Jurgen's
Coppergate Style Helmet
For those of you interested in the 8th and 9th centuries, I highly
recommend purchasing Dominic Tweddle's book, "The Anglian Helmet from
Coppergate" (ISBN 1 872414 19 2). It's a great book, with
detailed photographs of the
Coppergate helmet plus smaller photographs of a number of contemporary
or nearly contemporary helmets. (Vendel, Valsgarde, Ulltuna and Sutton
Hoo for example) It also contains an in depth discussion of the
construction
details and history of the Coppergate helmet.
This book was the inspiration for the helmet pictured above.
The photographs of the original helmet were taken from Tweddle's book
mentioned
above. They show the original Coppergate helmet after restoration. I
attempted
to follow the style while adapting the helmet for use in SCA combat.
The
main additions are the rigid back plate under the maille and the face
grille. My decorations are also somewhat simpler that the originals.
The original
inscriptions on the decorative brass bands were religious in nature. I
chose to put "Vertias" and "Honour" on the side bands and "Ducere
Ministrare
et Illuminare" on the nose to nape band. The cheek plates are also
fixed
in place, the hinge is merely decorative. All of the brass work on my
helmet
was etched with the exception of the two eyebrow pieces, which were
cast.
The maille drape is riveted maille. Instructions and
patterns can be found by following the link below.
