Historical
background
Vendel
is a parish in the Swedish province of Uppland. Uppland,
and the surrounding area have produced twelve helmets
from the Vendel period (this includes the Vendel, Valsgarde
and the Ulltuna helmets), eight of them are intact or
reconstructable. There is no absolute consensus on the
dating of the Valsgärde/Vendel graves, between
them all they range from AD500 to the mid 10th century.
The helmets
from Graves 1, 12 and 14 bear close comparison to the
helmet from the early 7th century ship-burial at Sutton
Hoo, Suffolk, England, with die-stamped plaques depicting
scenes of warriors.
The presence
of decorative foils on this helm seem to indicate that
it might have had the standard brow band and nose-to-nape
band. It is possible that traces of strips can be detected
that run from the nose-to-nape band to the brow band
on the inside of the helmet. No clear conclusion can
be made though as this helm find is fragmentary at best.
The prominent crest has a median spine and ends again
with animal heads on both ends. This is combines with
eyebrows that are hatched and end in animal heads that
are viewed from above. The area of the brow band and
nose-to-nape is covered by decoration in the form of
the "copper alloy foils framed and held in place
by strips held in place by copper alloy rivets"
system common at Valsgärde.
Sources: Tweddle, Dominic.
The Anglian Helmet from Coppergate. Council for British
Archaeology 1992 Hjalmar Stolpe, 1912, Graffältet
vid Vendel (The Graves of Vendel), pgs. 59-60 |
