Time period identification help?

[Scaryscarymushroom]

Hey guys.

I'm making a diorama and I'm wondering about a certain model. It's not a historical model (I'd call it fantasy) but it's based on a photorealist painting that isn't too outlandish, so I figure it gets a lot of its subject matter from history.

Without further ado.

Kreimheld's Revenge.

Can anyone help me identify the general time period and cultural identity of the shield, helmet, spear and clothing?

(I know there are glaring discrepancies. I just want to be aware of what I'm working with, so I can make informed decisions about what to include in the scenery.)


Thanks in advance!

[Ran The Cid]

The round shield & eye holes in the helmet make me think of 800AD Saxon/Viking.

[ColShaw]

Given the name, it sounds like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriemhild. So that would place her in Norse mythology. And the helmet would seem to back up the ~800AD Viking, as Ran the Cid points out, so that sounds like a pretty good guess.

[mrtn]

The picture itself seems to be a typical 19th-20th century "viking-mania" pic, national romantic and with the blonde hair more important than any historical accuracies.

[IanR]

the easiest way to find out would be to email morland studios, wouldnt it?

[Stuart-GreatEscapeGames]

Very much inspired by 8th-11th century Vikings.

[Nurglitch_PS]

Hey guys.
Can anyone help me identify the general time period and cultural identity of the shield, helmet, spear and clothing?

The period is late XX century, the cultural identity is US American, mostly the Hollywood tribe.

[Scaryscarymushroom]

Good to know. Thanks.

I sort of got an 8th century Saxon vibe, but the low cut dress had me second guessing myself and I started to wonder if the patterns on the shield, the shape of the helmet, or the spear were historically accurate at all. I'll definitely read up on Kreimhild and I'll make sure to approach with a heavy dose of hollywood viking-mania skepticism/enthusiasm.

[sigur]

It clearly is the scene from the Nibelungenlied. It has been set in variously looking eras in the past. According to Wikipedia the original poem is lost and of course Germanic cultures weren't too well known for writing stuff down but there are various manuscripts of the text ranging back to the 13th century.

The scene in question has got to be Kriemhild mourningly holding Hagen's spear which, probably in the interpretation of the guy who made the model, he used to kill Siegfried (her husband) with.

I suggest watching the late 1960s films about the story. They kick some serious butt. It's a great story about betrayal, friendship, revenge, the clash of the old faiths and christianity, the change from a culture of warrior kings to courtship culture, the role of women in such cultures, it has dragons, dwarves, invisibility hoods, huns and mass slaughter.

[Bloodknight]

It makes me sad that even a well-known character like Kriemhild gets misspelled. What's worse is that most of the German/English ie-misspellings (Kreimhild...Kreig) could be avoided if the English-speaking writer followed the rules of the English language, one of the easiest being "I before E, except after C".

[C-Coen]

Shield and helmet are most certainly fantasy, they're pretty much a direct copy of the ones used by the Royal Guard of Rohan...
Compare with GW's model for those.
Of course, those were quite heavily inspired by the warriors from the peoples mentioned by others.
The helmet decoration seems rather Saxon to me, while the eyebrows and eye protection is more Scandinavian (i.e. viking, more early period so 9th-10th century I'd say).
The spear is neither Rohan nor Germanic I think, it's rather broad and flat and has a big ridge in the middle, reminds me of Celtic ones (La Tène period, 5th century b.C. - 1st AD).