Armor: Part Thri: Parts of Chain

Le suilon.Reader, hello! You know what you want to read about? Chain armor! Yes you do!

Here's a quick recap of definitions:

Hauberk: A chain shirt that reaches the knee.
Haubergeon: A chain shirt that reaches the middle of the thigh.
Byrnie: A chain shirt that reaches only the waist.

Now, usually, when one thinks of chainmail, one thinks of a chain shirt only, or occasionally a chain shirt accompanied with a hood thing called a coif Now, note that a coif can refer to other things, so you'll have to make sure that the reader knows that it is a chain coif.

The collar that hangs from the coif is called an aventail (also: carnail).

Now, I actually had to look that up, myself, because I rarely see a coif without all the extra hangings. That just goes to show that you could always use more research.

The coif acts like a helmet while the aventail protects the neck and adds some extra protection to the shoulders. As with all helmet-like objects, I think it looks silly.

However, I love chain, so I think it looks less silly. Besides, neck protection is always good, and since the aventail hangs from the coif, it seems a bit more unavoidable to wear a coif to use it.

However, the difference between the aventail and the gorget or beavor is that one does not require a plate helmet to wear a plate neck protector.

Though, there are mail collars (called pixanes) that can be worn without the coif. These offer some protection to the lower neck and add additional protection to the shoulders.

These are sexy looking. Yes. I don't care if they protect less of the neck than aventails.

Anyway, back to parts of armor.

Chain leggings are called chausses and either covered up to the knee, or much farther up to protect the whole leg. I suppose how much it covered depended on what kind of chain shirt one was wearing, but, just to be safe, I'd probably personally wear the whole leg covering. Just in case someone got under my shirt, yanno.

Always protect that femoral artery, kids!

Chain gloves/mittens are called mitons. Easy to remember.

Next time, there will be a special entry on gold armor and why it doesn't make sense.

Namárië.