by henri de la garde » 20 May 2012 18:59
Edge on vs. flat on:
Thanks for the additional images. There are a large number of illustrations which show shield being held face forwards. The great majority of these illustrations depict deeply curved shields, however, meaning that the use of the shield varies according to its curvature.
There are a few very important factors that determine shield use, although many tend to consider only the first, the others have great influence:
1) weight
2) size
3) curvature
4) forward reach
5) suspension (guige vs enarmes vs center grip, just to name a few).
Given this number of variables, there are probably more variations of shield types in the later Early Middle Ages to High Middle Ages than there are sword types.
So Matt is dead on with the observation that most heater shield illustrations show the shield on a guige strap close to the torso. Joinville's account refers to his shield in several places; and though there are some cases of 'holding out one's shield', the default method of use for armed - mounted - French cavalry was to use the shoulder strap (Joinville mentions at one point that when he takes a tumble from his horse he is glad to have the shield around his neck at that point, as he did not lose it; this seems to indicate that there are stages of use and some personal preference is also involved).
The flat or gently curved shields are often shown edge forward in either the open position (on the left side) or the closed position (angled in on the right), and there is quite a bit of debate and discussion on the artistic conventions that surround this. The later period illustrations often show shorter or pointier deeply curved shields held 'flat' forward to the opponent, allowing the extreme ends of the curved shield to at least partially close off the left and right lines (no one I've ever heard of has done work with these types of shields yet; and I have a hard time imagining proper cutting actions occurring when hiding behind something that closes off the front and some angles of left and right as well).
I work extensively with a HEMA-ish extrapolation for (here's specific for you) use of the knightly medium sized arm-strapped (though we throw in guige use too) heater shield for personal combat assuming mid 13th century armour and equipment. I say HEMA-ish because I also do longsword, and while there is boatloads of material to draw upon for the extrapolation, it is still an extrapolation by comparison with other periods/weapons and I don't wish to offend the side of me that is a bit purist on the 'H' in HEMA.
I know of Colin Richards' efforts with shields (mostly center gripped rounds, I think), the Hammaborg work with S&B and center gripped Viking rounds, AHF's efforts with rotella, Bill Carew (Aus) did some messing about with Norman kite shields, and some other groups like WIlliam Short's Viking stuff, but does anyone know of any other groups working with shields (non-reenactment)? I'd be interested to hear their take on these images (which fit into our iconographic survey consistently) and my blanket generalizations...