Posted on by The Eoforwic Project

Reference List: “Female Headcoverings of the Viking Age: Reloaded!”

Welcome to the dyngja! This and all other photos featured are by Christina Dyhrberg Fotos, small edits by me.

At Sletten (one of the biggest Viking gatherings in Denmark) this summer, I was delighted to host an updated version of my Female Headcoverings talk. This unplugged, casual workshop took attendees on a sartorial journey of the VA, handling my replicas of caps, veils, scarves, hairnets, headbands, pins and shawls. We also discussed more speculative items based on artwork and literature, while having a play with styling and looking into repairs.

Due to the unplugged nature of the talk, it wasn’t practical for me to share a reference list with attendees (I could have printed out paper copies beforehand, but that would have required me to be more organised than I am!) So, here is the digital list. Even if you did not attend the talk, you may find the resources useful: especially if you’re wishing to expand your Viking wardrobe with some evidence-based little hats or step up your veil game.

References

Anglo-Saxon & Continental style veils, including finds in Scandinavia:

Ewing, T. (2006). Viking Clothing. Brimscombe Port: The History Press.
Ingstad, A. S. (1992). Hva var textilerne vært brugt til?. In: Christensen, A. E., Ingstad, A. S. & Myhre, B. (Eds). Oseberg Dronningens grav. Oslo: Schibsted. English translation available online: http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Oseberg/dress/OSEBERG.HTM

Owen-Crocker, G. R. (2010). Dress in Anglo-Saxon England. Martlesham: Boydell Press.Rabiega, K. (2019). Viking Dress Code. Szczecin: Wydawnictwo TRIGLAV.

Voss, O. (1991). Hørning-graven: En kammergrav fra o. 1000 med kvinde begravet i vognfading. In: Mammen: Grave, kunst og samfund i vikingetid. Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab.Walton Rogers, P. (2006). Cloth and clothing in early Anglo-Saxon England, AD 450-700. York: Council for British Archaeology.

York caps and veil fragment:

Walton, P. (1989). Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16–22 Coppergate.. [Online]. York Archaeological Trust. Available at: https://www.collections.yorkarchaeologicaltrust.co.uk/s/collections/item/74494#lg=1&slide=0 [Accessed 19 August 2026].

Macnab, N. & McComish, J. (2018). 28-9 HIGH OUSEGATE, YORK, UK. [Online]. York Archaeological Trust. Available at: https://research.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AYW3-28-9-High-Ousegate-York.pdf [Accessed 22 August 2026].

Dublin scarves, caps, headbands and veils:

O’Cuinneagain-De Bernardi, L. (2025). Viking Age Mending: The Gift That Keeps on Giving. Living Medieval. 1 December 2025, p.6. Available at: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/f8bfb4d4e4.html

Pritchard, F. (1992). Aspects of the Wool Textiles from Viking Age Dublin. In: Bender Jørgensen, L. and Munksgaard, E. (Ed). Archaeological Textiles in Northern Europe: Report from the 4th NESAT Symposium. Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi. pp.93-104.

Pritchard, F. (2026). Re-clothing the Inhabitants of Tenth-century Dublin based on Archaeological Evidence. In: Lester-Makin, A. & Owen-Crocker, G. R. (Eds). Textiles of the Viking North Atlantic. Martlesham: Boydell Press.

Wallace, P. F,. (2016). Viking Dublin. Newbridge: Irish Academic Press.

Wincott Heckett, E. (2003) Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.

Hairnets:

Freke, David (2002). Excavations on St Patrick’s Isle, Peel, Isle of Man, 1982–88. Prehistoric, Viking, Medieval and later

Pritchard, F. (1988). Silk Braids and Textiles of the Viking Age from Dublin. NESAT. 2(1), pp.149-161.

Wincott Heckett, E. (1997). Textiles, Cordage, Basketry and Raw Fibre. In: Hurley, M. F. & Scully, O. M. B. (Eds). Late Viking Age and Medieval Waterford: Excavations 1986-1992. Waterford: Waterford Corporation.

Wincott Heckett, E. (2025). Medieval Textiles from Waterford City. In: Williams, M. A. (Ed). Textiles of Ireland. Cork: Cork University Press. pp.267-280.

Tablet weave:

Geijer, A. (1938). Birka III. Die Textilfunde aus den gräbern. [Online]. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Available at: https://archive.org/details/BirkaIII/page/n1/mode/2up [Accessed 20 August 2026].

Pritchard, F. (2021). Evidence of tablet weaving from Viking-age Dublin. In: Pritchard, F. (Ed). Taken from Crafting Textiles (Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Pins:

Mainman, A. J. and Rogers, N. S. H. (2000) Craft, Industry and Everyday Life:

Finds from Anglo-Scandinavian York. Vol. [17], fasc. [14]. Council for British Archaeology: York. Available online: https://collections.yorkarchaeologicaltrust.co.uk/s/collections/item/74503#lg=1&slide=0

Unimus.no. (2026). Collections search. [Online]. Unimusportalen. Available at: https://www.unimus.no/portal/ [Accessed 20 August 2026].

