the pig formation that you are talking about i have heard also as a boar formation.
at least that's what Hanibal called it when he used it against the Romans. in one battle he killed 70,000 romans using this formation.
the men were so packed in close together, some couldn't even move their swords and shields.
awesome technique

Himberg

>>> "llama_nom" <600cell@...> 4/28/2009 6:03 PM >>>
> > Please say LN if this is like the (?) (sp) Tortuga - Turtle - that the Roman
> > soldiers had
> > They raised their shields over their heads, and some held the shields to one
> > side or the other
> > it was said to be a good defence against rocks being thrown upon them
> > But not proof against boinling oil - the appearance was certainly
> > inmaginable as a squarish
> > sort of Turtle shape as it approached the fortification in attack mode

There are similarities, although I don't know whether the Vikings overlapped shields on top, or if it was a matter of borrowing an idea or of great minds thinking alike. It seems like the natural thing to do if you have a lot of infantry with shields. Do the historical sources refer to specific tactics used in sieges, I wonder? The sagas often refer (anachronistically in some cases?) to shields with a "tail" or pointed lower end, <skjaldsporðr>, <sporðr skjaldar>, like those shown in the Bayeux Tapestry. When did these first appear?

> The shield wall is made overlaping the shields in front of the warriors at the height of the torso, the roman shields where rectangles, so it´s easier to form a "wall" and a "roof".

Even so, there are suggestions that some Viking battle tactics might be traced back to the Romans. One technique was known as <svínfylking> "pig formation", which looks like a calque (loan translation) from <porcinum caput>, literally "pig head", a Latin name for the same formation. The fighters would form themselves into a wedge shape and attempt to break through the enemy's <skjaldbog>.