Norse man.
Norse woman
Wool and linnen where usual materials.
Often cloakes, brooches, glass beads and pendants where added for decoration.The sleeves on this one suggests that it´s a bit later.
(via wyrdsister)
Viking womanby ~VendelRus
Model: Cajsa
Research by archeologist Annika Larsson has shown that imported clothes and fabrics where in use among those few that could afford it.
Norse man and woan with clothes of foreign influence.
”They combined oriental features with Nordic styles. Their clothing was designed to be shown off indoors around the fire,” says textile researcher Annika Larsson, whose research at Uppsala University presents a new picture of the Viking Age.
Vikings. The one in the fron is probably wealthy since he owns a sword.
When it came to arms the typical armor would have been padding or leather, if you could afford it maille (mistakenly referred to as chain mail by some) and a helmet with a nose guard or a mask like protection.
Weapons where the spear and an axe called “bearded axe” who could also be used as a tool.
Swords where unusual and would have cost as much as a whole farm.Those that one usually let it become a family heirloom.
The swords had the shape called a “spatha” but longer and actually, most Europeans used rather similar swords at the time (so the term “Viking sword” is not entirely correct).
The shield was round with a buckle in the middle.
Typical viking age helmet.
From the movie “Skaldmöld”
Håkan Norhjelm showing viking age fighting techniques.
This guy has all the equipment you can ask for. If you look at Norman knights
and knights in general, not much changes for hundreds of years with the armor.
When people think of Viking age weapons, they usually think first of the battle axe, and the image that forms in their mind is a massive weapon that only a troll could wield. In reality, battle axes in the Viking age were light, fast, and well balanced, and were good for speedy, deadly attacks, as well as for a variety of nasty tricks.
The axe was often the choice of the poorest man in the Viking age. Even the lowliest farm had to have a wood axe (right) for cutting and splitting wood. In desperation, a poor man could pick up the farm axe and use it in a fight.
The spear was the most commonly used weapon in the Viking age. It was often the choice of someone who was unable to afford a sword.
During the Viking era, helmets typically were made from several pieces of iron riveted together , called a spangenhelm style of helm. It’s easier to make a helmet this way, requiring less labor, which may be why it was used.
TViking Swords
More than anything else, the sword was the mark of a warrior in the Viking age. They were difficult to make, and therefore rare and expensive. The author of Fóstbræðra saga wrote in chapter 3 that in saga age Iceland, very few men were armed with swords. Of the 100+ weapons found in Viking age pagan burials in Iceland, only 16 are swords.
n the Viking age, fighting men used large, round, wooden shields gripped in the center from behind an iron boss.
Our heritage, ANY heritage is worth preserving or understanding.
Without a past how can we navigate towards a future?
I really liked this post. It is so rare and good thing when people make the effort to understand history. Not just history as series of events, but as culture. So, that the people of ancient times are seen as having faces. I especially liked that you arised the fact that viking is not representing ethnicity, as this is a subject widely misunderstood.
Here in Finland, we speak generally about viking age, though we have only wery little of evidence that some finns did go to “viking” expeditions. On the other hand we have a lot of swordfinds (more than Sweden, I believe). Since in graves with swords in them, there are always spears in them too (in fact, it is more likely to find several spears in a grave if it has a sword in it) the spear was the main weapon even if you could affor a sword. Our ethnicity is not norse, but our economic culture was much the same as in Scandinavia.
I have my doubts about the reproductions Annika Larsson has made. They seem wery specific and extravacant to be representative of the agrarian culture of the Norse. Though I have not read her study.
When it comes to Annika, she does her research for the museum of Uppsala, but i belive it is still in it´s infancy so it´s still very much theory.
She doesent build everything on Scandinavian finds though but on clothing traditions in Europe (and beyond) where vikings travelled and from where they imported.
Either way, normal Scandinavians wouldnt dress that way anyway.
It would be far to expencive for almost anyone.
Since you are from Finland i´m not surprised you take our history , and especially the “mechanics” of it, seriously.
I am Swedish and Forn Sedare (Asatru) and the way our cultures are sometimes even in semi serious, academic circles, picked appart and divided into things like “politics, culture” and “religion” as if these terms had any bearing on a 1000 years old culture.
As you say , things here where very integrated and religion not some separate entety from the rest of life.
In the same way life as we live it now is just an extension of what came before us.
What i find, however, most pressing is to take away all the silly viking worship that often makes it´s way in to some circles of Heathens and at least make sure people outside of the north has a BASIC understanding of European and Nordic history, since it is often theirs too (one way or another).
I can imagine that areas of todays Finland was well off economically and had chieftans in enough number with a good power base.
It could also be that you have been lucky enough to find some very important graves ( i would like to read more about Finnish archeology).
Western Finland has shores connecting to Swedish Uppland and Gotland (Swedish, Danish and simply Gutish), both important trading places and i´m only guessing that there was probably some important town, fort or similar for merchants on the Finnish side too (actually, Finnish history is the next thing i will study….and it´s all you fault. Kiitos!
).
Keep in touch, i need somone who knows Finnish history around!
Tack så mycket. Thank you for your reply. Yes, I will stay in contact with pleasure, and look into your other articles as well. Some time ago I wrote about this same subject, and I think you might enjoy my article on much the same issue as yours:
http://rautakyy.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/viking/
I did not include as many pictures as you did, but now I see how the effort you have made looking for pictures has made your article all the more informative. As they say, one picture is worth thousand words. By the way, it is me in the only picture rowing a reconstructed ship of late viking age.
If you are interrested in finnish viking age, I would recommend archeologist Pirkko-Liisa Lehtosalo-Hilander and from her published works the “Luistari – A History of Weapons and Ornaments”. It is an archeological study in english, but it also holds rather good general info of the results of her years of research into the finnish tribal culture by means of archeology. If anyone, she is the one who can tell what the finns looked like in the viking age. There is no doubt she is our leading archaelogist in this particular era. There are a lot of excavated items that show the connection by the Baltic sea. In fact in many ways the sea was not a separating barrier, but a “highway” connecting people all around it.
In respect of religion I hold in high regard the fact that the Asatru is one of those religions which do not deny the existance of other gods or the right of other religions to exist. I see myself as one of those “worst kind of pagans” as described by Ansgarius “the apostole of the North”. He said they were the men who did not participate in any rituals. “Men of their own power” was the specific name he called them by. You scandinavians are fortunate, that your ancestors religion still lives, but our finnish gods and rituals are not well known anymore. There are some finns who try to revive what is left by the scriptures of priests who dispised those gods, but sadly most of our forefathers gods are left to us only by their name and possibly a hint what was their respective role for the society.
I have to say, it was heartwarming you chose to write: “our history”. There are so many people who like to draw lines between nations, that it is important to remember we have common history.
You use one of my pictures without permission:
“Trelleborg Viking Market_08 (by René Eriksen”.
I’ve removed the picture from flickr, after a request from the characters in the picture. But my photo is apparently also on this url: http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9qmilXHxe1qe23mao1_500.jpg
So I must ask you to remove the picture from your blog. All my pictures on Flickr are licensed © All rights reserved Rene Eriksen
Thank you in advance.
I have removed the picture from both blogs.
I am sorry for the inconveniance!
M