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

[Marianna Molin di Salerno]

I have been following this thread with great interest!  Because, from what I can tell from practical experience, no garb reconstruction is really usable on a day- to- work- day, point of view.  Here's my thinking:
  The modern "jumper" apron/dress - a fabric pipe or tube with straps is NOT practical for nursing a baby, and does not accomodate a lady's changing size during a pregnacy.  Given that most women were, more or less, in a constant state of pregnancy and nursing, from age 16 (more or less) until the day the "change of life" hit them,  I have to wonder why such a reconstruction has taken root (except that it comforts our modern sensibilities).
  Viking women of every rank had to contend with the realities of pregnancy and nursing. 
  Many of them also had to deal with the realities of farming - tending animals, tending a garden plot, making medicine, putting food by, chopping wood for fires, etc. A dress had to be "workable" - around the house, around the stables, and around the fire.  And speaking of fires, the apron dress had to be designed to stay out of the fire - long houses  had several fire pits - both in and out of the house, and tending a fire is a constant job.  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.
   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.
  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)
   


Bene agendo nunquam defessus.
(Never grow tired of doing good.)
       
---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.