[MR] What DID viking ladies really wear? Forgive me, it this is offensive

[David Chessler]

At 09:03 AM 3/1/2008, Marianna Molin di Salerno wrote:

>   Viking women of every rank had to contend 
> with the realities of pregnancy and nursing.

Surely they used wet nurses.

>   Long trains, flappy tabbards, etc. are just 
> difficult to deal with, when working around a 
> fire (fine for court wear, but not practical on a day to day basis).
>   I have yet to find a reconstruction that 
> takes all of these realities into account.

Dress clothing and work clothing are different, 
at all times and all places. Dress clothing 
serves the function of showing that you don't 
have to work (see Veblen, The Theory of the 
Leisure Class). Hence, in our society the middle 
and upper classes wear clothing that shows they 
don't have to do manual labor. Then, when manual 
labor became less common in the 1960s-1970s, the 
academics and other truly leisure classes began 
wearing work clothes, denim and cambray, to show 
that they didn't have to go to an office.

Silks, velvets, and similar fabrics would not 
have been work clothes for anyone. They would 
have been demonstration or dress clothing. 
Leaders (rulers, nobles, etc) might have worn 
them in battle to be quickly identifiable as the 
leader, to facilitate command. But that's another issue.

>    Also, I have to wonder about basing clothing 
> of the living, on cloting finds of the 
> dead.  If we appllied the same logic to finds 
> in Egypt, we would be believeing that the 
> ancient Egyptians walked around shrouded in 
> miles of linen wrappings.  It may be that 
> vikings had specialized grave clothes, designed 
> just for the dead, and had only a little 
> resemblance to what people wore in real 
> life.  Or it may be that these women  were 
> buried in their "Sunday Best", that was nothing 
> like a work-a-day house dress.  I am looking 
> for a real house dress reconstruction.

There are bog finds, though none are so old. Many 
of them are clearly sacrifices, but some are not.

We bury people in shrouds (which resemble nothing 
we normally wear these last 1500 years or so), or 
in business suits or dresses, which are what 
passes for ceremonial clothing in our present society.

Thus interment  finds would be ceremonial 
clothing or dress clothing or formal clothing, 
and not necessarily every day wear, depending on social class.

Accidental finds, like some bog finds, or mass 
graves (like Wisby), would show more every day 
wear, either for traveling (for people who died 
walking in a bog), or fighting (for the mass grave).

The greenland findings are particularly 
interesting, since they are very well preserved. They are, however, interments.

In other places there are inventories.

There are a few descriptions of Vikings. There is 
a famous Turkish description of the Norse he met 
in Byzantium. There are, indeed, many surviving chronicles and relations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Rustah
When a son is born, the father will go up to the 
newborn baby, sword in hand; throwing it down, he 
says, 'I shall not leave you with any property: 
You have only what you can provide with this 
weapon.'" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Rustah#_note-2>[3]


His impression of the Rus' is very favourable 
(especially compared to the relation of 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Fadlan>Ibn Fadlan):
"They carry clean clothes and the men adorn 
themselves with bracelets and gold. They treat 
their slaves well and also they carry exquisite 
clothes, because they put great effort in trade. 
They have many towns. They have a most friendly 
attitude towards foreigners and strangers who seek refuge."

I believe the following is the relation I read 
many many years ago (there have also been some 
fictional accounts based on it. For example:
Elements of Ibn Fadlan's account are used in the 
novel 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaters_of_the_Dead>Eaters 
of the Dead by 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton>Michael 
Crichton (filmed as 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior>The 
13th Warrior with 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Banderas>Antonio 
Banderas as Ibn Fadlan),
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Fadlan

A substantial part of Ibn Fadlan's account is 
dedicated to the description of a people he 
called the R s or R siyyah. Most scholars 
identify them with the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus%27_%28people%29>Rus' 
or 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians>Varangians, 
which would make Ibn Fadlan's account one of the 
earliest portrayals of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings>Vikings.

