Helmet Plates

August 24, 2022

Article

| Germanic

The Anatomy of Germanic Art

Introduction
Early Animal Style
Style I
- Gold Bracteates
Style II/B
- Gold Foil Figures
- Helmet Plates
Style II/C
Style II/D
- Further Figurative Motifs

The Anatomy of Viking Art

The Anatomy of Helmet Plates

c. 525 – 675

Motifs

Duel (A).
Odin-figures (C, D).
Man flanked by beasts (D).
Beast-headed warriors (D).
Man with a beast on a rope (B).
Warriors in full armour (E).
Battle Scene (C).

Heirloom Helmets and Elite Warriors

Helmet plates are stamped bronze foils used for decorating prominent iron helmets. Most of the decorated helmets have been found in graves. They were often old antiquities when they ended up in the burial; they are worn, and many have been repaired or are incomplete. Their role in the burial customs seems to be that of an heirloom embedded with cultural and historical meaning. They have most likely been passed from generation to generation or been part of the gift-giving system in a long chain of reciprocity by the time they are following the dead into the grave. During their lifetime of use, the helmets have become imbued with biographies, with the invisible imprints of people, words and events. They have become living history and thus belong to the mythical world rather than the material world. The decorative motifs on the helmets seem to reflect and reinforce particular traditions developing over generations pertaining to the higher echelons of the Scandinavian warrior society. The central theme of the images is not surprisingly that of war, warrior culture and rituals, and a recurring character is one taking on the appearance of Odin.

Odin Figures The images on the helmet plates depict scenes pertaining to Odin’s domain of war, elite warriors, fate, magic and shapeshifting. Odin, as a central figure in mythology connected to magic, warfare and rulership, began to take shape during the mid-sixth century and developed through the Viking Age. Figures with Odin attributes likewise appear on the helmet plates. Odin figures are commonly depicted wearing horned headdresses with bird-head terminals. They usually carry spears, a significant attribute of Odin. Several Odin images are made to seem one-eyed, many altered after their manufacture. The eye is usually scratched out rather than initially creating a one-eyed person. Votive helmet eyebrow deposits are also known and can be interpreted as an act of offering an eye. Some Odin figures appear in connection with beast-headed shapeshifting warriors, which connects them directly to berserkers. Seiðr, magic and shapeshifting are central expertises of Odin.

Shapeshifting The general concept and practice of shapeshifting are far from straightforward. It refers to many different ways of changing appearance depending on the context. It can, for example, mean leaving one’s human body in a sleeping state and taking on the shape of an animal, changing bodies with another human being or animal or, as seems to be the case with the berserker, simply transforming one’s body into a more animal-like appearance either by simply morphing physically or by taking on and wearing an animal pelt. Shapeshifting aspects can be part of coming-of-age ceremonies. In the Völsunge saga, for example, Sinfjötli and his father, Sigmund, embark on a ritual journey in which they put on wolf skins and live as ferocious wolves before taking their revenge on King Siggeir.

Berserkers The meaning of the term ‘berserkr’ is still disputed and difficult to decipher definitively. The most commonly accepted translation is ‘bear-shirt,’ i.e. ‘bear armour’ rather than the other suggested meaning of ‘bare-shirt,’ i.e. ‘without armour’. The term ‘ulfheðinn’, meaning ‘wolf-shirt’, is probably interchangeable with ‘berserkr‘, referring to the same kind of elite warrior with identical characteristics. The earliest sources describe berserkers as elite soldiers, bodyguards and champions of kings. Later sources, on the contrary, describe them as boasters and ravenous men who loot, plunder and kill indiscriminately rather than heroes. This reflects a Scandinavian society shifting from heathenry embracing the berserker customs into Christianity, where such customs are seen as trollish and demonic. The earliest surviving reference of berserkers is in Haraldskvæði composed by Thórbiörn Hornklofi in the late 9th century. In 1015, Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson of Norway outlawed berserkers. Grágás, the medieval Icelandic law code, sentenced berserker warriors to outlawry. By the 12th century, organised berserker war bands had disappeared.

Roles of the Berserker In the literature, berserkers take on particular roles. They are most notably elite members of the royal retinue, expected to be present at a pagan king’s court and to fight on his behalf, possibly as a champion or a member of his army. As elite warriors, they are usually seen in the front of the army and well positioned in the hall with high social status. In this role, they are both valued and feared. However, they were often cast in a antagonistic role in the post-Viking-age Christian-leaning literature. They show up in the hall at Yuletide as uninvited intruders, alone or in a group, and proceed to make the lives of those present miserable and challenge the story’s hero. Or they show up as hólmgongumaðr, who challenges weaker farmers to duel for their farms, female relatives or both. The saga hero steps in as the farmer’s champion, defeats the berserker and gains a wife and property. Berserkers going viking usually occurs in groups marauding and pillaging for their own gain, posing a more significant threat to society than the individual berserker. They can be part of a king’s retinue while raiding abroad or a band of outlaws.

