So it is that time of year when we go a little Viking. This year we made some shields and axes. We had to use archaeological research to find ideas for axes, shields and helmets.

In the end we decided on just a shield and an axe, even though we did find some super, cool examples of helmets that have been excavated over the years.

In our research we found that shields could be covered in either linen or leather. They could be decorated so most of us went for this.

A Viking shield was made of wood and had a single hand grip in the middle. The shield boss was made of metal and protected the hand. Most of the original shields found had small holes all around the edge where a leather or rawhide edging was sewn on. You can see our edging on the shields – we didn’t sew it on though!

The most Viking shields ever found at one time were on the Gokstad ship burial where they dug up 64 complete shields. These were painted black and red.