Difference between revisions of "Mail Shirts"

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This article's completion rating is 1 out of 5. Article planned for future work. No real progress to date.

Viking Age Compendium articles on Armour:

Wargear

Mail Shirts

Lamellar and Scale Armour

Jacks and Gambesons

Viking Age Compendium articles on Armour:

Wargear

Mail Shirts

Lamellar and Scale Armour

Jacks and Gambesons

Introduction

We have no surviving mail shirts from the Viking Age in Britain. Even across Europe we only have the one find from Gjermundbu in Norway and that is seriously damaged due to being cremated. So to deduce the style of mail shirts worn during the Viking Age in Britain we need to look at both the manuscript evidence, both Anglo-Saxon and continental, and at the scraps of mail that we have managed to recover. Unfortunately although armour is mentioned in literature, for example Beowulf, it is usually refereed to simply as a byrnie. This translates as "body Armour" and doesn't necessarily mean that it's a mail shirt as it could equally be referring to scale armour or even lamella. This issue of separating Mail shirts from other forms of body armour is equally an issue with manuscript images. Here I have made a 'best guess' but I appreciate that other people may well interpret an image differently to myself.

Type 1 : Short Mail Shirts

Type 1a: Short mail shirt to just below the waist with short sleeves

A mail shirt that stops a couple of inches below the belt. Sleeves are usually to the elbow but can extend to the wrist.

Anglo-Saxon

Carolingian

• 

  Book of Maccabees c.????

It would appear that the typical 8th - 9th century mail shirt seems to end just below the belt line. Some of them appear as though they may be vandyked or side split – see below.

Type 1b: Short mail shirt to just below the waist with long sleeves

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  Franks Casket c.700-750

Carolingian

• 

  BNF Lat. 12048 Gellone Sacramentary, c.790-795

Type 1c: Short Vandyked mail shirt to just below the waist with short sleeves

Vandykes are a triangular finish to the hem and sometimes the cuff of a mail shirt.

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  BL Cotton Cleopatra C VIII f.18v, c.1000

• 

  BL Cotton Cleopatra C VIII, f.27v, c.1000

Carolingian

We have a few pictures that can be interpreted as Vandyked shirts. London, BL, Cotton Cleopatra C VIII f.18v dated to the late C10th is perhaps the most famous although it may not actually be a mail shirt. [Migration era evidence?]

Type 1d: Side split mail shirt

A side split mail shirt’s skirt is open at the sides. An unsplit mail shirt has an additional side gore added to the side of the skirt to allow movement and offer protection.

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  Bod. Lib., MS Douce 296 c.1025-1050

Carolingian

• 

  Nurnberg, Nat. Germ. Mus., f.18v, Codex Aureus, c.1020

Mail shirts are usually shown unsplit. A few of the depictions from Western European manuscripts do however show side split mail shirts.

Type 2: Standard Mail Shirts

Type 2a: Mail shirt to mid-thigh or knee with short sleeves

A mail shirt that reaches to the thigh, with sleeves that usually come to the elbow.

Anglo-Saxon

Carolingian / Ottonian

• 

  St. Gallen, Golden Psalter, c.833

• 

  The Basilewsky Situla (V&A A.18-1933), c.980-81, Milan

• 

  Aachen Ivory Situla c.1000

• 

  Paris, Bib. Nat., NAL 1390, La Vie De Saint Aubin c.1100

Type 2b: Mail shirt to mid-thigh or knee with a small split and short sleeves

A mail shirt that reaches to the thigh, has a small split front and back, and sleeves that usually come to the elbow.

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  Boulogne MS11 f.104v, c.980-1041

Carolingian / Ottonian

• 

  Vatican Lat. 9820, c.985-987

• 

  BL Egerton 3763, f.116v, c.998-1018

• 

  Dijon, Bib. Mun. MS 488 f.68v, Constellation, c.1000

• 

  Hildesheim Cathedral, c. ????

• 980AD Byzantine ^{[NICOLLE 2005]:p.51}

Type 2c: Mail shirt to mid-thigh or knee, short sleeves & chausses

A mail shirt that reaches to the thigh, sleeves that usually come to the elbow and mail covered legs (chausses)

Carolingian / Ottonian

• 

  Vercelli Bib., MS CLXV, c.825

Type 3: Long Mail Shirts

Type 3a: Long mail shirt with a 'Bayeux style' split, an integral coif and short sleeves

Interpreted as either a front split mail shirt or alternatively a mail shirt with mail shorts.

