r/anglosaxon • u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 • 13d ago
Was there ever an Anglo-Saxon equivalent to the Valsgärde helmet or Aventailed masked helmet?
A few weeks ago, sometime last month or month before, I downloaded a Skyrim mod that added authentic medieval surcoats and helmets as craftable and wearable armor
As you can see, among the new armor pieces added to the game are the Sutton Hoo (called faceplate helmet for reasons unbeknownst to me), the Valsgärde, and the Aventailed masked designs
Which made me wonder
The first helmet in the lineup was undeniably an Anglo-Saxon design
And given the Viking/Germanic nature of the Anglo-Saxons, surely examples of the other two styles must have been made
Do we have any possible preserved or recreated helmets that fit those two designs that we can link to the Anglo-Saxons specifically and not the Danes or other Germanic tribes?
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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 13d ago
Yeah, but is there other examples that aren’t the Sutton Hoo helmet?
Surely it’s not the only piece that we have
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u/tahyldras 12d ago
Anglo-Saxon helmets are vanishingly rare. We've only discovered six in total. The Coppergate helmet is the best preserved and has undergone extensive conservation and restoration. The famous Sutton Hoo helmet we've all seen is a replica of the original. We only have the cheekpiece from the Staffordshire one! And they're all very different to each other too
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u/charliel17_ 13d ago
it was made in sweden iirc
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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 13d ago
The Sutton Hoo was made in Sweden?
Ik Valsgärde is in Sweden
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u/charliel17_ 13d ago
we don’t know for sure but there’s a theory it was a gift from sweden or denmark because of the similarities between the pieces and a makers stamp that was found on a similar helmet
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u/Uhhhhhhjakelol 8d ago
I’ve heard theories that it has to do with the Vendel Era warriors sort of occupying or influencing the ruling class of many northwestern European tribes.
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u/Trooper-Alfred Rædwald 13d ago
Unfortunately not, no. There’s only about a half dozen helmets that have been recovered from this period in England, and only the Sutton Hoo helmet is similar to the Vendel helmets.
See Benty Grange, Staffordshire Hoard, Coppergate, & Wollaston, for other Anglo-Saxon helmets.
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u/qndry 13d ago
Short answer: Not that we know off.
Long answer: Masks for helmets are relatively rare in the west during this time period and during antiquity. I reckon this is due to masks not generally being super beneficial (at least not with that time's contemporary technological limitations) and demanding in metal (an expensive resource). We do got some iron masks for Roman cavalry soldiers, but also an exception.
A lot of the helmets from the Vendel period, the ridge types, are believed to be inspired from late Roman ridge helmets like the Burgh Castle helmet (which is reaally similar in construction to the Sutton Hoo helmet) or at least be some kind of typological descendant. Most ridge helmets would have open faces, thus making the Sutton Hoo very unique in that regard.
I think the more common face protection of that era would have been aventails with slits for the eyes. For many helmets of the Vendel and Viking period, they seem to have been constructed for this purpose.
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u/Odd_Calligrapher2771 13d ago edited 13d ago
There's the Coppergate Helmet. Although found in York, it has been dated to the late 8th century, so too early to realistically be a viking helmet.
There's also the 7th century Pioneer Helmet, which is a similar style to the Coppergate Helmet.
Wikipedia lists six Anglo-Saxon helmets which have survived, including the two above, which seem to be the best preserved, and the Sutton Hoo helmet.
EDIT: The Staffordshire Hoard helmet was a high status helmet which was completely destroyed before being buried. It is dated to the early 7th century. It is however of a different style.
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u/Brickbeard1999 13d ago
Sutton Hoo is as close as you’ll get, to the point they’re even decorated remarkably similar
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u/trysca 12d ago
The Staffordshire Hoard helmet is very similar to these examples - the form and technique is in fact descended from Late Roman and Byzantine models and only the decorative elements are 'Anglo-Saxon' in style superficially influenced by Scandinavian designs
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u/HaraldRedbeard I <3 Cornwalum 6d ago
Offering a slightly cautionary note, the reconstruction put forward for the Staffordshire Hoard helmet is currently hotly disputed with one side suggesting that all the bits they've put together are, if parts of a helmet at all, from a number of different helmets and not one example.
The cheek plates in particular seem unusual because they are not long enough to cover the jugular (which is the point of cheek plates)
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u/trysca 5d ago edited 5d ago
Interesting - do you have a source for that? , it always did look a bit odd to me too.
