. The arts in early England. there were found on the skull of askeleton the remains of what may have been the framework ofa similar These two discoveries seem to exhaustthe subject of the Anglo-Saxon helmet. THE SHIELD The only weapon of defence represented at Bifrons, andas a rule in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries as a whole, is the shield was apparently very commonly borne by theGermanic man-at-arms. The Franks who descended intoItaly in 539 , 100,000 strong, had each a shield,3 and sohad their Alamannic allies who fought with them againstNarses at That these might
. The arts in early England. there were found on the skull of askeleton the remains of what may have been the framework ofa similar These two discoveries seem to exhaustthe subject of the Anglo-Saxon helmet. THE SHIELD The only weapon of defence represented at Bifrons, andas a rule in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries as a whole, is the shield was apparently very commonly borne by theGermanic man-at-arms. The Franks who descended intoItaly in 539 , 100,000 strong, had each a shield,3 and sohad their Alamannic allies who fought with them againstNarses at That these might be of a rough and readyorder is shown by the fact that, when Theodoric was leadinghis Ostrogoths on the eventful march into Italy in 488, hissoldiers could only oppose shields of wicker work to the lancethrusts of enemies who met them on the Hence it is 1 Grobbels, p. 15. 2 Coll. Ant., 11, 23S. 3 Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, Italy andber Invaders, Oxford, 1895, etc., iv, 309. 4 ibid., v. 40. 5 ibid., m, 187. XXII facing p. 197. FORM AND SIZE OF SHIELDS 197 possible that the rank and file of the Anglo-Saxons werealways supplied with shields, but when these were wholly ofperishable materials they may have decayed away. In thecemeteries with which we are concerned the presence of theshield is only attested by the metal mounts, which have sur-vived while the wooden orb of the buckler has passed out ofexistence. These mounts may have belonged only to theshields of the well-to-do, but in any case they are fairlynumerous and occur at Bifrons as in every other largecemetery. These surviving parts of the shield present practically thesame shapes all over the Anglo-Saxon area, but there are somesignificant differences of detail in the forms that are of chrono-logical import. The Anglo-Saxon shield appears to have beenan orb of light wood, generally circular, though in the cemeteryat Bifrons and also at Long Wittenham, Berks,1 traces showedthat there it was oblong or oval,2 varying in diame
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