Difference between revisions of "Mail Shirts"

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'''Carolingian / Ottonian'''<br>
 
'''Carolingian / Ottonian'''<br>
 
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St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 141.JPG|[[Category:St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 22|St. Gallen, Golden Psalter]] c.833
 
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Aachen Ivory Situla Warriors.jpg|''Aachen Ivory Situla c. 1000''

Revision as of 18:02, 31 May 2020


More Armour pages

Completion Rating
This article's completion rating is 1 out of 5. Article planned for future work. No real progress to date.
Completion Rating
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:
VA Example.jpg
Mail Shirts
Viking Age Compendium articles on Armour:
VA Example.jpg
Mail Shirts


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

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

Carolingian

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

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

Carolingian

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


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

Carolingian / Ottonian

Type 3: Long Mail Shirts

Type 3a: Long mail shirt with a 'Bayeux style' split and short sleeves

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

Anglo-Saxon

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 and short sleeves

Anglo-Saxon

Ottonian / Norman

Type 3c: Long mail shirt with a long style split and long sleeves

Anglo-Saxon

Ottonian / Norman

Mail shirt Construction

6 - 8mm alternating riveted & welded

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.

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


References

Grape, Wolfgang (1994) The Bayeux Tapestry. [GRAPE 1994] ^ *
Nicolle, David (2005) Carolingian Cavalryman AD 768-987. Osprey: Warrior 96 [NICOLLE 2005] ^ *
Skodell, Henry (2008) Schutzausrüstung zur zeit der Schlacht von Hastings [Protective Equipment Present at the Battle of Hastings]. (Available Online) [Accessed: 2011]. [SKODELL 2008] *
Wilson, David M. (1985) The Bayeux Tapestry. [WILSON 1985] ^ *