Characteristics of a Berserker Berserkers were known for their berserkergang (‘going berserk’) when they went into battle. Going berserk meant undergoing some kind of shapeshifting in which the berserker gained superhuman animalistic powers and characteristics. The process usually began with the berserker chewing on the rim of their shield and howling like a wolf. It’s possible that they used their shield to modulate their voice. Going into the battle, they were said to be invulnerable to edged weapons, though not impervious to blunt weapons such as clubs. The invulnerability may be attributed to animal skin armour. Some berserkers could blunt swords merely by looking at them. Therefore, a good strategy to circumvent this would be to carry two blades and only reveal the second one the moment before the kill. Blunting weapons is also an attribute of Odin. When berserkergang ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days. In this period, the berserker would be especially vulnerable. There might also have been a berserker tradition of leaping across fire or even walking on hot coals. In Christian conversion stories, the fire bites the berserkers once it is consecrated. However, this trope is not part of a long-standing tradition.

Blámenn Berserkers share several characteristics with the so-called blámenn (‘black or blue men’) refers to dark-skinned people, usually from Africa or the Middle East. The literary blámadr and the berserker are essentially the same. The blámadr’s function as stock villains is similar to the berserker, as is their behaviour before and during battle. In some sagas, invulnerability is also attributed to blámenn, and blámenn is also described as howling. Other fantastical creatures that play the same role as the berserker in Old Norse literature are haugbúi (‘mound dweller’ or ‘undead being’) and trolls.

Motifs and Placement

A Duel

The motif features two opposing men in a duel mirroring each other. The two men might be engaging in a formal duel like hólmganga, a legally recognised way to settle disputes.

Odin Figures Alone or in Pairs

The most iconic feature of the Odin figures is their headdress, consisting of two inward-curling horns with birds-of-prey head terminals. The figures usually carry downward-facing spears and are often dressed in caftans but also appear naked, only wearing a belt and a sheathed sword in a baldric looping around their shoulder. Their stance appears to be dancing or jumping, indicating motion.

Man and Beast

The motif of a man flanked by two beasts is common throughout the Germanic Iron Age and into the Viking Age. The beasts face the man with their mouths on each side of his head. Their limbs are usually intimately intertwined with the man’s. In some cases, the man is stabbing the animals with knives. Another recurring image of a man with a beast on a leash relates to the man-flanked-by-beasts motif. But in this case, the man has defeated and fettered the animal. In both motif types, the beast’s mouth is pointed towards the man’s ear as to deliver a message. Open mouths and tongues are directly linked to the performance of magic. Thus, these scenes could be interpreted as the moment a person gains shapeshifting powers from a beast he has fought and defeated, forcing it to transfer its animalistic powers to him. Or it could be a moment of violent transformation from man to beast.

Odin Figure Flanked by Beast Warriors

The motif shows an Odin figure flanked by two armed figures with animal heads. It is unclear if they are humanoid figures with animal heads or humans wearing animal heads or exactly what kind of animals they are, though they are clearly predatory mammals with sharp teeth like bears or wolves, not boars or birds. This motif reiterates several themes from the man-flanked-by-beasts motif. The Odin figure is, for example, inherently linked to violence, the practice of magic, and shape-shifting, and the half-man, half-beast warriors are shapeshifting berserker-like figures. But in contrast to the man-flanked-by-beasts motif, the scene here seems more ceremonial.

Warrior Columns

The motif features two or more mostly identical warriors in profile. They are sometimes accompanied by animals such as birds or serpents. Multiple double warrior images are usually applied in a row on the sides of the helmet, giving the impression of a column of warriors.

Battle Scene

The central figure of this motif is a mounted warrior with a helmet, shield, and sword lifting a spear horizontally across the top of the composition. A tiny Odin figure behind him above the horse seems to guide the spear with his hand. Birds of prey occur in connection with the spear, sometimes even in its place. One or two other warriors in front of and below the horse appear to attack or try to grab hold of it. The image is thus divided diagonally into two halves, one depicting forces aiding the rider into the battle and the other half forces opposing him. The overarching theme might be fate.

Motif Placement on the Helmets

There seem to be some common patterns in the distribution of motifs on the helmets: Above the eyes are often mirror images of duelling combatants, either warriors, Odin figures, or man and beast. Along the sides are often horizontal lines of plates with warrior columns and battle scenes, often lined up above each other, giving the impression of an army moving in the same direction as the helmet’s wearer. Additional plates with animal ornament are often used in between the figurative plates with the warriors.