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Love the look of the helmet Zac. Is the frame made of leather and the infill plates made of brass or is it the other way around?

I have the same suspicion about Maille. It seems like it would be too easy and logical to recycle Maille throughout the medieval period and into the Renaissance to believe some of the extreme claims I’ve heard such as ‘on a battlefield there would only be 2 helmets or coats of mail, or swords, and that would be with the king.’

4:35 Woah! What an awesome replica of the Sutton Hoo Helmet!

Great video really interesting hearing the story with some being stored in the Tower of London I had always assumed that kinda thing us why we do not have more. Do you think we would've had any helmets like the vikings with the visors in the early Anglo Saxon period as I see some people depict Anglo Saxons with them I generally assume a significant amount of their helmets would've had the main body shape like the Sutton Hoo, Wollaston and Coppergate helmets and when it came to better produced ones and alot of nasal cap like helmets like the Shorwell helmet

just have to add the point that being valuable most would be unlikely be buried but passed on to sons, battlefield prizes etc and used until recycled

you gonna get one them 1066 Norman haircuts too? 😉

I can't talk much about Anglo-Saxon helmets, because I'm in central Europe and therefore my interest (and limited expertise) is more concentrated on that area, so the Merovingian era. We do have a few texts from the time stating that "most" of the Frankish and Alamannic people wore no helmet and no other armor. There are also mentions of some (usually leaders) that wore armor, at least in one case even multiple layers (the terms used is "lorica" AND "thorax", usually interpreted as "Lamellar or Scale over Maille". So, it does appear that helmets weren't too common at the time. There are few helmets found for the early medieval era. The best-known ones are the Baldenheim Spangenhelm type, on which you appear to have modelled your LARP helmet (which I like a lot). they were very high-prestige, every single one found was at least partially gilded and very richly decorated. However, I think there's a total of less than 50 helmets for the entire Merovingian era. At least one of the Baldenheim helmets was evidently in use for at least 3 generations, which may play a role - if over a couple of decades a helmet becomes too damaged to use (or bury), we'll never find it. Additionally, I think it's reasonable to assume that similar helmets were fashioned from iron or steel, but we have no evidence. It may just be that the "cheaper" models were recycled whereas the very-high-status ones were buried with the owners. I've also read that there are estimates that out of all the Baldenheim helmets ever made, we found only a small portion, and that (with I think 40 found all over Europe) there were about 3000 made and in use at the time. Add to that a number of less-high-status helmets of similar (or different, there were other types of helmets around) make, plus some byzantine helmets brought home by mercenaries, plus some norse (Vendel) or Anglo-Saxon helmets from Mercenaries that went to Scandinavia and/or Britain, and you get an idea that (albeit spread over a few hundred years), there were actually quite a lot of helmets around. My personal thinking is that, while most "commoners" had only a shield as protection, any moderately wealthy person would've invested in a helmet as soon as they could afford it. With a helmet and a shield, you're protected pretty okay and have a good chance of surviving the next campaign. Additional armor (maille, lamellar) would've been restricted to the properly wealthy only.

Yes. In addition to the reasons you mention I can easily think of several reasons why we need to be careful about helmets. Because it covers the head certain burial practices might want to show the face. And helmets remind us of the person in a way other parts of armour don't, so they may have been kept in a place of honor above ground and thus deteriorated. And for the more basic helmets, burying it with a person might have been inappropriate. Just because people aren't buried with hard hats, doesn't mean they weren't used. It just means people didn't think of them as worthy of preservation.

Western style Viking reenactors wearing no helmets in combat 😂

Excellent video. Like that your talking about the recycling / reuse of metal and armour. There are some great examples of mail reuse in the met museum, one set being made of three different sets of links. I have done something similar myself, mainly trialling the differences in movement between round wire and flat rings when linking into lames.

Maybe you can do saxon next time you want a change of pace.

My favorite dark age helmet is an Ostrogothic(iirc) officers helm based on a felt riding cap in the Strong collection last I heard. It's just a plain symmetrical iron bowl in the period spangenhelm style with a few plain iron buttons.