The R s appear as traders that set up shop on the 
river banks nearby the Bol ar camp. They are 
described as having the most perfect bodies, tall 
as palm-trees, with blond hair and ruddy skin. 
They are 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo>tattooed 
from "fingernails to neck" with dark blue or dark 
green "tree patterns" and other "figures" and 
that all men are armed with an axe and a long knife.

Ibn Fadlan describes the hygiene of the R siyyah 
as disgusting (while also noting with some 
astonishment that they comb their hair every day) 
and considers them vulgar and unsophisticated. In 
that, his impressions contradict those of the 
Persian traveler 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Rustah>Ibn 
Rustah. He also describes in great detail the 
funeral of one of their chieftains (a 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_burial>ship 
burial involving 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice>human 
sacrifice). Some scholars believe that it took 
place in the modern 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balymer_complex>Balymer 
complex.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Fadlan#_note-0>[1]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Skylitzis_Chronicle_iLLUMINATION.jpg
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Skylitzis_Chronicle_iLLUMINATION.jpg>Skylitzis_Chronicle_iLLUMINATION.jpg 
(671 × 512 pixels, file size: 63 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the Skylitzis Chronicle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians
Contemporary Byzantine chroniclers note with a 
mix of terror and fascination that the 
"Scandinavians were frightening both in 
appearance and in equipment, they attacked with 
reckless rage and neither cared about losing 
blood nor their 
wounds".<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-Enoksen>[9] 
The description probably refers to 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker>berserkergang 
since the state of trance is said to have given 
superhuman strength and no sense of pain in the 
wounds.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-Enoksen>[9] 
When the Byzantine Emperor died, the Varangians 
had the unique right of running to the imperial 
treasury and taking as much gold and as many gems 
as they could carry, a procedure known in 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse>Old Norse 
as polutasvarf ("palace 
pillaging").<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-Enoksen>[9]

Many Byzantine writers referred to them as 
"axe-bearing warriors," or pelekyphoroi barbaroi, 
rather than 
Varangians.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-Constantinople>[3]

Other than their fierce loyalty, the most 
recognizable attributes of the Varangian guard 
during the 11th century were their large axes and 
their penchant for drinking. There are countless 
stories of the Varangian guard either drinking in 
excess or being drunk. In 1103 during a visit to 
Constantinople, King 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_the_Good>Eric 
the Good of Denmark "exhorted members of the 
guard to lead a more sober life and not give 
themselves up to drunkenness." It is not 
surprising, therefore, to find a 12th century 
description of them as "the Emperor's wine-bags."

The 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laxd%C5%93la_saga>Laxdœla 
saga, informs that the Icelander 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolli_Bollason>Bolli 
Bollason, born c. 1006, was the first known 
Icelander or Norwegian in the Varangian 
Guard.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-penguin>[14]

"Bolli rode from the ship with twelve men, and 
all his followers were dressed in scarlet, and 
rode on gilt saddles, and all were they a trusty 
band, though Bolli was peerless among them. He 
had on the clothes of fur which the Garth-king 
had given him, he had over all a scarlet cape; 
and he had Footbiter girt on him, the hilt of 
which was dight with gold, and the grip woven 
with gold, he had a gilded helmet on his head, 
and a red shield on his flank, with a knight 
painted on it in gold. He had a dagger in his 
hand, as is the custom in foreign lands; and 
whenever they took quarters the women paid heed 
to nothing but gazing at Bolli and his grandeur, 
and that of his 
followers."<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#_note-LaxardalQuote>[16



>   Armstreet on Ebay, sells a viking 
> reconstruction that seems reasonable (in 
> construction, not price) - but I know little 
> about what "real vkings" wore.  Is this close?
>   I appologize in advance if this seems 
> offensive - I truly mean no offense.  I am just 
> trying to make sense out of Viking garb in general.
>   Any comment is greatly appreciated.
>   Bera the Blessed of the Shire of Sylvan Glen (AEthelmearc)