Medieval Swedish colors and heraldry questions

Probert · Post by **Probert** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:21 pm

Anybody know good resources online for Swedish Heraldry, colors, shield designs. I am going to start painting up this army from Storm of Arrows, and have little to no idea of its history.

Thanks.

olivier · Post by **olivier** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:39 pm

try this link :http://www.svenskadel.nu/start.htm
beware it's in swedish, I think

madaxeman · Post by **madaxeman** » Mon May 05, 2008 7:49 pm

There are two Osprey books on Swedish & Danish armies

I've got links to both of them on my website - but not too much else for these armies I'm afraid

http://astore.amazon.com/field_of_glory ... F8&node=53

tim
www.madaxeman.com

ogglas · Post by **ogglas** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:31 pm

Information about swedish heraldry are quite hard to find.

Sweden never fully developed the feudal system and the armies were predominatly made up of well armed and armoured pesant militia which followed no heraldic codes. As for colors you should go for mostly brown, gray, buff and other dull colors. My understanding is that swedish infantry did not carry shields during the later part of this period but those who did probaly painted them with their family weapon.

The few noblemen in the armies had close ties to germany so with these you can´t go wrong with german heraldry and shield designs.

99% of all information about swedish medieval armies are in swedish but I´d be glad to help you out with the books I have.

Have you thought about which figures you will use?

Probert · Post by **Probert** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:15 am

To get started on a 1350-1400 Swedish army I purchased some knights and commanders from a 1200-1300 German range, as Swedish armor was supposedly behind the times. These guys are going to be my command teams.

For infantry I ordered some armored and partially armored crossbowmen from Black Hat, spearmen and billmen from Black Hat, and a bag of Old Glory 15s dismounted men at arms (armored with good sized weapons) to fill out my massive miltia.

peterrjohnston · Post by **peterrjohnston** » Thu May 08, 2008 8:27 am

I found this page a while back. There's lots of heraldry. I haven't a clue what it says though

Warning, the page is huge and takes a while to load. Worth saving it locally when it's finished.

http://heraldry.husgafvel.net/ERIKLARSS ... enska.html

Also this site:

http://www.adelsvapen.com/medeltidsvapen/

Again, I haven't a clue what it says... perhaps ogglas could help?

Rgds,
Peter

Moberg · Post by **Moberg** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:50 pm

Nice to see that there´s more medeival scandinavian fans than me in this forum.

I´ll be glad to give you any information you need about medeival sweden.

I see that you choosen the period of 1350-1400. You probably already read everything to the subjuct on Wikipedia, if not, here is some links to start with:
Keywords-Explenation
Håtuna games – The devistating civil war between 1304-1319.
Magnus IV of Sweden – The king that ruled from 1319 to 1356
Albert of Sweden – The German nobleman who replaced King Magnus after a rebellion.
Margaret I of Denmark – The Dane queen who created the treaty of Kalmar. 1393.

I see that you got a couple of links above. Heres some explenation what you would expect of them.

Oliver: Svenskadel.nu
Unfortunately this site only gives information about living noble familys. 99,9 % founded during the wars of 17th and 18th century.

Madaxeman:
Gives you links to some books in the subject. Osprey´s is ok. The book about baltic crusades seems very interesting but FoG unfortunatelly doesnt have any lists that cover that scene of battle. The others will only give you special information on subject you dont need or is so breif that you will learn more in a couple of minutes at wikipedia.

PeterrJohnsston: Heraldy.husgafvel...
Is a very interesting family history about a family sited i Finland. But they did not play any part in the wars 1350-1400.

Adelsvapen.com/medeltidsvapen..
Finally what you asked for! But the site only cover a random selection of the families in Sweden and most of them where founded in the 15th century. The families and weapons to look for is: Bielke, Grip, Natt och Dag (Night and day – nice name) Baner, Sparre av Tofta etc. The families above had the simplest pattern on their shields. Slightly boring but more easilly painted. But that was the fashion of the day and a signal that they where the oldest families. Sweden didnt have any noblemen until 1280 and the treaty of Alnsö so the noblemen of 1350 to 1400 was only the 3rd to 5th generation in their families.

The rest of the shields on the site is either later (15th century) or I dont recognize them. I’ll try to find out more in my private library.

Skål! / Moberg

Probert · Post by **Probert** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:37 pm

Thanks Moberg. I just finished my first Med Swedish battlegroup. 4 bases of billmen (I threw some swordsmen and spearmen in to get the militia look) and 4 bases of crossbowmen. They look great, but I had to keep reminding myself not to paint everything yellow and blue.

Dalauppror · Post by **Dalauppror** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:02 am

Hi

Glad to hear that some one is going to make a medieval swedish army. I started one but changed mid cours to the Union/Danish army (1488) in which I can have danish, swedish and german unit, all in one

As the "Swedish" colours is blue and yellow, I have painted several shields in that colour combiation.

You can find pictures of my units at my blog. http://www.metrobloggen.se/dalauppror and some Swedish Flags at: http://www.metrobloggen.se/jsp/public/p ... 19.1666161 fel free to use them. More Swedish flags at http://fanaticus.org/DBA/images/banners/Sweden.jpg

Swedish knights:

Milita from Dalarna in sweden:

The swedish Hero Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson as a command for my army:

Best regards Dalauppror

Probert · Post by **Probert** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:10 pm

Dalaup----,

I made an effort to limit the amount of blue and yellow I put on my first militia unit. I tried to give them a very non-uniform look. I have not painted any of my knights/Men at arms yet. Yours look great. I will not try and pull off the flag and banner thing since mine look terrible.

khurasan_miniatures · Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:16 pm

Just in case anyone hasn't heard, I'm now making Scandinavian intantry levies for the late 15th early 16th century. They are based on period illustrations of Swedish levies from central Sweden but I'd be surprised if they were not suitable as Danish infantry as well.

I'm actually painting an army of them for myself for FoG so I'm reading this thread with great interest! I'm using Mirliton models from the Burgungian line (and guns from the Condotta) for the trendier fashioned troops.

http://members.tripod.com/khurasanminia ... s.html#C10