[Regia-NA] Hello

[Linda Rice]

Thank You, Hrolf- that was very, very helpful! 

FWIW, we've set our camp to be between 1000 and 1025, roughly. We could
tweak that if necessary, but that's our base plan. I'm glad that you
guys are here to ask manly-man questions of, since I'm about clueless
when it comes to who-killed-who and all that. ;-)
I can dress them and feed them, though! 

::Linda::



-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Hrolf Douglasson
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 3:08 PM
To: list-Regia-NA
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] Hello

Here I am, home again :-)
Huscarls? Hmm. Sigurd? Which one? If you accept that a Huscarl (ie,
retainer
to a member of the nobility, heavily armoured, carries a gurt big axe)
is a
fairly late period invention, then if you're talking Sigurd Eystiensson,
he
fought with Harald Finehair, so he's waaay too early. Sigurd the Stout
(Hlodvisson) gets killed at Clontarf in 1014, so he's heading into the
right
sort of time, but it would be questionable, in my mind, whether Orkney
would
support such a new idea in any great numbers at that time- there's no
iron
in Orkney's soil (only archaeology, ha ha), and practically everything-
even
timber- had to be imported. So equipping a Huscarl unit would be an
expensive proposition, and in these early days, I reckon it would only
be
kings or their equivalents who could afford it. <snip>
To my knowledge, there have been no finds of armour in Orkney- only the
usual spread of grave- goods weaponry. The Scar sword is rather nice,
though
:-)
Hope this helps clarify things- but remember, it's only my opinion! Feel
free to ignore it all and mail out all you want :-)))

Best Wishes,

Hrolf (Orkney)