Russian Primary Chronicle, there is a description of this textile trade and the peace
treaties drawn up between the Greeks and the Rus’. Prior to this trade had flowed along
the northern Silk Road, as part of which we should also include the culture area of the
Vikings. In the Nordic region we see trade operating in fine woollens in the so-called
diamond twill. It is still debated as to whether the origins of this trade should be sought
in Syria or in the Frisian area. Already by the time of Charlemagne we find Frisian cloth
mentioned as an important trade item. Old Norse sources also describe so-called Valland
clothes, that is to say textiles from the Frankish Empire.
Even down to modern times we find Sassanid designs living on in Nordic folk arts.
Close examination of the famous tenth-century wall hangings from Överhogdal in
Swedish Jämtland reveals that many of the animals depicted there have direct parallels
in Spanish medieval church textiles. Similarly we encounter the geometric forms of
Nordic woven trim in Spanish ecclesiastical cloth as well as in the Viking Age dress
of the Baltic region. Double-weaves and long-pile knots from the Nordic area can be
found again in Turkey, the Viking Age handicrafts in silver thread can be seen even
today in Sámi traditions, including the region of modern northern Russia, and so on. It
is thus very difficult to speak of specifically Nordic textiles from the Viking Age.
By contrast, there are symbols within dress and clothing that are typical for the
Viking Age cultures. One example is the oval brooch, worn in pairs by women. How-
ever, despite the fact that these brooches are represented in almost all the rich female
graves of Viking Age Birka, the cloth to which they were fastened varies considerably –
from crude domestic woollens to the finest oriental silk. It is interesting that this huge
blend of qualities is often present in one and the same grave. The coarser textiles are
sometimes found as lining in clothing of finer quality. Outerwear is also often sewn
together from smaller pieces of cloth of different grades, then joined together by tablet-
woven bands with geometric patterns in shining silver threads. The cloth has then been
bordered with thin strips of silk – the same form in which we find the silk present in the
Oseberg burial. Alongside these exotic materials we also see beaver furs, a typical Nordic
phenomenon from the great forests of Scandinavia or Russia. It is clear that while the
material changes, the cut of the clothing has been consistently made to fit a domestic
tradition that includes the oval brooches.
Bearing in mind today’s male costume of the grey suit and tie, it is easy to assume
that women’s clothing was the more spectacular even in the Viking Age. This was
definitely not the case, as male burials contain in fact even more decorative textiles than
the female graves. A large number of burials show that men wore headbands or thin
diadems of gold and silver, from which small pendants (also in gold and silver) hung
down at the neck, decorated with glittering mirror fragments. We also encounter
embroidery in threads of precious metals, such as the extraordinary silver-on-silk finds
from one of the Valsgärde boat graves from Swedish Uppland. It seems that the
embroidery was once on a collar, and perhaps a pair of cuffs or similar, belonging to a
fully armed male warrior buried with his horse. A number of silver-thread pendants also
followed him into the grave. Similarly fantastic examples of embroidery can be found in
the dress of the man buried at Mammen in Denmark.
This has something to say to us about male and female aesthetic ideals at this time. In
examining, for example, the Eddic poem Rígsþula, that may originally date from the
tenth century, we should consider that what has often been interpreted as a description
of female dress may in fact refer to that of a man – a warrior with bow and arrow, mail
–– Annika Larsson––