Featuring an unintentionally-high rate of blue items, including my WIP “Continental-style veil” inspired by very light textile fragments found with the lady at Hørning.

This list may end up being updated as and when I add new items to the workshop. Next year, I hope to host a male version, focusing on male hats and headbands we believe were being worn in Early Medieval Northern Europe. If that’s something that would interest you, please comment letting me know- I need all the encouragement I can to get sewing!

If you liked this article or found it handy, please share it with your friends and follow my blog to get updates of my future work. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook for more regular, informal updates and musings. Even a comment or a like gives me a little boost!

If you really liked it, you can buy me a coffee via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/eoforwicproject

Posted on by The Eoforwic Project

Reference List: “Dressing a Woman Warrior: an examination of the evidence”

At the beginning of this year, I gave a talk on the clothing of Viking Age warrior women for the inaugural “Shieldmaidens: Women in Western Style” online conference. I repeated this talk in person in Denmark last week and it was both nerve-wracking and good fun! As is usually the case, repeating the talk with a new audience allowed for further reflections on the topic and fresh perspectives from attendees.

In passing, I discussed my idea that the Hårby valkyrie figurine could be inspired by Classical Greco-Roman depictions of Athena/Minerva and we had a great discussion about the practical applications of these speculative garments interpreted from artwork. I’m not even sure that *I* am convinced by my theory, but I think the topic may be a fun one to write a full article about- let me know if you’d be interested.

Piraeus Athena statue (4th century BCE) side-by-side with the Hårby Valkyrie figurine (800–900 CE).

As this iteration of the talk was (mostly) unplugged, I took e-mail addresses for anyone wanting my short list of references. I thought I’d share the love and simply post these on my site, so anyone interested in this or my other talk/workshop on “Female Headcoverings of the Viking Age” (references will be published for this and linked here ASAP, watch this space!) can check out my references for further reading.

References:

Anonymous. The Story of Burnt Njal. Translated by George W. DaSent (1861.) Icelandic Saga Database, Sveinbjorn Thordarson (ed.), [Accessed 30 January 2026.] Available online: http://www.sagadb.org/brennu-njals_saga.en

Anonymous. The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. [Online]. Translated by Christopher Tolkien (1960.) Thomas Nelson And Sons Ltd. Available at: http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Saga%20Of%20King%20Heidrek%20The%20Wise.pdf [Accessed 31st January 2026].

Friðriksdóttir, J. K. (2020). Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Gardeła, L. (2021). Women and Weapons in the Viking World: Amazons of the North. Oxbow Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv24q4z0f
https://www.germanicmythology.com/works/OsebergTapestry.html

Gardeła, L. & Pentz, P. & Price, N. (2022). Revisiting the ‘Valkyries’: Armed Females in Viking Age Figurative Metalwork. Current Swedish Archaeology:30. pp.95-151. .

Hedenstierna-Jonson, C., Kjellström, A., Zachrisson, T., Krzewińska, M., Sobrado, V., Price, N., Günther, T., Jakobsson, M., Götherström, A., & Storå, J. (2017). A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics. American journal of physical anthropology, 164(4), 853–860.

Jesch, J. (1991). Women in the Viking Age. 3rd ed. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

Killgrove, Kristina. (2025). Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword, shield and ponytail. [Online]. LiveScience. Last Updated: 5 May. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/vikings/harby-valkyrie-a-1-200-year-old-gold-viking-age-woman [Accessed 31st January 2026].

Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum. Translated by Oliver Elton (1905.) New York: Norroena Society.

Statens Historiska Museer. (2026). Mirror. [Online]. Statens Historiska Museer Digital Collection. Last Updated: 2026. Available at: https://samlingar.shm.se/object/EAF70FA6-4340-490B-981F-AF4543E40112?type=object&query=bj%20581&n=2 [Accessed 30 January 2026].

University of Bristol. 2018. Radiocarbon dating reveals mass grave did date to the Viking age. [Press release]. [Accessed 30 January 2026]. Available from: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2018/february/radiocarbon-viking-grave-.html

Wåhlander, L. (2020). 10th century The Warrior Woman. In: Wåhlander, L. (Ed). Buried at Birka. Birka: Birka Vikingastaden. pp.91-176.

If you liked this article or found it handy, please share it with your friends and follow my blog to get updates of my future work. You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook for more regular, informal updates and musings. Even a comment or a like gives me a little boost!

If you really liked it, you can buy me a coffee via Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/eoforwicproject

This and the featured image were both taken by Larissa Partridge.