Norwegian Viking Clothing

Norwegian Viking Clothing

http://ydalir-laget.pl/norwegia.html & plus additional photos added in by Jenny Baker

"Tunic with vents"

Reconstruction Author: Thyrvald

The following is an attempt to reconstruct tunic, long tunic top with vents (in Iceland known as
Bladkjortel) used to ride a horse. Tunics of this type appear in the iconography of early medieval
Europe around the XI century and their entry into service combined with the growing role of
horsemen in battle ( The Battle of Hastings for example, presented at the fabric of Bayeux).
However, prior to, on the stones in Sweden runicznych (Norum and Hunnestad) show that this
type of clothing has already been applied and not only by the riders, which can be explained by
their general comfort in wearing. Most early, Scandinavian productions of this type can be found
in tnik paskorzebach with Norwegian supowych churches and churches in the fabrics
(Hoyland, Baldishol). After the middle of the twelfth century these tunics are becoming more and
more (go back to the ankles) and evolve to the form known in the Middle Ages as Cotte.
Tunic was uszyta the thick wool of jodekowym strand, by hand using linen thread and hand,
naturally dyed sheep's wool. The tunic has a trapezoidal-shaped sleeves and the lower parts on
the sides of large wedges. With the front and back of the tunic is cut almost to the waist. Its
length is 110 cm, so that goes for the knee.

Sources of reconstruction:
- Performances
- Margrethe Hald, Olddanske tekstiler.
- Thor Ewing, The Viking Clothing.

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 Norwegian Viking Clothing

Skjoldehamn garments
In 1936, a body was found in a bog on the Island of Andya, in Veserlen in northern Norway.
The body was sent to Troms Museum for examination. From the style of the garments, it has
been generally assumed that the individual was from the 13th-14th centuries. The carbon dating
has placed the garments to 995-1029 CE.

It has not been possible to determine the sex of the body due to the damaged condition of the
skeleton. From what remains, it is probable that the individual was about 155 cm (61" or about
5') in height. Although badly decalcified, the bones seem to be very slender, and there has been
a long confusion about whether the a woman or a small man, and perhaps either Norse, or Sami
(Lapp). DNA analysis revealed a man with Sami genetic markers.

The material associated with this find are:

Hood
Tunic -
Under Tunic/Shirt - made of a 4-shafted twill wool
Trousers/Hose
Hose
Footwrappings
Shoes
Knife Handle

A zip file containing black and white photos of the finds and reconstructed garments
(including a hood) and 2 PDf files (sadly not in English, but containing pattern diagrams) of
the Skjoldehamn garments can be downloaded from http://www.box.net/shared/gx1p6sbeoo

Pictures of the Original garments

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 Norwegian Viking Clothing

" Skjoldehamn Over Tunic"

Reconstruction Author: Thyrvald

This is a reconstruction of tunics found in the marsh Skjoldehamn on the Norwegian island of
Angoya. Initially rated that comes with XIII or XIV century, but subsequent carbon dating has
allowed with high accuracy wydatowa it to the Viking era (probably 970-1050). Tunics
Reconstruction is made of hand-sewn wool lnianymi nimi. In addition mankiety, from tunics and
finish at the neck was obszyte wenianymi lamwkami. Tunic has 4 wedges built into the back
part so as not to hinder movement, and trapezowate sleeves.

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 Norwegian Viking Clothing

The Skjoldehamn Tunic details

The garment has one gore front and back, two
on the right side and three on the left. The
neckline is V-shaped. It was worn with a small
plaited band for a belt. The fabric is a 2/2 twill.

Pattern drawing based on Gjessing

Sleeve end

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Norwegian Viking Clothing

" Skjoldehamn under Shirt"

Here you have the neck flap, in colour, with the bead as
closure and the broken loop of wool thread that probably
served to hold the bead: the bead is made from metal. And
is described as a 'little silver ring'. Here's an even closer
closeup, where you can see that it is not a leather thong,
but a woolen braid or something similar that holds the bead
to the flap.

And finally, in the last picture, you can see the upper left
part of the flap, with the braiding running along the edge.
The stripes can be seen clearly here.

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details on the Shirt - Just the section about

the shirt, (hopefully) pp.44-47
from Gjessing, Gutorm. "Skjoldehamndrakten,
en Senmiddelaldersk Nordnorsk Mannsdrakt."
Viking, Tidsskrift for Norrn Arkeologi. 2 (1938)
pp.27-81

