Anglo-Saxon Weapons and Art! By: Dyllan S. Chant

Anglo-Saxon Spears! The Main weapon the Anglo-Saxons used during war were their spears. They were usually “leaf” or “kite” shaped and had a socket for the attachment of the staff. The usual length of the spear was 6’6”- 8’ (2.00m-2.50m). Spears were used for both hand to hand combat and as Javelins. Anglo-Saxons burials that contained weapons 86% of the time had spears in them. There were also 21 different types of spears the Anglo-Saxons used during war.

Anglo-Saxon Body Armor! The Majority of Warriors had Chain Mail as their armor. The mail shirt was worn over a leather jerkin or padded undergarment to prevent the mail links being forced into the body (the padded undergarment did not make an appearance until the time of the Viking raids of the ninth century, when weapons seem generally to have got larger and heavier.

Anglo-Saxon Swords! Swords were not the most common weapon that the Anglo-Saxons used during war. These swords were usually Doubled-Edged, Broad- Bladed and Straight-Edged. The swords were carried in what is called a Scabbard which was usually made with two laths of leather covered wood. The swords were sometimes worn on waist belts, they were usually carried slung from the right shoulder on a baldric. The sword was usually worn with the hilt riding pretty high, above the hip, with the scabbard hanging at an angle, rather than straight down. Swords were found in 12% of burials containing weapons.

Anglo-Saxon Axes! A few warriors used axes so it was not a common weapon used during war. It was often hard to tell the difference between if the axe was a weapon that was being buried with a warrior or if it was a wood cutting axe. Axes were only found in 3% of burials containing weapons.

Anglo-Saxon Shields! The main defense for a Anglo-Saxon warrior was their shelds. Anglo- Saxon shields were of the centre-grip type, and consisted of a round wooden board, often covered with leather or heavy cloth, with an iron boss in the centre. The warriors had a black iron strip to help hold onto the shield. The diameters of their shields could vary between 16”-36”.

Anglo-Saxon Brooch! In this lozenge-shaped field at the foot of the brooch is a bearded face with a helmet underneath two birds that represents the Germanic god Woden/Odin with his two companion ravens. This image of a god alongside many powerful animals may have had symbolic protection to the wearer like a talisman or amulet.

The Great Gold Buckle from Sutton Hoo. Later in the 6 th century this came to be. This style has more fluid and graceful animals, but these still writhe and interlace together and require patient untangling. The great gold buckle from Sutton Hoo is decorated with this style. From the thicket of interlace that fills the buckle’s surface 13 different animals come together and emerge.

Anglo-Saxon Metalwork Animal art continued to be popular on Anglo-Saxon metalwork throughout the later period, when it went through further transformations into the Mercian Style in the 8th century and then into the lively Trewhiddle Style in the 9th century. At the center is a man staring holding two plants. Around him are four other men posing with his hands behind his back, sniffs a leaf; another rubs his two hands together; the third has his hand up to his ear; and the final one has his whole hand inside of his mouth. Together these strange poses form the earliest definitions of the five senses: Sight, Smell, Touch, Hearing, and Taste.

Anglo-Saxon Art, Silver-Gilt Square- Headed Brooch! One of the most exquisite examples style of animal art is a silver-gilt square-headed brooch from a female grave on the Isle of Wight. It is covered with at least 24 different beasts: a mix of birds heads, human masks, animals and hybrids. Some of them are quite clear, like the faces in the circular lobes projecting from the bottom of the brooch. Some of them are harder to spot, such as the faces in profile that only emerge when the brooch is turned upside-down. Some of the images can be read in a lot of different ways, and this ambiguity is central to Style I art.

Anglo-Saxon Bows and Arrows! Bows and arrows were used to some extent, but were used even less in England than on the continent. No bows have survived in England, although arrowheads do sometimes remain. The bows were wooden longbows, ranging in length from 5' - 6'6" and were usually of Yew. The arrows were tipped with iron heads, although many arrowheads of bone have also been found in Denmark. Bows or arrows are found in around 1% of the Anglo-Saxon burials that contain weapons.

Works Cited! art/ art/ weapons-armour weapons-armour saxons_at_war/ saxons_at_war/