The Frisian germanic warriors of history

I'm such an avid fan of THE WAR LORD that I enjoy posting on this thread.

This post is for military history fans.

THE FRISIAN WARRIORS depicted in this movie reflect Hollywood's traditional depiction of ancient Germanic warriors in its Roman time period movies. Hollywood typically depicted Germanic warriors as late Neolithic to early Iron Age. Image a six-foot plus, muscular buff, Cro-Magnon man dressed mostly in furs and wielding primitive clubs, spears, simple wooden shield and perhaps some primitive iron swords, knives, and daggers.

This depiction was indeed accurate for say, around Julius Caesar's time. But then the Germanic tribes went through the next two hundred years of close association with the Roman empire and learned of its culture, arts, and of course military technology. In that time the German tribes greatly advanced their own knowledge of metal-working, arms manufacture and became much more sophisticated in arms, armor, and warfare.

By the sacking of Rome in 410 AD (The true military downfall of the Western Roman empire compared to the accepted 476 AD date) you would have seen the Germanic warriors dressed, armed, and armored more like the 8th century Vikings. There would have been little fur garments except for perhaps cloaks and boots.

The Romans knew of the Frisian tribe in the North Sea. The Frisians were alternately enemies and allies of Rome, several times over. THE WAR LORD depicts these Frisians in a more primitive tribal way that would have been more accurate say, five hundred years before the tenth century. Still, no one will notice watching the movie. It was all the same, lots of fun to watch.