Enclosed is the latest training shield I've made (so there's a few modern shortcuts!). The shield is basically an experiment in making the smallest possible enarmed round shield I could (diameter 44cm or 17") for practicing sword and shield fencing. It's essentially a medieval targe, with a decorative boss on the face. Or maybe an enarmed buckler... ;)
Most early medieval European round shields (and bucklers) with bosses appear to have been centre-gripped (so the boss was functional), though there were certainly medieval shields with enarmes and decorative bosses (such as early teardrop shields for eg). Enarmed round shields are found later (particularly common in Italy) and also earlier if we trust various Byzantine and Levantine sources for starters. But whilst I think this shield is completely historically plausible, as I've seen depictions of small, enarmed shields from the early Middle Ages from the Byzantine sphere, I'm wondering if anyone has seen anything exactly like this shield in a period source?
In any event, I thought it would be interesting to try it out, and I'm very happy with the result. Sits nicely on the arm and works very nicely with a good arming sword!
Cheers,
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