Shields on Gor

 

Round shield

Concentric overlapping layers of hardened leather

Riveted together & bound with brass hoops

Fitted with double sling for carrying on left arm

Normally painted boldly and has city insignia

The round shield, concentric overlapping layers of hardened leather riveted together and bound with hoops of brass, fitted with the double sling for carrying on the left arm, was similarly unmarked. Normally the Gorean shield is painted boldly and has infixed in it some device for identifying the bearer's city. If this shield were intended for me, and I had little doubt it was, it should have carried the sign of Ko-ro-ba, my city. 

Outlaw

I had again my sword, that wine-tempered blade of fine, double-edged Gorean steel, carried even at the siege of Ar, so long ago, with its scabbard; and the rounded shield of layered boskhide, with its double sling, riveted with pets of iron and bound with hoops of brass; 

Raiders

Used to deflect spears

I also learned the use of the shield, primarily to meet the cast spear obliquely so that it would deflect harmlessly. Towards the end of my training I always fought with shield and helmet. 

Tarnsman

Normally carried on left arm

"Lines!" I heard. "Lines!"

"Let him go," said a man, wearily.

"Shields right!" I heard. Normally the shield, of course, is carried on the left arm, most warriors being right handed. The shields were now to be shifted to the right arm, for that was the direction from which had come the arrow.

Vagabonds

The fatigue of bearing a shield in battle See also Warrior Training

In between the assaults we gasped for breath and crouched behind our shields, resting their rims on the walkway. To lift such a device for Ehn at a time, and receive blow after blow upon it, bearing up under them, in time makes the arm desperately tired and sore. It is little wonder warriors often train with weighted shields. In the early Ahn of battle a common cause of causalities, particularly with young warriors, is recklessness, and the failure to use the shield properly to protect oneself. In the late Ahn of a battle, however, an even more common cause of causalities, interestingly enough, is the simple inability to lift, control and maneuver the shield. There is a great temptation to lower it, to ease the pain of the screaming muscles. This compounds, of course, with arm weariness, the result of wielding the sword, and the slowing of reflexes and reaction time, resulting from general fatigue.

Renegades

Weight of shield carried for a long time

Eagerly the men of Ar then pressed through the break in the rence.

Those behind, in their numbers, for pasangs back, may have thought the enemy himself had been sighted.

By late afternoon, however, nothing more had been seen.

"I am hungry," said a man.

The fin of a marsh shark cut the water nearby. Men thrust it away with the butts of their spears.

A wading fellow discarded his shield. He could perhaps no longer bear its weight. He held to his spear, his eyes closed, using it like a pole, to keep his balance in the soft bottom.

Vagabonds

Archer shields (wicker shields of naval bowmen)

I saw then that their action had been diversionary, to occupy us while other longboats, fixed with wicker shields, of the sort used for naval bowmen, lay along the chain. Behind those shields, like shapes and shadows, distinguishable behind the wicker, men tore with saws at the chain.

Guardsmen

Arrows lanced into the heavy wicker but, though several pierced it by a foot, they did little damage. The shafts were caught in the heavy wicker. Too, now, from the pirates' galleys, protecting their longboats, there sped a fierce counterfire. The wicker shields of our own archers were now bristling with feathers and wood.

Guardsmen

Archer shields, of heavy wicker, floated in the water, and ruptured posts and strakes, and parts of oars.

Guardsmen

Buckler

There I saw the shield which Tela had been polishing, a small, round shield, more of a buckler, really, than a shield. It was ornamented with bosses, and engraved with mythological scenes, the conquest, and the rape and enslavement of Amazons by satyrs. 

...

The shield, so small, so beautiful, was perhaps more for display, I think, than an implement of war. 

Dancer

Rencer shields

Small shields of rence wicker

Some of the men of the rencers, with their small shields of rence wicker, fought, but their marsh spears were not match for the steel swords and war spears of Gor. When they offered resistance they were cut down. Most, panic-stricken, knowing themselves no match for trained warriors, fled like animals, crying out in fear before the hunters of Port Kar.

Raiders

Alar Shields

Besides the ax Alars are fond of the Alar sword, a long, heavy, double-edged weapon. Their shields tend to be oval, like those of the Turians. 

Mercenaries