The science
A typical Saxon shield would need to protect the warrior against a number of offensive weapons. At long and medium range, it would have to guard against arrows. When the enemy had closed to mid-range, light throwing spears could be expected, and once the two sides clashed at arm's length, the boldest of fighters would need to fend off hatchets, swords and spears.
The heaviest hand weapon on the Saxon battlefield was the feared Dane-axe, a two-handed cleaving axe with a tremendous impact. Even the most robust shield would surely break under such an onslaught?
Lightness and strength
The key to a successful shield is lightness and strength, and it is believed that the Saxons used a composite method to achieve this. Their shields were not laminated like Roman ones, but were made from a number of lime-wood planks glued together, edge to edge, with organic glue made from cheese. The shield would then be covered in leather.
The lime wood was light and flexible, and the leather gave it strength. Some experts even suggest that the Saxons used a lenticular design (a squat cone or dome shape, like a lentil seed) that could withstand colossal impact.
Stopping power
We know from the Viking sagas that opponents taking part in the holmgang – an honour duel carried out in a bounded area, often on a small island (holm) – used a number of shields, so the shields must have been breakable. To test the durability of the Saxon shield, Mike Loades had several examples made and then tested to destruction at the Royal Military College of Science Testing Ground at Shrivenham.
Three types of shields were tested. The plain lime-wood shield was split by an arrow and smashed in half by a throwing axe. However, once covered in leather, a lime-wood shield easily received the shock of an impacting arrow, absorbed the stopping power of a throwing axe and was only split around the rim by the almost unstoppable Dane-axe.
The final test, on the lenticular shield, proved that this design could indeed withstand the mighty Viking two-handed axe. In fact, when tested by machine to destruction, it required a Dane-axe impact four times as powerful as a man could swing.