p. 44
Shirt of brown woollen fabric. The shirt as a
garment has in olden times been used as both
an outer and inner garment. Usually, first and
foremost in summer, this shirt would have been
used as outerwear, hanging loosely over the
trousers, like a short tunic. Only when ease of
movement was required, as for example in the
battle, the shirt was tucked into the treousers.
(gyra i brkr/ girded with breeches)
Pattern drawing based on Gjessing The cloth of the Skjoldehamn shirt is woven in a
common 2/2 diagonal twill. The fabric is no
thinner than in the over-tunic, and certainly now
less fuzzy. This may possibly be because the
shirt on the whole is much stronger than the
worn over-tunic. Warp and weft have absolutely
the same, light yellow brown color, but the weft
is as usual a little thicker and looser spun (Pl.
VIII). The cut is, like (on) the tunic, unusual for
its irregularities, but it is in some details hard to
establish now due to the many patches sewn
on -- partially on top of each other.
p. 45
Like the over-tunic, the shirt is also cut from a
single piece [?of fabric], so there is no seam
along the shoulders, while the front piece looks to be cut slanting at the bottom such that it must
have been narrower at the bottom than further up. The tunic is tilted, seemingly due to
unsymmetrical cutting. In each of the sides three gores are added of somewhat uneven width.
However the back piece, and certainly not the front piece either have had any gores. The total
width of the right-hand gore at the bottom, is 36cm, while on the left-hand side, the width is
almost 50cm, probably 49cm.
Along the width of the front of the sleeve rings [are preserved?], however not the entire sleeve,
nor the backside. It may be that this ringing is a result of recent repairs. Like in the body of the
over-tunic, a piece has been cut off and sewn together at the bottom, but the width of the wrist is
the same as higher up [ie. at the shoulder?]. On the left-hand sleeve a tiny wedge [gusset?] has
been inserted at the top of the fabric, while the right sleeve has a large patch.
At the neck is a 5cm high, standing collar of closely and permanently woven three-shaft
[treskaftet] woolen fabric, where the weft runs over two, and under one warpthread. Each thread
is caught up in the background with the threads ahead [? og det for hvert er rykket en trd frem i
forhold tol forgende.] The brown colour of the collar is now maroon [red-brown], and every 3cm
along is woven with a yellow and a green stripe. The collar is cut so the coloured stripes are

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 Norwegian Viking Clothing

vertical [?loddrett, might mean plumb-bob correct??]. It is then embroidered tightly to the shirt,
with an easily and finely-sewn dense, green seam. On the chest of the shirt, is a square of the
same tightly-woven three-shaft fabric as on the collar, to close the neck. Sewn so the warp, and
hence stripes, run horizontally. Folded close to the right-hand-top side of the square is a small
silver ring, which has been linked to a tamp[?] on the shirt. Along the left side of the flap, the
thick and finely stitched green sewing of the same type, and attached to the sewing on the collar.
p. 46
The chest-flap's dimensions are 14 x 14cm. One is unable to see if the edge on the underside
has been embroidered in the same manner as the front. The silver ring is relatively thick, and
with a step-shaped cross-section. [? med dobbelt trappeformet tverrsnitt] The collar decreases in
height by one centimetre until the centre gap is reached, at which point it is appreciably smaller.
(Pl. VIII fig 1)
The fabric of the collar and chest-flap are interesting, as thee-shaft weaving is unknown from
Norwegian old finds, but this form of weave is known from the Middle Ages. Examples include
the tunic from Kragelund near Viborg in Jutland.The thread in the weft and warp is quite thin and
looks almost identical to the embroidered seams and the surringene of the clothing-belt.
The shirt is clearly old and worn at the closure, patched in a criss-cross fashion, with large
patches sewn in a slapdash [?slarvet og skjdeslst] manner from both the inside and outside of
the garment, without regard to the grain of the fabric. In particular, the backside and sleeves
have been patched, while the front is still largely untouched. A very large patch on the left side
stretches across the whole of the back. The patches are all twill weaves, but at a place on the
right side, there is a patch under a hole, with the inside [?of the fabric] facing out. Otherwise, it is
seen in a couple of places, that the patches are a slightly darker brown than the shirt itself. All of
the patches mentioned are sewn on with a thread that differs in colour and thickness. Some
places, the hem [?of the patch] is folded under, other times, they are sewn on without and
folding, so are now fraying.In other places where the shirt material has frayed, it is sewn with
large fabric pieces from below, fastened with large, serious stitches across the entire left
shoulder. Virtually the entire front, and almost all of the right sleeve have been reinforced in this
manner two or three times over.
p.47
The shirt is a little shorter than the over tunic, as it measures about 130cm from wrist to wrist. At
the wrists and further edge [?nederkanten], the fabric recedes, and it is here sewn with irregular
stitches. Both edges are now raw, and therefore frayed. If one assumes that the position of the
shirts' gores begin at the waist, and the top half of the tunic will also fit someone of that stature,
then we have come to the clothing of a person. The shirt would reach to just above their knees.
The length between the shoulders- and waist-width would be approximately 80cm. The waist-
span can no longer be accurately calculated because of the number of patches, but must have
been 90cm. The span at the hem had probably been around 180cm.
The full back-width of the shirt have been preserved, with the exception of the bottom. The other
side of the however preserved on the right side, particularly the gore. The front-left sleeve is
missing still quite a lot, so the reconstruction of the other side can not be considered completely
accurate. However, the right-hand sleeve is completely preserved.