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

[David Chessler]

At 01:15 PM 3/3/2008, Anne Ramey wrote:


>David Chessler <chessler at usa.net> wrote:
>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.
>
>I have to disagree here.  Why would they "surely" use 
>wet-nurses.  The vikings tended to be a practical earthy people.  I 
>don't see that they would have had the severe self-importance and 
>detachment issues that brought about that practice for the weathly 
>in later periods and other societies.  I have to say I have never 
>seen any such practice mentioned in any documentation of viking culture.

They were a slave-holding society. All the primary documentation, 
their own and descriptions of them by others, mention that. The 
descriptions also say that they treated the slaves well, but that's 
perhaps a related issue.

>Also, even if they were to use wet nurses for the weathliest 
>classes, that doesn't change the fact of needing to accommodate 
>pregnancy for everyone and nursing for most.

Slave women would have dressed differently: they would have dressed 
in "work clothes." As someone said, looser fitting and a stretchable bodice.


>To address the other comment that since births were 3 years apart, 
>pregnancy and nursing wasn't pretty much a constant state...perhaps 
>you should re-evaluate your math.  Pregnancy is ~10 months.  Back 
>then, I cannot imagine nursing would continue less than 1 year.  I 
>would be willing to bet that many, if not most, children were nursed 
>longer (though not as their sole food source). So...out of every 3 
>years you spend  2+ years either pregnant or nursing.  That seems 
>pretty constant to me.

That is true, since the major means of spacing children would have 
been nursing. (There were means of positive contraception attested 
even at earlier dates, but not necessarily for vikings.) However, see 
my other message about the role of infection in limiting fertility.

--

Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa
Goldsmith's Agent in Livorno
Factor in the lands of the Mughuls
Coral and Emeralds from Inde and Serendip

Checky argent and azure, two chess rooks or in chief, a chess knight 
or, a three-turret tower or in base