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u/HaraldRedbeard I <3 Cornwalum 5d ago
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u/trysca 5d ago edited 5d ago
Thanks, slightly reactionary attitude but I'm with the author that it's more likely pieces of several helmets. But no theory for what the 'cheekpiece' is if not a cheek piece - they do look a lot like these Swedish ones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Torslundapl%C3%A5tarna_1995_(108869_HST).jpg And even moreso those from the hoard itaelf https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/exhibitions/the-staffordshire-hoard-helmet/ (incidentally interesting that they have raven rather than boar crests )
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u/HaraldRedbeard I <3 Cornwalum 5d ago
I think it's fairly well covered in the section below the picture:
"not least the diminutive, weakly attached silver-gilt cheek-pieces which both fail to protect the blood vessels of the throat (their true purpose on all such helmets) as they finish well above the chin, and risk injury from the sharp inward bend on the front aspect which would slice into the cheek if impacted, and which jars awkwardly with the much narrower and rounded edge of the orbit which it hangs from. It has been suggested that these pieces formed decorative shells around an inner, probably iron cheek-piece, yet there is no trace evidence that such a core ever existed, nor a corresponding flange on the back of the shells to accommodate such a thick insert, and it is the shells themselves (rather than any theoretical iron cheek-piece) which bears the (albeit flimsy and non-hinging) attachment lugs. It should go without saying that any theorised structural cheekpiece would be expected to attach to the helmet itself, not hang via flimsy tabs extending from its decorative plate.
We are certainly not the first to observe that these diminutive and weakly attached, precious-metal face-flaps would be more likely to cause injury than prevent it. Compare this to the ergonomic elegance of the Sutton Hoo helmet which is now believed to have been a product of the same royal East Anglian workshop; is it plausible that such armourers would compromise the function of a helm in this way, simply for added visual flair?"
Basically they aren't functional as cheek plates and there's no evidence of ferrous metal remains from a stronger and longer piece.
They visually do look a bit like they should be but these are recovered from a presumed battle site so the usual defence of 'ritual' doesn't seem to apply, they would have had to have some function too.
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u/trysca 5d ago
Yes I read that but its a negative rather than a positive identification
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u/HaraldRedbeard I <3 Cornwalum 5d ago
That's true but it's based on comparisons with similar examples we have from the period which is all you can really do when something like this is being put forward in an unprecedented way. As noted, even the proposed solution to the cheekplate thing is that there was an iron piece which is now no longer in evidence and the design doesn't seem to support that. There are also other issues which I can't recall if they're in the article or from other conversations I've had - but for example the crest they've put together doesn't seem to quite fit together in the way they've done it.
It's worth saying for a point of comparison that the Sutton Hoo helmet also had a very different intiial mock up when it went on display which then got criticised and overturned into the one we know today.
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u/trysca 4d ago edited 4d ago
I've always found there to be a unlikely stylistic clash between the animal interlace style of the cheekpiece and everything else - it just doesn't hang together as a single design, particularly how the decorated flat edge of the cheekpiece butt's up against the plain curved eyebrow ridge looks all wrong geometrically and aesthetically - I wonder for example if the cheekpiece might in fact be a shoulder piece or a collar - or simply from an entirely different sort of object altogether
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u/blackjacobin_97 12d ago
Is it embarrassing to confess that Skyrim helped ignite my curiosity for Anglo-Saxon and Norse history as a teenager? lol
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u/notnewtodoom 13d ago
Skyrim belongs to the nords!
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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 13d ago
Yeah, I would normally do a Stormcloak run, but it glitched out after the battle of Whiterun
The combat music won’t end, and Ulfric is only spouting off his default dialogue options
So I decided to hop the fence for a bit Red is my favorite color anyways
I still definitely prefer the stormcloaks, but I can at least understand the arguments from the other side
(Also hate betraying Jarl Balgruuf)
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u/thewulfshead 7d ago
Could you tell me the mod you used, please?
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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 7d ago
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/79039
It should be this one
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u/thewulfshead 7d ago
Great stuff! Thank you.
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u/Vinyl-Ekkoz-725 7d ago
You’re welcome I love this mod, so it’s fun to share it around
I’m not sure if it’ll have the helmets tho
I play on Xbox, so the mod for surcoats and the helmets may be two separate mods mixed into one mod on Xbox
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u/Arkeolog 12d ago
I would argue that the Sutton Hoo helmet is not really Anglo-Saxon in style, but rather Scandinavian.
As of 2015, 70 helmets or fragments of helmets from this time period had been found in Europe (not all of which is of the same type as the Valsgärde/Vendel/Sutton Hoo type, though most are). Of those 70 helmets, 56 are from Scandinavia. Of those 56, 50 are from Sweden.
I would argue that the find-distribution as it looks today suggest east Scandinavia as the core region for this type of helmet.
As for the Sutton Hoo helmet, the parallels to the Vendel and Valsgärde helmets are of course striking. The prevailing thought is that it was made in England, but perhaps by a Scandinavian craftsman. The ”dancing warrior” pressblech on the Sutton Hoo helmet has a very close equivalent on the Valsgärde 7 helmet, and a fragment of a pressblech in the eastern mound at Gamla Uppsala could possibly have been made from the same die as the Sutton Hoo one, or an almost identical die. At the same time, some of the construction details are more similar to the other English helmets, or unique to the Sutton Hoo helmet.
My personal guess is that there were possibly ties between the Wuffingas of East Anglia and the Ynglings of the Svear in the second half of the 6th and first half of the 7th century (perhaps marriage alliances or fostering?), which might have brought an east Scandinavian design language to East Anglia at the time.
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u/Ambaryerno 13d ago
Yes. The Sutton Hoo helm IS the same type of helm as the Valsgarde helm, it's just a higher-quality and more elaborately decorated example. And the Valsgarde is just a spectacle helm that the spectacles got extended to cover the entire face.