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  Hexateuch c.1025-1050

• 

  Winchester Carving c.1050-1100

• 

  Bayeux Tapestry c.1076

Ottonian / Norman

The ‘mail shorts’ theory has been dismissed by Wilson ^{[WILSON 1985]} and Grape ^{[GRAPE 1994]}. They consider these images to simple show a stylised form of a long split (Type 3b).

Type 3b: Long mail shirt with a long style split, an integral coif, and short sleeves

Anglo-Saxon

• 

  Harley Psalter f.73, c.1025-1050

Ottonian / Norman

• 

  Genève, Ms. lat. 357, C11th

Type 3c: Long mail shirt with a long style split, an integral coif, and long sleeves

Anglo-Saxon

Ottonian / Norman

• 

  BnF Ms_Lat. 8879 f.148v, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, c.1050

• 

  Dijon, Bib. Mun. MS. 14 f.13, Bible of St. Etienne, Goliath, c.1109-1111

Mail shirt Construction

6 - 8mm alternating riveted & welded

• 

  Gjermundbu, Norway, c.980

Archaeology

• Gjermundbu, Norway, 980AD (TWEDDLE 1992) riveted & welded, internal ring size = approx. 5.5 - 7.3 mm.
• Gotland, Sweden, (TWEDDLE 1992) graves 14.7 & 14.8. Riveted & welded, internal ring size = approx. 7.4 – 7.6mm. Interestingly some copper alloy rings were in the Gotland finds.
• Sutton Hoo c.650AD (POLLINGTON 2006, p.152) - 8mm links, alternate riveted and butt-jointed, to mid thigh
• Dublin (HALPIN 2008, p.179)

Discussion
Most of the Viking Age finds seem to be in this size range.

6 - 8mm riveted

Archaeology
--
Discussion
We have no finds of 100% riveted shirts that have been dated between 800-1100.

Riveted links over 8mm

Archaeology

• Tuna, Gotland (TWEDDLE 1992) has an internal link diameter up to approx.10mm in size
• Russia (D’AMATO 2012, p.34) some links measuring up to 25mm

Discussion
It appears that Eastern mail shirts could have even larger rings with some from Russia measuring up to 25mm. (D’AMATO 2012, p.34)

Butted links

We have no finds of butted links that have been dated between 800-1100.

Copper alloy mail links used for decoration

A double row of copper alloy links used to edge mail shirts and aventails.

• 

  Coppergate Helmet, York, England, C8th

Archaeology

• York, England, C8th (TWEDDLE 1992, p.1003) Coppergate helmet,4 links.
• Gotland, Sweden, C9th-12th (TWEDDLE 1992, p.1185) Graves 14.7 & 8. This had two rows of copper alloy links at a possible vertical edge.

Discussion
The Coppergate helmet possibly had either a double row of copper alloy links edging the aventail or alternatively they could have been talismans. Copper alloy talismans and edges are frequently found on medieval mail shirts (TWEDDLE 1992, p.1003).

Lined Mail shirts

Mail shirts that are lined on the inside with cloth or leather and that have a cloth or leather edging.

Bayeux Tapestry

Literature

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

A.D. 1008.
"This year bade the king that men should speedily build ships over all England; that is, a man possessed of three hundred and ten hides to provide a galley or skiff; and a man possessed of eight hides only, to find a helmet and mail shirt."

Beowulf

Written in c.1000 but from an older story.
We've started working on a comparison between translations to determine what words may have possibly represented mail shirts.

• Heorot http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html
• Gutenburg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm
• Orford
  Crossley-Holland, Kevin (1982) The Anglo-Saxon World, An Anthology. Including the complete Beowulf.
• Old English Translator http://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/

Note:
Corslet is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning "a piece of defensive armour covering the body."

Byrnie
Bennet, M., Bradbury, J., DeVries, K., Dickie, I., & Jestice, P. Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World. Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, p. 82
"There is some dispute among historians as to what exactly constituted the Carolingian byrnie. Relying... only on artistic and some literary sources because of the lack of archaeological examples, some believe that it was a heavy leather jacket with metal scales sewn onto it. It was also quite long, reaching below the hips and covering most of the arms. Other historians claim instead that the Carolingian byrnie was nothing more than a coat of mail, but longer and perhaps heavier than traditional early medieval mail. Without more certain evidence, this dispute will continue."

References