Collection: Viking Shields

Viking shields, for the wall and the shield wall

A shield was the most-used piece of kit a Norse warrior owned: round, broad, and painted with the marks that told everyone whose side you were on. Ours carry those same marks. Six designs, each £99.99, made to hang on a wall, carry at an event, or finish a costume that deserves better than plywood.

The designs

• Odin's Ravens. Huginn and Muninn — thought and memory — the two birds Odin sent out across the world each morning and waited all day to see return. The most recognisable Norse motif there is.
• Jörmungandr. The World Serpent, coiled around Midgard with its own tail in its jaws. The day it lets go is the day Ragnarök starts.
• Vegvísir. The Norse wayfinder stave, carried so the bearer would not lose their road in rough weather.
• Dragon. The prow-beast — the same figure the longships wore at the front, put there to unsettle whoever was watching from the shore.
• Ragnar. For Ragnar Lothbrok: raider, saga legend, and the reason a good many people went looking for a Viking shield in the first place.
• Lagertha. The shieldmaiden. Saxo Grammaticus wrote that she fought with her hair loose over her shoulders and a man's courage in her chest. She has earned her own shield.

Hanging one

Most of these end up on a wall rather than in a battle line — over a fireplace, behind a desk, in the corner of a room that was missing something. If you are mounting one, check the weight and use a fixing rated to carry it.

Part of the Raven Forge Viking range, dispatched from the UK. Pair one with a Viking axe or a Viking sword and the wall is finished.