painting shields

[Freebeard]

yes this is a late reply to this thread, but for anyone who might care about it,

I came across a reference by Whitley Stokes in his edition of Togail Troí (the Destruction of Troy), wherein it describes some shields as being "chalked" (<calcda) wherein he describes this as refering to colouring the shields white by covering them in a coat of chalk, and upon this can be placed paints for various other colours, where he refers to one Prof. Schuchardt who describes shields of German knights as "covered witha ground of chalk on which paintings were placed" (Literarisches Centralblatt, 8 Jan, 1881, col 60.).

this can also be linked to the word "cailc" meaning chalk, which can also be used transitively for a "shield", by which one can assume comes from the idea of chalking one's shield, so referringto a chalked shield as a "cailc"

however, this tale is of a 12th rendition, and is dated to the 12th century linguistically.


does anyone know of any similar practices in other cultures of the Early medieval age or even of the high middle ages?