Deepeeka – Viking Shield with Norse Serpent Knotwork- Jörmungandr

This Viking Shield is sturdily built and crafted from thick and robust wood. It is hand-painted with an intricate Norse knotwork featuring entwined serpents and at its center is a steel shield boss to protect the hand. The shield is rimmed in steel for additional durability and hand a wooden grip bar on its reverse.

Often depicted in complex, coiled Norse knotwork is the Jörmungandr - the tempestuous Midgard serpent of the World Sea and a herald of the final battle to come - Ragnarök. Jörmungandr is a sea serpent of colossal size who encircles the world at the borders of the oceans, biting his tail and thus encompassing the world within his confines. It is when Jörmungandr releases his tail that the world will end. In this sense he holds the world together in structural balance and the shirking of his duties leaves the world in chaos in both a real and symbolic sense. The imagery of the Midgard serpent is similar to the larger, cross-cultural Ouroboros - a mystical symbol of a serpent or snake eating its tail - an icon of destruction, rebirth and the endless cycle between.
A traditional round Viking shield, the type carried across the Viking Age in the close-packed shield wall that defined Norse battlefield tactics.

The round shield was the standard-issue defensive equipment of the Viking Age, carried by warriors of every rank from farmer-levies to elite retainers. In battle, shields were locked edge to edge to form the skjaldborg, or shield wall - an overlapping line of defence that let a Viking Age warband present a solid front, each warrior's shield protecting both himself and part of his neighbour, a tactic requiring real discipline and trust between the men standing shoulder to shoulder.

Deepeeka's reproduction is built from stout plywood, its rim bound in tightly stitched rawhide and its face hand-painted, with an antiqued steel boss at the centre offering ample room for the hand and three riveted wooden reinforcing bars on the reverse, the central one leather-wrapped as the grip.

Use for:

Viking living history and shield-wall display
Museum-style display on a wall mount or stand
Norse mythology-themed home decor and collections
Historical events and Viking markets
Costume dressing and themed photography
Collectors of Norse symbolism and mythology