Frankish grave at Londinières was discovered a variety of this type, in which the strips proceeding from the handle were _three_ on each side, radiating towards the rim. This very curious example is engraved in the _Normandie Souterraine_, Plate VIII. Others were found in the recent excavations in the Isle of Wight. The body of the shield was usually of wood; the lime having a marked preference. Thus, in "Beowulf[123]," the heroic Wiglaf "seized his shield, the yellow lindenwood" (_geolwe linde_). And a spell preserved in Harl. MS., 585, f. 186, has:-- "Stod under linde under leohtum scylde:" "I stood under my linden shield, beneath my light shield." In the Anglo-Saxon poem of "Judith:"-- "The warriors marched: the chieftains to the war, protected with targets, with arched linden shields." (_hwealfum lindum_[124].) In a fragment on the battle of Maldon:-- "Leofsunu spake and lifted his linden shield." (_and his linde ahof_[125].) [Illustration: PLATE XX.] And the Saxon Chronicle tells us, in recounting the defeat of Anlaf in 937, how King Athelstan and his heroes "the board-walls clove: and hewed the war-lindens." Leather was sometimes used in the construction of shields, as we learn from the Laws of Æthelstan, which forbid the employment of sheepskins for this purpose under a penalty of thirty shillings. In an example from the cemetery at Linton Heath, Cambridgeshire, the leather covering seemed to have been stretched over the iron umbo as well as over the wooden surface of the shield[126]. The edge was protected by a rim of metal. Portions of these rims have been found in the graves, both in England and on the continent; and as they present segments of circles, become of use in determining the shape of the shields themselves. In the Museum of Schwerin is an example of the metal rim which is complete: it is circular, and the central boss is also present. The oval shield appears in a few examples only. One was found among the graves explored at Oberflacht, in Suabia; another is figured by Silvestre, (vol. i. pl. CXLIV.) from a Longobardic miniature of the eleventh century; and a third occurs in the Bayeux Tapestry, Plate XVI. The surface of the Northern shields was painted in various fanciful devices, sometimes heightened with gilding. And, as Christianity was embraced by the various Northern tribes, the cross became a frequent decoration. The encomiast of Queen Emma, in describing the fleet of Canute the Great, says: "Erant ibi scutorum tot genera, ut crederis adesse omnium populorum agmina. Si quando sol illis jubar immiscerit radiorum, hinc resplenduit fulgor armorum, illinc vero flamma dependentium scutorum[127]."