Gevninge helmet fragment

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Gevninge helmet fragment

Gevninge helmet fragment

Material Bronze, gold

Size 8 by 5 cm

(3 by 2 in)

Created c. 550–700 AD

Discovered 2000

Gevninge, Denmark

55.6451°N 11.9595°E

Present location Lejre Museum, Denmark

The Gevninge helmet fragment is the dexter eyepiece of a helmet from the Viking

Age or end of the Nordic Iron Age. It was found in 2000 during the excavation of a
Viking farmstead in Gevninge, near Lejre, Denmark. The fragment is moulded from
bronze and gilded, and consists of a stylised eyebrow with eyelashes above an oval
opening. There are three holes at the top and bottom of the fragment to affix the
eyepiece to a helmet. The fragment is significant as rare evidence of contemporaneous
helmets, and also for its discovery in Gevninge, an outpost that is possibly connected to
the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It has been in the collection of the Lejre Museum since
its discovery, and has been exhibited internationally as part of a travelling exhibition
on Vikings.
The fragment is an ornate piece, but nothing else remains of the helmet; it might be the
single remnant of a disintegrated helmet, or it might have been lost or discarded. It is
one of two Scandinavian eyepieces discovered alone, giving rise to the suggestion that
it was intentionally deposited in an invocation of the one-eyed god Odin. It would have
been part of a decorated "crested helmet", the type of headgear that was common to
England and Scandinavia from the sixth through eleventh centuries AD. These are
particularly known from the examples found at Vendel, Valsgärde, and Sutton Hoo;
the Tjele helmet fragment is the only other Danish example known.
Gevninge is three kilometres (1.9 mi) upriver from Lejre, a one-time centre of power
believed to be the setting for Heorot, the fabled mead hall to which the poetical
hero Beowulf journeys in search of the monster Grendel. The settlement's location
suggests that it functioned as an outpost through which anyone would have to pass
when sailing to the capital, and in which trusted and loyal guardians would serve. This
mirrors Beowulf's experience on his way to Heorot, for upon disembarking he is met
with a mounted lookout whose job it is "to watch the waves for raiders, and danger to
the Danish shore." Upon answering his challenge, Beowulf is escorted down the road to
Heorot, much as an Iron Age visitor to Lejre might have been led along the road from
Gevninge. The Gevninge helmet fragment, a military piece from a riverside outpost,
therefore sheds light on the relationship between historical fact and legend.
Contents
 1Description
o 1.1Typology
o 1.2Function
 2Discovery
o 2.1Exhibition
 3Context and Beowulf
 4Notes
 5References
 6Bibliography
 7External links

Description[edit]
The Gevninge eyepiece is 8 cm (3 in) wide and 5 cm (2 in) tall, moulded from bronze
and gilded.[1] An oval eye opening is overlain by a sculpted eyebrow with grooves
representing individual hairs;[1][2] grooves around the perimeter of the oval might
represent eyelashes.[1] The top and bottom of the fragment each have three holes,
presumably used to attach it to the helmet where it would have formed
the dexter eyepiece.[3] The top three holes might have attached it to the helmet cap, the
bottom three to some form of face protection such as a face mask or camail.[4]
Typology[edit]
The decorated Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet
See also: Sutton Hoo helmet §  Helmets
The Gevninge helmet fragment was discovered by itself, with no other nearby artefacts
to give it context.[5] The settlement at Gevninge dates to between 500 and 1000, [1] while
helmets with similar decorative characteristics suggest dating the eyepiece to the sixth
or seventh century,[6][7] perhaps from 550 to 700;[8] another helmet eyebrow discovered
in Uppåkra, Sweden, has the same suggested date. [8][9] The Gevninge fragment fits into
the corpus of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian "crested helmets",[1][10] each characterized
by a rounded cap and usually a prominent nose-to-nape crest. [11] The Tjele helmet
fragment is the only such helmet found in Denmark,[1] while the richly ornamented
helmets found at Sutton Hoo, Vendel, and Valsgärde may provide the closest
approximation to what the Gevninge helmet would have looked like when whole. [5][12]
Function[edit]
Helmets like that which the Gevninge fragment once adorned served both as utilitarian
equipment and as displays of status.[13] Examples from Northern Europe during the
Nordic Iron Age and Viking Age are rare. [14] This may partly suggest a failure to survive a
millennium underground[14] or perhaps a failure to be recognised after excavation: the
plainer Anglo-Saxon and Roman helmets from Shorwell and Burgh Castle were initially
misidentified as pots.[15][16] The extreme scarcity nevertheless suggests that they were
never deposited in great numbers, and that they signified the importance of those
wearing them.[17] In the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, a story about kings and nobles that
partly takes place in Denmark, helmets are mentioned often, and in ways that indicate
their significance.[14][18][19] The dying words of Beowulf, whose own pyre is stacked with
helmets,[20] are used to bestow a gold collar, byrnie, and gilded helmet to his
follower Wiglaf.[21][19]
If protection was all that was asked of a helmet, a simple iron cap would suffice. [22][5] Yet a
soldier guarding Gevninge, a riverside outpost on the way to the major city of Lejre,
would have to be trustworthy, and perhaps also connected to the king by family or
loyalty.[22][23] He would also occupy an important position in the military hierarchy. [22]
[23]
 Adornments like the Gevninge fragment would have identified the rank of such a
person,[24] as well as adding decoration to a helmet. [22][13]

