I was browsing the web and stumbled on this Polish site This sows several helm of peculiar construction that I have not seen before. One of the interesting characteristics that jumped at me were the thin, curved guard plates on the sides and the back on several of the helms. Are all of these to be considered Viking helms? I know that only the Gjermundbu hems is positively identified as Viking. I assume the rest are too early to be considered Viking, and are therefore migration period.

Enjoy,

Alexi

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Gjermungbu helm 10th century?

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Ulltuna helmet 7-8th century?

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Vaslgrade 8.

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Vaslgrade 7

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Vaslgrade 6

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Vaslgrade 5

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Vendel I. 7th century

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Vendel XII. 7th century

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Vendel XIV. 7th century

Those are Vendel culture helms. Many of which were found in the Valsgarde finds.

They're proto-viking culture.

The Gjermunbu helm exhibits features that seem to be hold overs from these earlier designs. It may, in fact, be older than the other grave goods with which it was found.

Thanks for tossing these out for us to look at, Alexi! Yeah, they're Vendel. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's something I thought was a bit interesting... First is the Vaslgrade 8 helm, the second is a Valentine Armouries reproduction ($750 in 16g with liner and brass rivets, according to the site). Not exactly the same helm, but pretty close.


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Funny story about that Valsgarde 8 helm. I have a book called The Vikings by Tony Allan (certainly not even close to the best Viking book, but it has nice pictures), and under his description of the helmet he says that the mail is actually a beard to scare off enemies. Well, I guess it's not that funny, but I found it amusing. :p

I wonder though if the look of the "beard" mail drape is intentional or if this is the result of few centuries of decomposition of the mail. Some of the coifs in the Wisby grave look very similar. I guess in the Wisby cases the soldiers were trying to scare the opponents with their "scary hair-do" coifs :eek:

Alexi

Based on this picture alone, I'm guessing this is a product of corrosion rather than the armourer.

Looks like a typical 4:1 with an occasional expansion ring mixed in there.

Could be wrong, though...

On the subject of the Valsgarde 8 helmet, this is a picture from H. R. Robinson's "Oriental Armour", it is a line drawing of a statue of a Sassanid Persian king:



And these are a pair of Turkish or Iranian helmets from the late 12th-early 14th century:



That style of helmet, including the "eyebrows", seems to have been popular over a long period of time over a very wide area.

Alexei,

As has been said already they are vendal helmets , migration period ca. 7th century. Beautiful helmets though ! :) The Gjermundby helmet is considered the only true viking helm found to date. However, one might say that some of the Polish and Rus helmets , the Chernikov helmet for example, could also be considered as viking, though all the extant examples are , I believe, dated from the 11th century, whereas the Gjermundby helmet dates to about 950 AD. (The Rus vikings were in existence until about 1500 in some areas !).

Regards as ever,

Russ