I met a lovely gentleman this weekend at Jorvik Viking Festival- he was hovering near the muster point and ended up joining myself and a friend in conversation. He is currently a fashion student and he asked if I could send him any sources to give him a BASIC grounding in Viking Age clothing. I get asked some variation of this question multiple times a year, so I decided to share my response to him for future reference.
I won’t lie, this request has coincided with the annual Re-enactor Bash-a-thon on Facebook that comes after JVF every year. The repeated erroneous claim from some members of the public that “we don’t know what Early Medieval people wore” (ergo, there is no point in attempting clothing based on evidence and my black poly-cotton fetish gear is more accurate than your peasanty plant-dyed wool, probably) being the most annoying claim to me personally. This is because it almost always comes from someone who clearly knows little to NOTHING about the topic.
JVF has always been a broad church and everyone is and *should* be welcome, provided we treat each other with respect. Many of the fantasy costumers and LARPers who attend do so annually and are courteous, enthusiastic and extremely creative. Long may that continue!
So, respectfully, here is a very brief 5 minute read of sources for folks who do want to learn about Viking Age clothing. If you are not interested in accuracy or evidence-based costume, I GENUINELY wish you the best- this post isn’t for you. May the Force be with you, etc. Take any subsequent jests as they were intended- with my tongue firmly in my cheek. If you still want to tell me I suck/am mean/a snob/don’t know what I’m talking about, please do it in the comments and share the post: it’s great for the social media algorithms!
(This is a NON-EXHAUSTIVE list for a huge topic, but please do tell me what you would add! I used the first URL available for the books to save time, but do buy from independent booksellers if you can! #notsponsored)
– Viking Clothing by Thor Ewing. (book) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viking-Clothing-Ewing/dp/0752435876
This is a generally good beginners guide for Viking Age clothing, including some of the pre-Viking evidence to show the evolution of style in the regions covered. It’s not a pattern book, but it’s comprehensive and the reference list will be useful for you too.
– Dress in Anglo-Saxon England by Gale R Owen-Crocker. (book) https://tinyurl.com/5xs4zpsy
This is another great sourcebook and contains a lot of clear line drawings taken from manuscript illuminations. There’s a lot of overlap between Anglo-Saxon and Norse clothing, especially if you make Anglo-Scandinavian impressions like my group and I frequently do!
– Viking: Dress, Clothing, Garment by Nille Glaesel. (book) https://tinyurl.com/2p9j93ds
Nille is a famous face in VA re-enactment, she’s made a number of reconstructions for museums all over the world and her pattern books are a common sight in museum shops. This volume contains a bunch of actual patterns and some advice on materials to use, though I’d still look at other more specific sources for cloth and weaves. It’s also quite traditional and isn’t very beginner-friendly for those not familiar with scaling patterns etc.
– Viking Dress Code by Kamil Rabiega. (book) https://tinyurl.com/4zwr398w
This is a similar kind of book to Thor Ewing’s, a general source book suitable for total newcomers to the scene and provides a lot of sources. It’s a bit more recent too, so contains a few bits that Ewing’s doesn’t. It is also a Polish publication, so it contains a lot more info from regions outside the traditional Scandinavian heartlands- if you’re interested in Slavic, Rus, Steppe and nomad fashion, there’s more of that here than in some other VA books.
Here’s some free sources that I also use very frequently or recommend:
– Fashioning the Viking Age by Ulla Mannering, Charlotte Rimstad, Eva Andersson Strand, Ida Demant, Irene Skals & Mads Lou Bendtsen. (Book series) https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/research-programmes-and-projects/previous-programmes-and-projects/fashioning-the-viking-age/
Holy moley, this one is a good resource. Three books, detailing a massive research project by the Uni of Copenhagen’s Centre for Textile Research, the National Museum of Denmark and Lejre’s Land of Legends. The goal was to explore recreation of Viking Age clothing and textiles on a fastidiously archaeological basis. They came up with some very interesting interpretations, which sparked a lot of discussion online. All three volumes are available to download in .PDF for free, which rarely is the case. This is perhaps not for beginners, but I recommend it anyway.
– Hilde Thunem’s Recreating Viking Clothing. https://urd.priv.no/viking/
I will repeat this one until the cows come home! Hilde is a Norwegian re-enactor and costumer who does FANTASTIC, extremely evidence-based articles on VA clothing. She focuses mostly on female clothing, but her articles are excellent and her reference lists and images are impeccable. She is also very nice and has always been patient with any questions I had.
– Jen Culler’s blog A Wandering Elf. https://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey
Jen Culler is an American re-enactor and her blog is a great resource. She explains her choices in her interpretations and has a lot of great source images in her articles (she saved my sweet butt before my conference paper by including references and an image of the Rolvsøy textile in an article!) Check out her post on checks and plaids in the VA in particular!
– Cathy Raymond’s blog Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog https://cathyscostumeblog.blogspot.com/
Cathy is an American living historian and focuses on historical costume. She covers a broad variety of crafts and shares lots of cool articles and resources as she finds them.
– Viking Resources for the Re-enactor https://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikresource.html
I don’t actually know who is behind this site, but they’re presumably a scholar/academic at Vassar College in the USA. They have SO many resources, just go and have a look. The site is pretty old-fashioned and some of the sources are a little out-of-date, but you can always top up your knowledge with other stuff. Personally, I get excited when I see a black-and-white old-school webpage like this, because they often contain gems.
– Project Broad Axe https://projectbroadaxe.weebly.com/viking-age-nordic-history
He hasn’t uploaded in a little while, but he’s still active on Instagram and I’m sure he’d be happy to answer any questions. Caleb Burch is the author of the site and he’s a costumer of several different periods, but he always posts his sources. He’s done some REALLY nice speculative reconstructions of some of the Hedeby fragments and his insights into the wearability of different reconstructions is valuable.
– York Archaeological Trust fascicules https://www.collections.yorkarchaeologicaltrust.co.uk/s/publications/page/about
All of the publications from YAT have been digitised and are free to download online. “Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate” by the late Penelope Walton Rogers is such an important resource for me as someone who re-enacts Anglo-Scandinavian York, but the leather book is great for models of shoes and the small finds volumes talk all about jewellery and dress accessories (belts, pins, clothes fastenings, etc) found in York.
As said above, this list is far from exhaustive. For any newbies to Viking Age clothing and re-enactment however, I think at least some of these sources will be of use to you. If not, there’s always leather armour and top knots. 😉
The Eoforwic Project 