg) sports a reinforced top edge. At right angles to the planks that make up the board, a cross piece was fitted into a slot on the inside. This results in a two-ply construction that would be much harder to cut. The outermost layer consists of the usual hide cover.

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So, that's it for today. Take care, and keep your blade well-honed.

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Yours,

Roland

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