the.com/tower shield
A door you carry, a wall you wear, a coffin for whoever charges first.
means A tower shield is a very large, often rectangular shield tall and wide enough to protect most or all of a soldier's body, frequently rested on the ground for defense.
from The "tower" is plain description — the shield stands as tall as a small tower of wood and hide. "Shield" comes from Old English "scield," tied to a root meaning "to cover" or "divide" (a cousin of words for splitting boards, since early shields were planks). The classic ancestor is the Roman "scutum," the curved rectangular body-shield that let legions lock together into a wall; the modern "tower shield" label, though, owes much to tabletop games and fantasy gear rather than any single historical name.
- roman scutum
- Curved to wrap the body and deflect blows sideways
- testudo
- Soldiers locked them into a mobile armored shell
- sheer mass
- Some weighed over twenty pounds of wood and leather
- siege use
- Big enough to crouch fully behind during arrow storms
- painted faces
- Bore unit emblems and intimidating designs in battle
kite shield — norman shield used at battle of hastings (1066), elongated teardrop shape for mounted and foot soldiers
heater shield — medieval european shield with flat top and pointed bottom, dominant from 12th-15th centuries in heraldry