Viking/Anglo Saxon Helmets

[Mr.J]

I'm planning on building a few saga warbands from the 10-11th Centuries and I am curious about the development of early medieval helmets. I was hoping someone on here could clarify their development or maybe point me in the right direction of relevant websites.

Cheek guards - are they still in use?
Spectacle helms - again are they in use?
Would it be predominantly/entirely conical/nasal helms?

Any other information about helmets etc would be greatly appreciated, I've done a bit of googling but a lot of what I find isn't all that specific about period appropriateness. I realise that very few intact helmets have been discovered so much of this could be speculation but I'm sure someone on here might be a bit more well informed than I.

Thanks.

[vonplutz]

Cheek guards are no longer in use during the 10th and 11th century. You will see mail hanging from the back and sides of helmets sometimes.

There is only one extant spectacle helm from that time period the Gjermundbu (may have misspelled that) helmet. Thus it would seem rarer than the typical conicals.

You would predominantly see spangen (banded) helmets and more single piece conicals in the 11th century. Some with nasals some without. Some of the spangen helmets may have been round rather than conical.

If you want more information I can try and answer more questions when I have time either here or through PM.

[Mr.J]

Excellent thanks for that. Pretty much confirmed what I thought but definitely worth knowing. If I do get stuck I'll know where to come next time. Thanks again.

[vonplutz]

No problem.