byrnie

plural byrnies · alternative byrny

1. historicalA short chain mail shirt, covering from the upper arms to the upper thighs.

   Unferth stood beside him, his huge arms folded on his byrnie.

   1972, John Gardner, Grendel, André Deutsch, page 97

   3 more examples

   […] those that walked armed before the Witches’ booths, six in company, harnessed as for battle in byrnies of shining bronze, with greaves and shields of bronze and helms that glanced in the sun.

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 17

   It was the Viking habit. Even as a man plowed his field or chopped trees in the woods, his byrnie and his sword were always at hand.

   1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 33

   The mail-coat, or byrnie, was made of iron links that probably were cut out of sheet metal with a die, or from flat hammered wire cut into short lengths.

   1992, Calvin B Kendall, Voyage to the Other World, University of Minnesota, page 19