Discovery[edit]
The fragment was discovered in 2000 with the use of a metal detector during a
minor excavation in Gevninge, a Viking Age settlement and modern-day village
in Denmark to the west of Roskilde.[25][26] The excavation was in response to the planned
construction of houses on an undeveloped hectare of land in the middle of the village,
but it unexpectedly revealed a farmstead with several buildings. [27]
The eyepiece may have been made at nearby Lejre, the seat of the Scylding kings
during the Iron and Viking ages.[19] It was discovered in the topsoil and might have been
lost or discarded, or the entire helmet might have become buried and then been
destroyed by ploughing.[5] It might also have been deliberately buried, as was the helmet
eyebrow from Uppåkra.[2] If buried alone, it might have been an allusion to the one-eyed
god Odin who sacrificed an eye in exchange for wisdom and intelligence in Norse
mythology.[28]
Exhibition[edit]
The Lejre Museum now displays the Gevninge fragment alongside other seventh-
century grave finds from the area.[29] The fragment was exhibited in Denmark and
internationally from 2013 to 2015 as part of a major exhibition on the Vikings, starting at
the National Museum of Denmark.[30] It then travelled to the British Museum for Vikings:
Life and Legend,[31][32][33] then to Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau for Die Wikinger.[34][35]

Context and Beowulf[edit]
The discovery of the fragment in Gevninge is notable for its proximity to Lejre, three
kilometres (1.9 mi) down the river from Roskilde Fjord.[26] Lejre was once a centre of
power, as evidenced by monumental burial mounds, large halls, the silver-filled Lejre
Hoard, and stone ships.[19] For the last hundred years Lejre has also been understood as
the most likely setting for Heorot, the great mead hall of the Danes in the Anglo-
Saxon epic poem Beowulf, to which Beowulf travels in search of Grendel and Grendel's
mother.[36] In this sense, Gevninge could have been "the Port of Lejre", [37] standing guard
against anyone who sailed towards the capital. [37][38] Indeed, Beowulf and his men are met
by such a guard when they disembark in Denmark:[24]
Folio 137r of the Beowulf manuscript, showing lines 229–252[note 1]
þa of wealle geseah weard Scildinga,
se þe holmclifu healdan scolde,
beran ofer bolcan beorhte randas,
fyrdsearu fuslicu; hine fyrwyt bræc
modgehygdum, hwæt þa men wæron.
Gewat him þa to waroðe wicge ridan
þegn Hroðgares, þrymmum cwehte
mægenwudu mundum, meþelwordum frægn:
"Hwæt syndon ge searohæbbendra,
byrnum werede, þe þus brontne ceol
ofer lagustræte lædan cwomon,
hider ofer holmas? le wæs
endesæta, ægwearde heold,
þe on land Dena laðra nænig
mid scipherge sceðþan ne meahte.
No her cuðlicor cuman ongunnon
lindhæbbende; ne ge leafnesword
guðfremmendra gearwe ne wisson,
maga gemedu. Næfre ic maran geseah
eorla ofer eorþan ðonne is eower sum,
When the watchman on the wall, the Shieldings'
lookout
whose job it was to guard the sea-cliffs,
saw shields glittering on the gangplank
and battle-equipment being unloaded
he had to find out who and what
the arrivals were. So he rode to the shore,
this horseman of Hrothgar’s, and challenged them
in formal terms, flourishing his spear:
"What kind of men are you who arrive
rigged out for combat in coats of mail,
sailing here over the sea-lanes
in your steep-hulled boat? I have been stationed
as lookout on this coast for a long time.
My job is to watch the waves for raiders,
and danger to the Danish shore.
Never before has a force under arms
disembarked so openly—not bothering to ask
secg on searwum; nis þæt seldguma,
wæpnum geweorðad, næfne him his wlite
leoge,
ænlic ansyn. Nu ic eower sceal
frumcyn witan, ær ge fyr heonan,
leassceaweras, on land Dena
furþur feran. Nu ge feorbuend,
mereliðende, minne gehyrað
anfealdne geþoht: Ofost is selest
to gecyðanne hwanan eowre cyme syndon."