Comment for the algorithm 👍👍

Spangen helmets do not survive well due to the manner they are constructed. Many (conical helmets) have survived for mainly the western continental Europe that deigns were altered from byzantine Conical helmets. Eastern Europe has conical helmets but they are quiet different as an off shoot from Byzantium original form. You had as well conical helmet with a slight brim in the 11th century that were not quiet conical helmets nor kettle helmets. True kettle helmets were present in 11th century but only in notable amount in Germany called Eisenhut=iron hat Norman casque is a type of conical helmet. Normans would have used a conical helmet, a kettle helmet or a blend of the 2 which was more common but doesn't really have a name. I call it a (flared-conical helmet) which it is exceedingly basic but it works which no one seems to wear in re-enactments with most of them very neglected in by curators in museums. The tops of these 11th century helmets could change considerably being round, pointed, flat, diamond & even a spiral.

The irony of talking about the archaeological leftovers of your forefathers when you're planning of roleplaying as their oppressors and cultural slaughterers. Your modern wannabe French leadership must be tickled pink. It's not often I feel second hand shame, but that truly is something

Nice!!! I also saw that video on Viking helmets and it gave me the oompf I needed to want to make a video on my own pet history peeve: Butted ring maille! As a reenactor that covers the 8th to 11th centuries, I often come across people who swear by the fact that butted maille is purely fantasy, invented by hollywood for it's ease of assembly and verisimilitude to "proper" riveted maille... however, I am increasingly convinced that just because riveted maille is stronger, lighter, etc. doesn't mean that butted maille never existed, but rather the fact that it is cheaper to make would have made it more likely to have been used by poorer combattants, and therefore less likely to have been wel preserved as a "relic" through generations... not only that, but it's unreliability in battle may have lead to many butted-ring maille wearers to die as a result, leaving the armor pieces in question to be left to rust on the battlefield, or picked up by locals and recycled! As a certain beige man pointed out some time ago on a video on halberds, it's the nice ones that end up preserved... the trash ones get melted down into something else, or rust into nothingness because nobody wants it!

Helmets and armour in general for this period is such a fascinating subject, and something I have also been delving back into recently. The Staffordshire Hoard raises some really interesting questions IMHO.

It's probably worth bearing in mind the material science too, iron and low-alloy steels (which I presume Roman and Saxon helmets were, as we moved from iron age through to industrial) were more porous and susceptible to rust and even rot. They're far less likely to survive, especially in northern Europe, i would expect.

This reminds me of something I wondered about when I visited the Historical Museum in Oslo where they have an exhibition about Vikings. Not only have they only found one single Viking er helmet in Norway (the famous Gjermundbu one) they've also not uncovered many spearheads. OTOH they do have a lot of swords. And unless the common understanding that spears were in fact far more common than swords is untrue (which I don't believe), I wondered they've found so few spearheads compared to swords. Is it perhaps likely that as more common weapons, they were made in a lower quality and weren't taken care of and buried with people in the same way that swords were? The scarcity of spearheads from that period in our archealogical discoveries definitely doesn't mean there weren't a lot of spears all over the place. This seems to apply to helmets too. The idea of leather and nonmetal material in helmets does fascinate me. Perhaps some of the helmets depicted on the Bayeaux Tapestry were in fact made of leather.

There’s some iconography that can give us some insight into what was worn, I did a short video outlining some of that, though I think I’d have done it differently if I made it today. I think sometimes iconography can get overlooked, obviously it’s not 1:1 ultra realistic (unless it’s intended to be like in Renaissance paintings or things like that) but it does help us understand what was possible or even thought to be “normal” for being seen on the battlefield or on parade.

We also get gaping holes in the record whenever burial practices change. Among the Celtiberians there was a period of ~200 years where they didn't bury their elites with armor, only weapons. They start burying them with armor again after 200 BCE. Same goes for Italy after the Roman unification. You stop getting elaborate martial burials for the elite.

Very interested to see how your Norman armor is going to progress. I'm curious to see if there have been any major updates in recent years to how the armor might have looked or been configured. I know Matt Easton did a recent video on Norman armor, raising some interesting questions.

