Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Agraes]

Perhaps the Scholae Palatinae shown in the game Brabarian Invasion are a better comparison. But at least we've made advances, now we have eye-witness accounts of Sub-Roman British cavalry which actually fit the specifications of "heavy cavalry", and more importantly, is actually reliable! All right, weapons check. Contos, out the window. Longsword, without a doubt. Javelins, pretty much any shape and size. Four-Sided spear, debateable but destructive. Hmm... not a bad ensemble, doesn't fit with Melcor's ideas (thank goodness!) or the Romances (Perfect!) but it is certainly realistic. As for armour we have mail, paded leather jerkins, a small shield, and maybe just a dash of scale armour. Also perfect for the circumstances. Agraes, I'll need your help for this one, with this sort of equipment could the cavalry preform the functions your Breton cavalry does and still fight hand to hand with infantry? Also does nyone have a lead with Y Gododdin's shaggy white ponies? With that final bit of information we might get somewhere definitive and end all argument once and for all! (Well, one can hope) and then move on to details like numbers, tactics, and location. How exciting is that!

I don't think a game is a good comparison to Y Gododdin warriors, as it is usually done the other way round. I tell you this, and I used to be the project leader of a 'mod' of Barbarian Invasion called 'Arthurian: Total War' even before I started to do re-enactment - it got me started it.
Mind there could be some artistic licences in such poems as well, not always real fact. It is debated when it was really written down for the first time - 9th century is often suggested - and wether was it really originally composed in the early 7th century. I do believe it speaking for myself but different opinions have to be taken in fact. Don't deduce too many stuff from only one source. I think the poem has the original word lluric which is derived from latin lorica and stands for any kind of body armor. It could be lorica hamata - mail - or lorica squamata - scale - but Leslie Alcock for exemple guessed it could well have been a kind of leather armor.
The passage I quoted about Breton cavalry doesn't clearly mean if they got in contact with heavy frankish infantry. Certainly there is a clear emphasis on the use of javelins, and possibly they did come closer to flanks with swords and spears. It is not a picture of full frontal charge however, very far from it, but quite the opposite.

Again I post a picture of the 8th century Aberlemno stone. It is believe the carving display the battle of Dunnichen between Picts and Northumbrians (who are likely armored, at least with helmets which remind the Coppergate and Wollaston helmets). Don't overspeculate on it, but that's a clear depiction of early medieval northern british cavalry. The Gododdin horsemen could have look partially like this a hundred years earlier.