Paul,
What I was asking, following your first posting which suggested that the
Normans [in terms of painting faces] might be copying Eastern Vikings, was
what is the evidence for eastern Vikings painting faces?
> > > so if they [the Normans]were mercenaries fighting in the VG
> > > they probably
> > > followed the fashions of other Varangians.If the
> > > Scandanavians didn't do
> > > this then the Normans were imitating Eastern Vikings
> > > fighting in the VG?
>
> I´ve never heard of face painting beyond the woad tatoos
> employed by the
> Picts in this period. I thought the face painting in
> ´Braveheart´ for
> instance, was Hollywood´s flight of fancy.
Even the evidence for that is slim - it assumes that the 'painted people'
referred to in Tacitus are the same people occupying NE Scotland 700 years
later - and they are taken over by Dalriadic Scots by the 9th century. Mind
you, the museum curators at Stirling still refer to their two-handed sword
as 'Wallace's sword', despite the fact that claymores didn't arrive in
Scotland until over 200 years after Wallace's execution, so Holywood isn't
only to blame for all the historical tosh that's fed to the public.
Andrew
Andrew Nicholson
SMR Project Officer
Planning and Environment
Dumfries and Galloway Council
Tel: 01387 260154
Fax: 01387 260149
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