Recycling always has been a thing when resources were needed. Steel is valuable and it was a smart move to recycle the steel to make new armour. They couldn't effort to be sentimental. That's bad for us reenactors but still very relatable. Btw. We didn't find many nasal helmets on the continent either.

Man got frustrated with his research, and decided to make a video to vent! I'm joking, but yeah, I get you. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I prefer to let you guys do the hard work of researching, and then reap the benefits for myself. That's one of the reasons why I watch these videos.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" explained with helmets. 😃 Excellent points all around!

Appreciate the mention😊 Some really interesting points here Zac! Coming mainly from an era where armament is typically made of bronze and we have quite a lot of examples, it is really interesting to look into eras where we have very few archeological finds. I feel your point about the Romans really brings it home in regard to how our number of finds can be so slim in comparison to the number of soldiers. I mean, the Roman empire was huge! With thousands of soldiers throughout its hundreds of years, and yet we have, what, less than 50 helmets remaining today?

This is an awesome video. For your skill set, the norman cavalry look like the obvious choise... Maybe too obvious?

I'm just (FINALLY) getting into reenactment! Same story for me as the 2 uni guys! I've been interested in history all my life but fell in love with the 15th century during Art history class at university. All thanks to my incredible teacher Stan Hendrickx, God rest his soul. Turns out there's quite a few people in Belgian reenactment that were students of him as well too. After doing years of cosplaying i wanted to switch it up and give reenactment a go. Feels like i've been delaying it for some reason i cant explain... I joined a group "De Heeren van Diest" and started training with them! They were fighting alongside with you during Tewkesbury this year actually! :)

Bless that mum for getting involved for her son!

If you know something of your family ancestry, and can track that back far enough to know whether you were Anglo Saxon or Norman, that might be a good way to do it. On the other hand, my impression is there's an element of 'lost' knowledge of the Anglo Saxon side, so that might be more interesting from an academic learning about kit and suchlike side?

Hi love your contact Zac. My name is Ed Nash and I was born in the reenactment world being only 6 months old.

Looks like a fun series!

11th century is such a great idea for reenactment! I mean, I love the age of plate, but the age of mail has a more... rustic appeal. Not sure how to explain it better.

You’ve already got a pal doing A/S so join him? I’ve done it from 1982 with the 21eme de Ligne. At Waterloo 1995 we had over 100 in our ranks. I’ve done other periods too, like you fifteenth century, WW2, bits of ACW and ECW. Had a bit of a hiatus from it all due to living in Guernsey and then for the past 8 years being self employed as postmaster and shop owner, so no free time at all. However, we are moving on and so long as this old git can get a new job then I am determined to get back to 15th century reenacting and hopefully AWI too. As to why? Well when I was 10 there was this segment on a kids TV programme and it was of what I think was the old Sabre Society doing Napoleonics and there was a kid, my age drumming away, in kit. I was hooked. I already would get my sticky paws on every Airfix 1/32 box of soldiers that I could, and I grew up watching Mr Benn and reading the Ladybird history series, so I guess I was pre programmed for the hobby! Finally have a look at the Pattern. They recreate the 33rd Foot from 1775-1783 and will be attending the big events in the USA, it’d make for a really interesting TH-cam series for you.

i would love to be involved in re-enacting, making date appropriate clothes, i could learn the skills (have a few anyhow). i just do not have the stamina, due to dodgy ticker. i am having more surgery soon

I started two years ago after getting some medieval clothing for my birthday. Same year, I visited a workmate on a medieval fair and living history event and it just fit. Now, im very much into sewing clothes and historical fencing.

I'm not a patron but would love for you to join the Anglo saxon group as I am member l, though was not at the event. As to how I got started, I met some people at a pub while dressed as a pirate trying to get them to engage with the pirate-y activities. They then invited me to combat training the next day, and I'm still doing it, though not with that particular subset of that group.

My wife and I last visited England for the Battle of Hastings Reenactment in 2018. We miss England so much. We are over in Japan now, but great times.