[L. Mitchell]

Hi all,

This site came up while Googling the Valsgärde helmets, and I was impressed by all the knowledge here! I'm trying to find the source of a photo of the Vendel 14 helmet, and am hoping someone here might have an idea.

I've been reading about the Sutton Hoo helmet and its two reconstructions. As I understand it, both reconstructions (maybe the first more than the second) relied to an extent on knowledge of the Valsgärde and Vendel helmets, although more information was published or otherwise available in 1970 (second reconstruction) than in 1945 (first reconstruction). The "dancing warriors" design, for instance, was only recognized when Rupert Bruce-Mitford saw a similar pattern on the Valsgärde 7 helmet during a visit to Sweden after the first reconstruction. He published the finding in "The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial" in 1949, while Greta Arwidsson published her book on that grave in 1977. Herbert Maryon's 1947 paper "The Sutton Hoo Helmet" mentions Bruce-Mitford's (at that point unpublished) finding, and also references Vendel helmets 1 and 12, and Valsgärde helmets 5 and 8.

There are two photos from ~1951 of Maryon with the first reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo helmet (photo 1 and photo 2), which also show pictures of two other helmets: Valsgärde 6, taken from plate 1 of Arwidsson's identically titled 1942 book, and Vendel 14. A third photo again shows the Sutton Hoo helmet, this time with sword; the Vendel 14 photo is again profiled, while Arwidsson's book on Valsgärde 6 is opened to plate 14, showing the sword hilt.

Does anyone have any idea where the photo of the Vendel 14 helmet, seen in the above three photos, originated? It's clear that the photo of the Valsgärde 6 helmet came from Arwidsson's 1942 book, but the photo of the Vendel helmet doesn't appear to be from a book at all. Were there any journal articles, or other sources, that predated the first ~1945 reconstruction and might have included that photo?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Matthew Bunker]

Well, I can tell you that the photo was taken by Nils Lagergren in the early 1940s, following Hilmer Gelin's reconstruction of the Vendel XIV (and also of XII and I). Other photos taken at the same time were published in an article in Fornvännen (Vendelhjälmarna i ny rekonstruktion - Sune Linqvist) which you can access here:-

http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/1950_001

Your particular photo is one of many thousands which languish, unpublished, in the Historiska Museet, following decades of academic in-fighting which has prevented the Vendel finds from being fully published.

Fortunately, under the guidance of Neil Price, it looks like this situation might finally be moving forward.

I have a few good photos of the helmet myself if you're interested and my group, Wulfheodenas, owns two excellent reconstructions.

Hope that's helpful.

[Jim Manners]

[Eric S]

[L. Mitchell]