This chain mail shirt is from the late Viking Age (the latter half of the 10th century) and was found in a well-furnished warrior grave at the farm Gjermundbu in Eastern Norway.
The grave also contained swords, axes, spears, arrowheads, riding equipment, parts of several shields, as well as the most complete Viking age helmet found in Scandinavia.
The chain mail shirt covered the upper body. It provided very effective protection against cutting weapons such as swords and axes, and fairly good protection against thrusting weapons such as spears and arrows.
Making such mail was extremely laborious. Each iron ring was hooked through four others and secured with a small rivet. The mail maker must have had formidable patience!
The rings were made by pulling iron wire with draw plate to a thickness of 1-1.5 mm. The wire was then wound into a spiral around a rod before they were cut up individually.
The fragments of chain mail found in the Gjermundbu grave weigh 5.5 kg and consist of almost 25,000 rings. The rings are no more than 8 mm in diameter. An equal quantity to that displayed here is kept in the museum’s storage, and several more kilograms are probably missing.
