[MR] What DID viking ladies really wear?

[David Chessler]

At 10:15 PM 3/1/2008, Costello53 at aol.com wrote:
>
>In a message dated 3/1/2008 7:01:28 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>mckennawerks at earthlink.net writes:
>
>Also the  length of post-partum amenorrhea was (if memory serves) on average
>greater  than 2 years, and that menopause occurred at a much earlier age than
>
>today.
>
>
>
>Could I ask where you found this information on post-partum  amenorrhea?  It
>is very interesting.


Nursing a baby does tend to create hormonal changes (progesterone, to 
cause "let down" of milk also inhibits ovulation and implanting). 
Some primitive societies in the 20th C were attested to nurse for as 
long as 4 years for this reason, although it is not, as you note, 
totally effective.

The age of menarch is determined firstly by nutrition, and has been 
moving earlier for about a century and a half, maybe more. Recently 
there has been a sudden drop in the age of menarch, apparently from 
hormones and hormone analogues in the food supply.

>I do note, however, that  amenorrhea following pregnancy
>does not necessarily mean the post-partum woman  is not ovulating.  The large
>numbers of "Irish twins" tell that tale.   While it certainly differs from
>woman to woman, ovulation following birth  can start as early as 27 
>or 28 days
>following delivery for some women, without a  return of menorrhea.


Think in statistical terms: some women would have children close 
together. More women would have them well-spaced.

Also, many husbands would be at sea during the summer trading season. 
Vikings did not usually carry their wives on their ships. Thus, there 
were many fewer opportunities to conceive. As I recall, the 
probability of a fertile woman conceiving from regular "unprotected" 
sex is about 80 per cent per year. If husband and wife were together 
only 6 months instead of 12, that would suggest a probability of 
about 80 per cent over TWO years rather than one.

It's not directly pertinant, but I have seen several Elizabethan 
portraits of pregnant upper-class women. They wore the same sorts of 
fancy clothing women usually did for portraits, but with some laces undone.

The vikings were a slave-holding society, so upper class women (any 
woman who could afford silk would be [still is] upper class) would be 
more likely to "supervise" manual labor. I think I recall 
descriptions of the woman of the household (the householder's wife) 
carrying a large bunch of keys as her badge of authority.

During the Viking period  through the 15th C, China was a naval power 
with a large fleet. There would have been well established trade 
through India and Arabia, in addition to the Silk Road. And the 
vikings were primarily traders, though they were not averse to 
picking up any unattached or poorly defended property.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_history_of_China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exploration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

Indeed, if you read between the lines of Njal's Saga, Iceland voted 
to become Christian for the commercial advantages.

Anyhow, look to the Arabic, Persian, and Byzantine sources for 
written descriptions of "Varangians" and even illustrations in some 
of the chronicles.