Armouring the Ulfheðinn

A couple of weeks back, I went over what my armour has been over the last several years: mostly, whatever I could kitbash with a true goal starting to form over the last 9-10 months. I have been working hard on my research, looking into what would have been appropriate for my time period and persona. This is my wish list: not just period items, but also the changes that need to be done to keep it SCA legal. One of the biggest moves away from the traditional image of the Ulfheðinn is the inclusion of chainmail. Normally, it was thought that the skinchangers fought without mail because they feared no weapon. To me, it’d make sense that a landowner with the money for mail may still wear it for no other reason than to show that he can afford it. The ancestors loved to show off their wealth. That being said, the chainmail is definitely only a sometimes accessory down here in the sunny kingdom of Trimaris, where we are rapidly approaching the winter solstice and it’s still 80+ degrees.

Helm

Spangenhelm w/ oculars: This piece was known throughout the Viking age: a conical helm consisting of four plates held together by a brow band and two bands that quarter the top of the head. The top bands and the oculars are all riveted to the brow band, while the main plates are riveted to the top bands and to the brow band. This style is the most common for the time period that I seek to portray. My design will have solid cheek plates, not too dissimilar from the Roman-style. The concession of needing full-face armour will be met in my design by using a face mask made of sheet of metal, with shapes cut out to give the appearance of a bearded fanged mouth.

Many Norse personas use aventails, which are drapes of chainmail attached to the helm. In period, it offered additional protection; in the SCA, it helps to hide the bars that we put on helms to make it safe. I will be skipping out on the aventail to save on weight, and to ensure the facemask is the most visible.

Chainmail

Riveted/welded chain hauberk: The chain shirt was a sign of wealth: either a warrior who had made his way, or the scion of a wealthy family.  In the sagas, King Harald’s chain shirt --Emma-- was said to be very long, passing his knees. As this is considered exceptional, I will be looking to have a shirt that is just above my knees and just below my elbows, closer to a haubergeon than a hauberk.

In the SCA chain, mail offers very little protection from a blow. It was designed primarily to stop slashing cuts, but in many cases, blunt weapons similar to the rattan swords we use can actually make things worse. They also tend to fall apart because of the way butted links are put together. I’d love to buy a welded or riveted shirt to make it stand up a little better, and not have to look like Sonic the Hedgehog every time I get hit, spilling rings everywhere.

Zoombang: This is a style of modern armour used to keep with the safety rules of the SCA without detracting from the overall appearance of being a lightly-armoured warrior. Zoombang is a type of compression padding that is comprised of a non-newtonian fluid that hardens on impact, dispersing the force and using most of the energy towards that hardening. This has been a huge help in letting people with earlier period personas look the part. By removing the need for bulky chest armour, you can wear a zoombang shirt and tunic and be fine. The main concern people have with it is how effective it is as protection: I have taken some pretty ugly shots to the ribs and it hasn’t even left a bruise. That being said, like any other armour, there are spots with no protection. The gaps in the padding while not large or located in important spots, do leave places where you can be hurt.

Arms

Leather vambraces with sport cop: We have found no evidence of elbow protection being used during the Viking age, but since our rules require both elbow and forearm protection, I use something that is unobtrusive to the lines of what I am wearing: hardened leather vambraces dyed black, with a simple sport cop that is mostly hidden beneath the chain shirt and tunic. This protects me from any serious injuries, while not taking away from the illusion of not wearing heavy armour.

Legs

Hidden legs: This is another example of an armour that we just really haven’t seen any evidence of, the difference between the legs and arms being Rus pants. The width of the upper legs in Rus pants makes it very easy to hide armour beneath them. Personally, I’m currently using plastic knee cops with leather chausses attached. Thus far, they have worked really well for me and don’t weigh very much, so I won’t be changing them at all.

Each of these pieces have been chosen to give the overall appearance of being a Norse warrior from the late 10c CE. The real trick has been finding ways to make the majority of the armour unobtrusive or hidden. Your average warrior of the time wore almost no armour since it was so expensive. This means that for those of us trying to recreate it, we need to find other ways to stay safe. It also means that we have less armour to embellish and make look pretty. For me, this means that the pieces that are visible should really pop. That’s part of the reason that I have put so much work into designing the helm, and also why I’m going to work on tooling the vambraces to make them really stand out.

The designs that I plan on using for both the helm and vambraces will be based on pictures of the image stones that have been found throughout the north lands. I will also be using leatherworking designs found on pieces that were recovered from the digs at York. This will give the kit the feeling of being something special, while sticking with designs that would have been used in the time period I am trying to portray.