No. 21.
It has been conjectured that the bronze coatings of shields which have from time to time been discovered in this country, and commonly attributed to the Ancient Britons, may belong to the Anglo-Saxon period: while we admit this probability, we must not forget that they have not yet been found in the Anglo-Saxon graves.
The shields placed in the graves were the ordinary "lindens," of which no part commonly remains but the metal boss and handle. The chief varieties of forms offered by the bosses will be found in our Plates xix. and xx., figs. 1 to 10; all from English tombs[130]. Similar relics have been dug up in Scotland; of which No. 11 in our Plate offers an example. This was procured from a tomb in the county of Moray, accompanied with fragments of oak and remains of the hero's horse and its bridle. See Dr. Wilson's "Archæology of Scotland," to which we are indebted for this specimen. On the continent similar objects have been found, differing but slightly from our own examples. No. 12 is from the cemetery at Selzen, in Rhenish Hesse. No. 13 is from a Danish tomb. See also the examples given in Worsaae's Copenhagen Museum, p. 68. The shields of the Danes appear to have been ornamented with gold and colours, the favourite hue being red. In Sæmund's poetical "Edda" we read of a "red shield with a golden border," and Giraldus de Barri tells us that the Irish "carried red shields, in imitation of the Danes." Some of the Danish shields, like the weapons, were inscribed with runes[131]. In the tumulus opened at Caenby, in Lincolnshire, believed to have been that of a Danish viking, part of a wooden shield was procured, ornamented with plates of silver and bronze, bearing the serpentine and scroll patterns so characteristic of this period. These fragments are engraved in the seventh volume of the Archæological Journal.
The guige or strap by which the target was occasionally suspended from the combatant's neck, leaving the hands free to direct the steed or ply the weapon, appears (at least during the later days of Saxon rule) to have been in use among our countrymen, as well as with their Norman neighbours. Of Harold's nobles, Wace tells us:—
"Chescun out son haubert vestu,
Espée ceinte, el col l'escu."—Rom. de Rou, ii. 213.
And in the Bayeux Tapestry, the kite-shield thus fixed may be seen on the English side.
The place occupied by the shield in the graves of the Frankish, Germanic, and Scandinavian heroes is by no means uniform. It has been found on the breast, on the right arm, upon the knees, and beneath the head. It is by the position of the umbo in the grave that this fact has been exactly ascertained. Examples will be found in the Ozingell Cemetery, in the explorations at Harnham Hill (Archæologia, vol. xxxv.), in the Selzen find, in the Normandie Souterraine, and in the account of the cemetery at Linton Heath (Archæol. Journ., vol. xi. p. 108).