A & B: Viking warriors, 9th—10th centuries

Basic Viking costume comprised a long-sleeved woollen or linen tunic reaching to mid-thigh or just below the knee (often worn over a fine wool or linen shirt), plus trousers which came in an assortment of styles: close-fitting like ski-trousers (A₃); untapered (A₁); or exceedingly baggy and gathered below the knee (B₁). Some were only knee-length, with separate leggings, often cross-gartered from knee to ankle (A₂). Stockinged breeches, sometimes of fur or leather, might also be worn. Shoes were of soft leather, sometimes with wooden soles, winter pairs having the fur left on for warmth. Rough cowhide or sealskin boots might also be worn, hairy side out. A short cape or a longer cloak, pinned at the right shoulder, or sometimes at the hip (A₄), completed the Vikings' everyday dress. This cloak might be of rich cloth and fur-lined, while some woollen ones, called roggvarfeldr, were made to look like shaggy fur by the incorporation of tufts of unspun wool in the weaving: this type of cloak was particularly popular in Iceland and Ireland and became fashionable in Norway under King Harald Greycloak (hence his name).

Popular clothing colours included red, scarlet, reddish-brown, brown, blue, green, white, black and grey: of these red, leaf-green and blue were clearly the favourites. Trousers might be striped vertically—one warrior in Njal's Saga wears blue-striped trousers—and one anecdote records that woollen leggings should be brown or any other colour except scarlet. Tunics often had hems and panels of tablet-woven cloth, patterned in coloured silk and metal thread. Similarly woven headbands might also be worn (B₃).

Viking men were vain about their appearance and bathed and changed their clothes regularly. They were almost invariably bearded (the beard being looked upon as proof of masculinity), some Vikings wearing their beards forked (A₃), or plaited (A₁, B₁). Hair might likewise be plaited (B₃), and was generally worn long enough at least to cover the neck, though it could be considerably longer—that of Brodir of Man is supposed to have been so long that he tucked it into his belt in battle. Hair colouring ranged from blonde and red to black, darker hair generally being more common amongst the Danes.

Basic armament comprised sword or axe, spear, and shield, while most men had a short knife attached to their belts. Of these weapons the sword was clearly the most popular and was treated with a certain amount of reverence, especially in the case of old swords that had been handed down from generation to generation or looted from burial mounds. A certain mystique clung to such weapons, which were usually given high-sounding names such as Brynjubitr ('Byrnie-biter'), Langhvass ('Long-and-sharp') and Gullinhjalti ('Golden-hilted'). The very best swords were imported from the Frankish kingdoms, though Viking craftsmen usually fitted them with ornate hilts and grips of metal, bone, horn, and walrus ivory. These were often decorated in gold, copper, silver or niello. The grips of simpler swords might be just plain wood, covered in leather. Sword blades, usually pattern-welded and some­times inlaid, averaged about 32 ins. in length, were two-edged, and had a shallow groove, or 'fuller', on either side to reduce their weight. The single-edged sword, or sax, also remained in use at the beginning of the Viking age, particularly in Norway. Scabbards were of wood, covered in tooled leather, with a bronze chape and a rust-repellent lining such as oiled leather, waxed cloth, or sheepskin with the wool left on. It could be either girded or suspended from a baldric which, like the waist-belt, was buckled and often decorated with bronze or silver mounts.

Before the Viking era began the axe had been virtually abandoned in warfare everywhere else in Europe, and its reintroduction in the 9th-11th centuries, especially in England and Ireland, was solely due to the Vikings, amongst whom its popularity had never waned. There were three principal types in use during this period, these being the skeggox or 'bearded axe' (in use by the 8th century); an indeterminate type that is usually called simply a 'hand-axe' (A₂); and the breidox or 'broad-axe' (B₂). The last type, with its distinctive crescentic blade, first appeared at the end of the 10th century and is most famous for its use by the Anglo-Danish Huscarls at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The blade of such an axe, which usually had a welded-on cutting edge of specially hardened iron, could be 12 ins. across according to the chronicler Wace, while Laxdaela Saga mentions one that measured 18 ins. along its curved edge. Like the sword, the axe was often given a name, but of a somewhat less reverent nature; Snorri Sturlusson wrote that 'men call axes by the names of she-trolls'. That of St Olaf was named Hel, after the Viking goddess of death.

The third of the Vikings' principal weapons was the ash spear (spjot), of which both throwing and thrusting types existed. The former had narrow blades and slim shafts while the latter had broad, leaf-shaped blades and thicker, iron-shod shafts. Blades of both types were ribbed, often decorated, and invariably socketed, some of them with short side-lobes usually referred to as 'wings'. Skill at spear-throwing was greatly admired, and Olaf Tryggvasson was justly famous for his ability to throw a spear from each hand simultaneously.

