is the pig formation that you are talking about the same thing of a boar formation?
>>> "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>.