Mail from Iron Age and Viking Age Scandinavia is quite rare. The Norwegian Viking Age Gjermundbu mail is well known, but from the Danish Iron Age Bog sacrifices you have also the fairly complete Vimose Mail [~200 AD]:

[ Linked Image ]
For better picture see: http://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denm...om-vimose/

The Vimose mail consists of around 20000 rings and weights around 8kg.
Studies done by Arne Jouttijärvi [Early Iron: http://www.gnom.dk/projekter/ringbrynjehistorie.pdf] on the Vimose find and other mail fragments in Denmark [Hedegaard, Brokær & Thorsbjerg] shows varying ring sizes. (Mail fragment has also been found from Kastenskov.)
"In the four types of chain-mail studied, ring size varies greatly. The finest were found at Hedegaard, the rings of which had a diameter of around 5 mm and a wire thickness of around 0.95 mm. Somewhat poorer is the Brokbaer [Brokær] shirt, with a ring diameter of around 7.2 mm and a wire thickness of around 1.0 mm. A shirt with very similar rings was found at Vimose
(Engelhardt 1869:12). The biggest mail rings were discovered at Vimose and Thorsbjerg: 10.5 mm and 12.5 mm respectively, with wire thicknesses of approx. 1.5 and 1.7 mm."

The fine mail from Hedegaard had been generally thought to be Celtic [See for instance: Iron and steel in ancient times / by Vagn Fabritius Buchwald 2005] but metallurgic & slag studies have brought in some surprising results, so to quote from Jouttijärvi:
“A slag inclusion analysis of the rings in the Hedegaard mail shirt shows that they contain so much phosphor that the
Scandinavian peninsular and the south of Germany can be ruled out. The low CaO content also rules out the eastern part of
Denmark and the Baltic Sea coastline, The analyses match best the north of Germany (VII), but the west of Jutland [Area 3 comprising Mid-Jutland, where the find is from] cannot be excluded. It can seem surprising the rings in this shirt originate from Germany and not the Celtic areas. The Germanic peoples are traditionally regarded as not being in possession of sufficiently advanced technology and organization to be able to produce such specialized handiwork of this type. But it could be that our view of the somewhat technologically-backward Germans should be revised."
Slag map from his paper:
[ Linked Image ]

The Hedegaard mail (Mid Jutland) is from from “Grave A 4137“. The Vimose shown in the picture is the best preserved, but not the best in quality. So apparently you see a development from mail shirt in the Iron Age, towards a more full mail heuberk in the Viking Age?

PS: If interested I can post other threads about Danish weapons and armour, that might not be generally known.

Interesting. Germanic tribes of this period seem to be far more advanced than tribes described by 1st century BC to 1st AD by Romans and it doesn't really surprise me that they were able to make their own mail. After all, they were in close contact with Celts, Romans and eastern tribes for centuries. Please do post anything else you have about Danish a&a of this period. :)

I have found out that Hedegård is not the first find of mail in Denmark.

Already the Hjortspring Bog Sacrifice with the famous war canoe had apparently trace-remains of mail and that is from 350 BC.
Haven't yet found any more detailed examination (or pictures) of that mail-find. There should have been between 10-20 mail shits, but reduced to mere rust stains. Could explain why no work has been done on it - just a corrosion imprint in the mud.
So it is not even certain if it was mail!

Hjortspring war canoe:
[ Linked Image ]

Yay more Denmark!

It amazes me how many quality things have survived from there.

If you can find them, please do show more pictures of the earlier find. Also, I have never seen any images about the Gjermundbu mail. Perhaps you could start a new thread on it. Thank you Niels, this is very interesting.

What is the approximate length of these pieces? I had thought that later examples such as Gjermundbu, and much later, would be shorter for those Vikings to row easier. Is this supported by evidence?

Edited to add: Gee I guess I could have done a search here for "Gjermundbu mail" :eek:

http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=222...aille+mail

With a picture of the mail. Very long thread with many links, hopefully they still all go through.