Shields were circular, constructed of wood, and might be leather-covered. They were bound round the edges with iron, or leather in the Gokstad examples, while one found at Birka in Sweden was bound with small bronze plates. In the centre was a prominent hemispherical or conical iron boss, behind which was the hand-grip (A₁). The shield itself was usually between 30 and 40 ins. in diameter and made of limewood, only about one-fifth of an inch thick and consequently very light. If the Gotland picture stones are accurate some shields may have been smaller. They were generally painted, the colours most often referred to in the sources being red (by far the most popular), yellow, black, white, and to a lesser extent green and blue; the 64 shields found with the Gokstad ship were painted alternately in yellow and black. The orb could also be divided up into halves and quarters painted in contrasting colours, and there are some references to shields painted with mythical scenes, dragons and other creatures. At the Battle of Nesjar in 1015 many of St Olaf's men had gilt, red, or blue crosses on their white shields; this was a nominally Christian Norwegian army, fighting against its own unconverted countrymen. The Gotland picture stones show many shields patterned like that of A₃.

Though only a few fragments have actually survived—the most complete example being that from Gjermundbu in Norway (A₂)—most Viking warriors appear to have possessed helmets. Most were probably simple conical types with or without a nasal, but some had decorated eyebrow ridges inlaid with copper and silver (A₁). In battle they often had a herkumbl ('war-mark') painted on the front, presumably some kind of identifying badge or sign.

Mail corselets, called brynja or hringserkr ('ring-shirt'), were at first considerably less common than helmets, probably only being worn by the wealthy, and with the exception of a few fragmentary finds no Viking-age corselets have come down to us. One of the most complete examples was again found at Gjermundbu, made of interlocking rings with overlapping, unriveted ends. In the earlier part of this period they were probably short-sleeved and reached to the hips or to just above the knee (A₁). By the 11th century they could be somewhat longer, Harald Hardrada's being recorded as so long that it reached nearly to mid-calf, and so strong that no weapon could pierce it. (It was probably its length that gave this corselet its feminine name 'Emma'!) It is reasonable to suppose, in fact, that a well-off, fully-equipped Viking warrior of the mid-11th century would have looked little different from the Anglo-Danish Huscarls depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry (B₂). Significantly, the sagas tend to indicate that 11th-century Vikings often found these heavier corselets irksome and too hot to wear in battle; Hardrada's Norsemen in 1066, for instance, left their armour behind with the ships prior to Stamford Bridge, and King Magnus the Good 'threw from him his ring-shirt' before joining battle with the Wends at Lyrskog Heath in 1043. Less wealthy warriors substituted padded leather jerkins in place of mail (A₃): 12 reindeer-hide corselets were brought from Lapland by Thore Hund in 1029, which 'no weapon could cut or pierce any more than if they had been made of mail, nor even as much'.

Though they favoured hand-weapons the Vi­kings nevertheless made considerable use of the bow on both land and sea, especially the Norwegians (recorded as 'famous bowmen') and the Swedes (the word 'bow' being sometimes used in Sweden to denote a warrior). Even kings were known to wield bows in battle, taking great pride in their personal accuracy. Surviving fragments indicate that wooden self-bows were used, of which some were of the proportions of medieval longbows—one found in Ireland measures 73 ins. in length and has a D-shaped cross-section. Up to 40 arrows were carried, held in a cylindrical quiver at the waist (B₃). The arrowheads were a mixture of tanged and socketed types.

C: Viking women

Though there were doubtless subtle trends in fashion over the years, female attire appears to have remained fundamentally unchanged throughout the Viking age, as is confirmed by the sagas and contemporary pictorial sources such as the Gotland picture stones, small figurines, and the Oseberg tapestry. Basic costume comprised a long woollen or linen chemise, usually pleated, either short-sleeved or sleeveless (women apparently liking to show off their arms), and either sewn or drawn tight by a ribbon at the neck. Over this was worn an outer garment consisting of two lengths of wool or even silk, joined across the shoulders by straps secured with bronze 'tortoise' brooches some four or five inches long. Some authorities have suggested instead that the two pieces of the outer garment may have been wrapped around the body, one from right to left and the other from left to right, though still secured in the same way. The complete absence of belt-buckles in women's graves would indicate that their dresses usually either hung loose, or were tied with a fabric belt. However, at least one saga refers to a dress being taken in at the waist to suit the wearer's figure. Knee-length hose were worn under the chemise, and a heavy cloak and fur hat might be worn in winter.

The large 'tortoise' brooches were at first highly ornate, some being silver-plated or even gilded; but later examples are cruder, probably because by the 9th century a fine woollen shawl was also being worn, which would have covered them. The brooch securing the shawl then became richly decorated instead. A 10th-century Arab traveller, Ibn Fadlan, was of the opinion that the women's 'tortoise' brooches actually indicated the wealth of their husbands, depending on whether they were made of iron, silver, copper or gold. Other jewellery comprised bracelets, rings, necklaces, and festoons between the 'tortoise' brooches; the last two both consisted of beads and pendants of amber or coloured glass (especially green), though some were made of precious metals. From another brooch various implements—such as combs, small knives, scissors, keys and needle cases—were suspended by cords or fine chains.

The sagas tend to indicate that the majority of Scandinavian women were, unsurprisingly, fair-skinned, blue-eyed and blonde-haired, and another 10th-century Arab, al-Tartusi, adds that they wore attractive eye make-up. Married women wore their hair knotted under a scarf or cap, while maidens wore theirs loose, sometimes with a headband to hold it in place. Most of the contemporary depictions of women show a large knot behind the head which has been variously interpreted as a scarf, ribbon or hair.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 939