06-22-2009, 10:44 AM
Varusschlacht 2009 was my first event in Germany and I was really suprised that most of Germans have quite small shields.
Similar situatian is with spears. Many people fight with not very long spears.
In my group we use spears circa 250cm lenght and shields 100-120x45-65cm and they look enormous in comprasion with some german-germanic shields.
First idea was "somebody makes something wrong. And maby Germans know better how to be germanic worrior?"
So... small shields with short spears... just like slavic warriors from dark ages :mrgreen:
Of course I know that shorter spear is ussually more comforteble in fight with shield. On medieval events I use spear 210cm or even shorter. And small shields are quite useful in loose formation ( or without any formation )
But what we know about germanic weapons size?
Hjortspring shields
http://www.redrampant.com/roma/celtshields.html
They are rectangular in a range of proportions, all with shallow curved sides and corners. Length: varies among the shields from 61 - 88 cm, Width: 22 - 52 cm. The largest shield is 88 x 50 cm. The smallest is 66 x 29 cm.
I don't know anything about shield from Vimose but it looks as made in the same way as Hjortspring shields.
Metal fittings of edges from burial graves are usless because we don't know if whole edge was fitted.
Illerup shields - begin of III cent
Round - about 1m - quite big.
Spears from Thorsberg:
81,3 cm, 250,2 cm, 273 cm, 294,6 cm
Nydam:
lenght between 230 and 305 cm
Vimose
248 cm, 274,3 cm, 275,4 cm, 277,8 cm and 335,3 cm.
On Marcus Aurelius column there are many germanic warriors, most of them with small shields. Round and hexagonal.
And ancient writers:
http://www.bartoszkontny.pradzieje.pl/i ... cheologa03
praelongae hastae (Tacitus, Annales 2, 21; Historia 5,18.)
hastae ingentes (Tacitus, Annales 1, 65)
enormes hastae ( Tacitus, Annales 2, 14.)
Generally that means: big spears.
(Tac. Ann. II, 21:[17]; "cum ingens multitudo artis locis praeolongas hastas non protenderet, non colligeret...")
something like: "great mass of people in little space can't strike ahead or back with too long spears"
(Tac. Ann. II, 14: " (...) "nec enim immensa barbarorum scuta, enormis hastas inter truncos arborum et enata humo virgulta perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et haerentia corpori tegmina"
this part says that germanic huge shields and enormous spears aren't as handy in forest as roman wapons.
Similar situatian is with spears. Many people fight with not very long spears.
In my group we use spears circa 250cm lenght and shields 100-120x45-65cm and they look enormous in comprasion with some german-germanic shields.
First idea was "somebody makes something wrong. And maby Germans know better how to be germanic worrior?"
So... small shields with short spears... just like slavic warriors from dark ages :mrgreen:
Of course I know that shorter spear is ussually more comforteble in fight with shield. On medieval events I use spear 210cm or even shorter. And small shields are quite useful in loose formation ( or without any formation )
But what we know about germanic weapons size?
Hjortspring shields
http://www.redrampant.com/roma/celtshields.html
They are rectangular in a range of proportions, all with shallow curved sides and corners. Length: varies among the shields from 61 - 88 cm, Width: 22 - 52 cm. The largest shield is 88 x 50 cm. The smallest is 66 x 29 cm.
I don't know anything about shield from Vimose but it looks as made in the same way as Hjortspring shields.
Metal fittings of edges from burial graves are usless because we don't know if whole edge was fitted.
Illerup shields - begin of III cent
Round - about 1m - quite big.
Spears from Thorsberg:
81,3 cm, 250,2 cm, 273 cm, 294,6 cm
Nydam:
lenght between 230 and 305 cm
Vimose
248 cm, 274,3 cm, 275,4 cm, 277,8 cm and 335,3 cm.
On Marcus Aurelius column there are many germanic warriors, most of them with small shields. Round and hexagonal.
And ancient writers:
http://www.bartoszkontny.pradzieje.pl/i ... cheologa03
praelongae hastae (Tacitus, Annales 2, 21; Historia 5,18.)
hastae ingentes (Tacitus, Annales 1, 65)
enormes hastae ( Tacitus, Annales 2, 14.)
Generally that means: big spears.
(Tac. Ann. II, 21:[17]; "cum ingens multitudo artis locis praeolongas hastas non protenderet, non colligeret...")
something like: "great mass of people in little space can't strike ahead or back with too long spears"
(Tac. Ann. II, 14: " (...) "nec enim immensa barbarorum scuta, enormis hastas inter truncos arborum et enata humo virgulta perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et haerentia corpori tegmina"
this part says that germanic huge shields and enormous spears aren't as handy in forest as roman wapons.