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Sweden.) A manuscript of c. iooo still shows waist-length mail shirts with vandyked lower cdges and short sleeves, but a manuscript of fifty years later shows a king’s shirt as longer and split at front and rear, presumably to make riding a horse easier. By c. ioio some long-sleeved mail shirts were also coming into use among the high-born.

Helmets were also worn, but these do not become

common until the ioth century and were probably only worn by high-ranking warriors prior to that datę. Even under Knut the lower thegns were not wearing either mail or helmet, and it was probably only in subseąuent years that the iron helmet was worn by all the thegns and professional warriors.

Only one Anglo-Saxon helmet has survived in England: the Benty Grange helmet now in Sheffield Museum. This is madę from a brow band and four iron arches, with the spaces between filled originally by horn plates. A straight bar or nasal protects the face. The helmet is topped by a bronze wild boar, emblem of the Teutonic god Frey. Helms ‘guarded by boars’ are mentioned in Beowulf, ‘wrought so that no blade could pierce them.’ It may be that the boar provided not just the protection of the god, but some physical reinforce-ment to the crown.

By the beginning of the ioth century the type of helmet now referred to as the spangenhelm had madę its appearance. These could be hammered out of one piece ofiron, either including a nasal guard or with this bar added, but were morę usually of the framework type, but morę spherical, and with the horn plates now beginning to be replaced by metal ones. The nasal was probably not common until this datę.

A mail hood, known as the healsbeorg, was introduced in the gth century, again for the richer men only. This covered the back of the head, cheeks and chin, and by the beginning of the ioth century had become quite common amongst the professional warriors. Its name became corrupted to hauberk, a term subsequently applied to hood and shirt together.

A morę common form ofheadgear until the 11 th century was the hat now referred to as the ‘Phrygian cap’. Nonę have survived, but it is extensively illustrated in contemporary manu-scripts (see earlier illustrations) and dates back to at least the Carolingian period. It was probably a simple leather cap, the various methods of stitching the upper edges perhaps being a means of creating extra strength along the crest, though it may also have been worn over a Steel cap. A surviving Steel cap which could have been worn under other headgear is smali and rounded, fitting close to the head, and is madę up from a head band and a series of interlaced strips which create a lattice effect.