My next character will be Dagur from the how to train your dragon tv series. I loved watching the programmes with my son Max, when he was younger. We both went to see the live action remake of the first film earlier this summer, which was also great!
Dragons: Race to the Edge
The tv programmes ran between the first and second films, expanding on the lives of Hiccup, Stoick, Astrid and all the other Berkians, with the Berserker tribe set in competition with Berk. Dagur becomes the leader of the Berserkers and over the seven series of Race to the Edge, he gradually becomes an ally to the Dragon Riders led by Hiccup. Neither Dagur, nor Heather appear in the films.
Dagur synopsis
He’s such a lovable idiot, as he reforms through the tv series. I’m going to choose how Dagur looks during the Race to the Edge seasons, when he’s trying to obtain the Dragon Eye and slowly becoming an ally to the Dragon Riders, led by Hiccup. The quote below is from the Dreamworks synopsis of Dagur for Race to the Edge.
Dagur is obsessed with Dragons and hates Hiccup.
After his defeat, Dagur the Deranged was imprisoned on Outcast Island for three years. But rather than rehabilitate his fractured mind, Dagur instead focused solely on his next attack on the Dragon Riders. Dagur packed on considerable muscle during his time in jail, making him an even more formidable fighter. He finally escaped from his cell and the archipelago, eventually finding a new fleet of ships. With a new armada now under his control, Dagur is ready to launch his final assault on Hiccup and Toothless, and he’s going to use the mysterious Dragon Eye to do it.
Quick breakdown of how I’ll approach the costume
The costume has a lot of elements with a fair amount of armour and quite a centurion vibe to the look. I will also make his asymmetric double headed axe too.
Bracers
The arm bracers look simple enough, EVA foam and some straps, with the tin foil technique to make the foam look like leather. Warm the EVA foam and press the a ball of foam to make random indentations and make an edge from the sheet of foam to mimic the metal rim.
Lower body armour
The skirt has pteruges, those heavier panels of leather with a metal edge in the image above. These are a greco-roman armour element, which Hollywood loved in its heyday. Think of Ben Hur or Spartacus. Actual archaeological evidence is scare, as linen or leather doesn’t survive. The Hollywood look is one which was led by style, rather than historical accuracy, but it is what the 20th century has left us with as Roman!
It is a little odd that Dagur, as a Viking, is cosplaying a Roman legionary. However that’s his costume, so I’ll create a panel based armour with 10-15 cm pteruges made of foam with an edge defined by a groove in the foam, rather than cutting dozens of strips and attaching them. I’ll then layer this over a short, semi a-line skirt using a pattern from New Look (6843).
I looked a viking era dyes and materials, out of curiosity, There is a bit of disagreement over whether vikings had a reliable green dye for clothing. Some claim green came from Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa), others a yellow dye and an over dye with woad. Reeds do work as a green dye, but this wasn’t found until later. So it’s a little unclear if that green could have existed, but it’s a good colour, so we’ll use it. I should be using either linen or wool, but I’ll cheat a little and use a lighter fabric, as comic-con at the Excel is warm, even in October.
October update: I found a lovely video of viking dyeing processes, showing blue dyes and examples of greens on the table.
Upper body armour
Lastly there is the body armour. I’ve spent a lot of time watching RTTE to figure out how the different panels work and how many layers there are at front and back. My understanding is that there is a shoulder piece, then a front and back panel which link through the strap you can see in the photo. They then connect to the cuirass, which is in close to the body. I’ve probably spent most time thinking about how this works and how to assemble it. I’ll use a mixture of worbla for the main shoulder section and 3 and 5mm foam for the rest of the armour.
Cardboard prototyping has been really helpful in figuring out how the different sections work together and which layers interconnect.
Boots
The boots are a fabric wrap with an armoured panel, similar to the bracers. Leggings will be bought woollen stockings and then there are also metal knee pads, which I’ll make from EVA foam.
Double headed axe
The double headed axe is a type of bearded axe or Skeggox, skegg is beard and ox is axe. These alledgedly come from wood working tools, but make for a good and dramatic weapon. Dagur’s is suitably large and has a fun shape, if not one that’s particularly historically accurate, but as a cosplay prop, it’s brilliant.
There is a good visual typology of axe head shapes from Scandinavia, this is derived from work by an archaeologist called Petersen from 1919. Further investigation led me to these reconstructions of burial axes from viking graves. This is from Project Forlog by Tomáš Vlasatý, quoted below.
The main purpose of the leather or metal wrapping is to strengthen the shaft in its narrowest part, which is most prone to cracking. An important fact is that metal-wrapped axes are basically always mounted from the top and not from the bottom. When mounted from below, the length of the entire shaft must be narrowed to the size of the axe eye. The installation from above allows the manufacturer and the user that the shaft does not have to be thinned along its entire length – it is thinned only at the intended top and at this point it is reinforced with sheet metal
I can imagine the heavy double headed axe which Dagur wields would benefit from this design approach, so i’m going to borrow this idea and retrofit it to the axe design. Looking at the screengrab above, I think it’s reasonable, as the handle for the axe does widen towards his hand.
Wrap up
I realise I am doing historical research on a tv programme which has flying dragons in it, but I’m enjoying this process and feel like it’s getting me into the character. Five weeks to comic-con and I’ve got materials and patterns bought or made for the main items and made a cardboard mock up of the main armour.
I’m also going to make the Dragon Eye, but more on that later in the week.
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