"Bizarre Viking helmet" Topic

So I got some Ral Partha Viking berserkers in the mail today. They have the most bizarre helmet/hat I've ever seen. It looks kind of like a Rastafarian knitted skull cap with a bill and cheek pieces. Has any of you experts seen anything like this. I was wondering if it is meant to represent a helmet made of strung bone or shells.

Any ideas?

David

Sounds like the Homeric boars-tooth helmet. I believe the Norse had something similar.

Early Saxon helmets were apparently made of animalsī teeth and should indeed look like something you describe, albeit conical, not comical ;o)

Is it one of these fellows?
picture

Henrix et al,

Not one of those, but the guy who is second from the right might possibly have the same kind of helmet. Anybody have any illustrations of a helmet of this type on a viking so I can get a better idea of how it looked? I assume it was a rare helmet, but the sculptor must have based it on something. What is the evidence for such a helmet in use by the Norse. I'm afraid my google-fu has left me this morning.

Thanks,
David

(I take it that you mean the second from the left, as the second from the right doesn't have a helmet, just a wolf pelt with the head thrown over his.)

In that case it's not strictly a viking helmet, but a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet from about the 7th c.
Similar helmets have been depicted in Scandinavia at about the same time, i.e. a couple of centuries earlier than the viking age, and in a couple of texts.

Like the Benty Grange helmet. (These are pictures of a replica.)
link
picture
picture

There are others that have not had the bristles shown here, and in a variety of materials. (But their names elude me at the moment.)

It can be made out of strips of interlocking bone or horn, or even metal, like the Sutton Hoo helmet
link

And here's a 7th c. Swedish depiction of a similar helmet
picture

Thanks Henrix. The figure I have does not have the crest, but the helmet looks to be similar. It does appear to be more akin to the Homeric era helmet than the Benty Grange Helmet. The links are great and at least have gotten me going in the right direction though.

David

Good!

Another variety here – link – which is also 7-8 century with very bizarre woven/plaited steel bowl.

Wulfric, that looks like a very functional and producable helmet

Wolfric,

neat link. The figure I have does appear to have some kind of helmet based on concentric rings of a natural material, probably boar's teeth. Here's the homeric era helmet mentioned previously:

link

The figure I have appears to be wearing some kind of helmet liner in addition, that is sticking out from the bottom, but it is an old figure and I have no idea how historically accurate. I believe it was sculpted by Tom Meier, and he is usually a stickler about such things, but I'm sure this is some of his very early work.

Here's a link to a line drawing of the figure in the old Ral Partha catalogue, but it doesn't show the helmet very well.

PDF link

It's on the bottom of page 7, figure #42-108

You *can* have your BBQ and wear it too.

Well, I can't see the helmet much, but the figure, frankly, does not look much like a viking.

Could it just be a phrygian cap (a noddy hat)?

link

Wulfric

Not a phrygian hat as it has the wrong shape and has concentric rings.

Henrix,

I think that this is really supposed to be a dark age figure from an earlier line that they renumbered. It actually is a good approximation of what a berserker might have meant, in that the warrior has stripped his tunic off his chest and it is just hanging down from his waist. The shield is contoured rather than flat, which I suspect was an attempt to match ancient line drawing depictions. I have a feeling that the shields were actually flat and it was the artists who were struggling with perspective that made it look more convex.

In any event I think I will be sculpting spangelhelms for them anyway. I have already cut an axe from one to use on another figure. Not my favorite sculpt.