Bows do not survive. Wood rots, and from the whole of the first millennium something in the order of forty or fifty bowstaves have come down to us — for a weapon in use across northern Europe for a thousand years, that is very nearly nothing. What has survived is enough to be surprising. The staves from Denmark and Germany are yew or fir and run from a metre sixty-five to a metre ninety-five: shoulder-height weapons and taller, not the modest hunting bows of the popular picture. From the Viking age itself there is one from Dublin, one from Hedeby, and several from Birka in Sweden. Then set that against the Bayeux Tapestry, where every archer in the main panel is drawn with a short bow. An embroiderer's convention on one side, the objects themselves on the other, and no tidy way to make the two agree — which is roughly the condition of everything we think we know about this period.

W. Britain give him the whole stave held level across the body, arrow nocked but not drawn, spare shafts through his belt and a blue hood over a mail-less tunic — the moment of choosing a target rather than shooting at one. He is the first of three: this figure with the arrow nocked, "Scotend" at full draw, and "Osfirth" with the arrow gone. Bought together they read as one man in three frames, which is a better use of shelf space than three archers all doing the same thing. Put the group behind "Seaver" Saxon Shield Wall Defender and they have something to shoot over.

Model: 62123 / W. Britain / 1/30 scale / matte finish / 1 piece set