Hello to everyone. My interest lies in shields of the Dark Ages. I have done a great extent of research on the standard old round warshield but am having major problems with the Kite shield of the 11 and 12 century. Does anyone know of a book as such that covers this subject. I have plenty on Saxon, Viking and general Anglo shields but very little on the kite. Can anyone help here.

P

What do you want to know about them?

sizes? weights? construction? strapping?

Although I am sure there are others out there, John Clement's Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods and Techniques has a fairly extensive section on shields, their use and construction, including illustrations indicating various styles of strapping found on kite shields: http://www.myArmoury.com/books/search.php?Key...ndex=Books

Also, look at the " Book" feature at the top right of the home page and all the pages by the way.

If you try the search function you will also see many topics where shield or kite shield are mentioned: You may find some of the information you are looking for there as well.

You may not find a book talking about only shields but many books on the armour and weapons of the period you are interested in will have extensive sections dealing with shields.

We have an article on the shield that has some basic info and pictures. It also includes a Sources section that should help.

Mainly it is the sizes of these shields. I would think that they vary to the knight who had them made due to size. With men at arms would get whatever was issued I would believe. It would stand to reason to me that a man of say my size at 6'6" would need a shield a bit larger than say one of 5'6". The width also from the top to bottom would be helpful but I do thing (IMHO) that these would have varied also.

P

Here is one other point I forgot to check on. Curved vs. Flat! I have looked over as many pictures of effigys and chessmen and so forth and noticed that some of these shields where also flat. To me it is easier to make a flat plank shield than a curved one. I could see the knights haveing curved shields but would men at arms be armed the same way or would they have a cheaper flat shield. I am still up in the air on the boss issue. While I know by the time of the kite the boss was nothing more than decoration I would think that more shields would have been made without them than with them. The reason to me would be cost of making these. Makeing the round Saxon shields is a piece of cake for me but the kite shield has caught my fancy now.

Peter

Sizes would varry, but over all, you want a shield that covers you from the shoulder to the knee, at the least, when held in front of you.
The "purpose" of the kite is achieve this coverage with a smaller, more manouverable shield than the large round shields, who could also be 1m+ in diameter. In effect, it removes the bits of shield that are not needed when you are standing in a closed formation.
Curved shields are better, for reasons of deflection and coverage; spear thrust that hit the shield at an angle might "slide of", and the curve also gives better protection against "low angle" spear thrusts from people down the line. I don't know if the varying curve is a result of the problems carving curved shields or actual variation.

As for the customization of shields, warriors of the period still paid for their own weaponry, rather than have them issued, so they would be made (or at least selected) for each individual.

Eling,
I thought that was the case. In perspective it is what the man could afford as to how the shield was made. Thanks for that bit of information.

Peter

As according to later, 13th century laws (Norwegian), a man that owned less than 6 marks should have a shield that had three iron fittings across the front, and three handstraps on the back. (In the older, 10th century version, the minimum shield is described in the same way, but with a "solid handle, with good rivets" on the back, indicating a round shield)
A more wealthy man was to own a "red shield". We do not know exactly what this means, but from contemporary artwork, we can be quite certain that it is a kite or heather, maybe with a hide covering.
We also know that they are made by professionals, as each maker is required by law to put his mark on each shield, so that he could be held accountable if it was sub-standard.

I knew about the laws and such in England but did not know it was also on the continent. I believe the red may be the fact that it was expensive to make that dye if not mistaken. I could be wrong on that though.

Peter

Ahh, your in my field of interest now. I have made several Norman kite shields over the years, some flat, some curved. Curving them is not hard once you get the hang of it. Here are a couple links to info regarding these shields that really helped me out when I was learning to construct them.

This shows various enarmes (strapping) configurations depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
http://www.angelfire.com/wy/svenskildbiter/ar...armes.html

This is a good, although kind of short, description of the viking age shields (i.e what they were made from, how they were used).
http://www.regia.org/shields.htm

Here is a series of descriptive pics by Camric showing how to build a kite shield.
http://community.webshots.com/album/179993561rMwokb

Hope these help you out.