Anglo-Saxon shields

[Martin Smith]

Hi all

Painting an early-mid Anglo-Saxon / English / Aenglisc (however you like to put it) army in 15mm. Roughly 'invasion period' to around 700 AD, or so.

Query - any info on possible shield colours? I have AEIR and ADA, so a few ideas of patterns, but not  sure on the likely range of colours in use. Any clues/ evidence/thoughts?

[Imperial Dave]

Have pondered this myself. I guess there is a bit of poetic licence as we dont know for certain. When I painted my first Saxon army (of roughly the same time period) many aeons ago, I went for white, off white/linen, unpainted wood (light coloured wood such as Lime) and the odd leather covered/coloured ones. Now I am being a bit more relaxed in terms of what I paint on my new Saxon army (5th/6th century though) so have much more variety. It doesnt completely answer your question but this is an interesting link for consideration:

https://regia.org/research/warfare/shields.htm

[Erpingham]

There are a few later references to colour on shields here.

https://sites.google.com/site/archoevidence/home/wooden-shields

[Imperial Dave]

thanks Anthony, that's a really useful link. The traces of leather found under the shield bosses is very interesting as Regia Anglorum werent convinced. Seems like my earlier thoughts on painting may have been correct after all!

[Martin Smith]

Thanks for the replies....looks like I have free rein, then 😊

[aligern]

The Norse at Dublin in the twelfth century had red shields. I know that is half a millennium away from your term date, but is an interesting example of a force identifying itself by common.shield colour. In an early medieval battle there must have been a real oroblem identifying friend and foe whichnprobably relied on customary clothing and perhaps shield design that somehow badged you as being Northumbrian rather than say Mercian . Of course the battle-cry would help, but tgere is a lot of distracting noise inna battle and then there is remembering to shout it.
The Sutton Hoo shield, which is not anachronistic has several gilded plaques on it. That is similar to shields found in Lombard graves. That may, of course, mean top men only. However, it is an argument for having one plain colour on the shield to draw attention to the rich looking plaques.
I suggest that, once Christianised the cross would appear on shields as an invocation of magical protection.
Roy

[Duncan Head]

The Norse at Dublin in the twelfth century had red shields.

"There are no red shields in the extant Anglo-Saxon poetic corpus," - just to be awkward 

Mind you, I'm not sure if there are any shields of any other named colour, either.

[aligern]

Normans are described in one source as 'red wings' .

As to Saxon shields being red or not, surely the author should quote some other colours as being cited because he really cannot make his point about where the source of the red shield unless tgere are some stated colours such as most AS shields being white?
Roy

[aligern]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Stuttgart_Psalter_42v_detail.jpg

Stuttgart Psalter has red and white shields
Though its much later,
Its Frankish,
It may be an artistic choice, for example, not having two shields tge same colour on the same page.
R

[Erpingham]

The Trelleborg shield was apparently painted red and white.  Not seen any suggestion of a pattern reconstructed so probably paint traces. 

[aligern]

Didn't the Gokstad ship have yellow and black shields.  Not sure of the pattern as again it may be traces.

Reconstructed here.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0072/9291/1701/products/6C816321-9CA8-44FC-BEA7-DB8A05E9E6E7_1296x.jpg?v=1587552702

Roy

[Swampster]

Didn't the Gokstad ship have yellow and black shields.  Not sure of the pattern as again it may be traces.

Reconstructed here.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0072/9291/1701/products/6C816321-9CA8-44FC-BEA7-DB8A05E9E6E7_1296x.jpg?v=1587552702

Roy

I've been trying to find out details of this. Some of the sites say the the shields were _either_ black or yellow rather than each being black and yellow.

P.

[aligern]

I recall seeing the side view of the Gokstad ship represented as alternating black and yellow shields. However, that might be extrapolation from traces of colour.
Roy

[Erpingham]

I think most mentions of the shields at Gokstad suggest they were yellow or black, not both.  I don't know if the alternating colours is guess work.

I'd refer back to the earlier quoted datalist for more examples of painted shields and the discussion on a dissertation Viking shields elsewhere on the forum, which gathers quite a corpus of British examples.

This is interesting



Its a piece of painted gesso from a Viking shield from Man.  Given its straightness, it can't be rim decoration or part of interlace but probably divides portions of the shield face.

[DougM]

There are a few later references to colour on shields here.

https://sites.google.com/site/archoevidence/home/wooden-shields

Except that the links are all broken. the .ru site is not found.