I'm still madly preparing for Gulf Wars, but in the midst, this snippet from the 12thCgarb list on appropriate colors for various northern placetimes is really interesting! Emphasis mine:
But that is not what Rogers found and the fact that it is what makes it
interesting. Looking at her graph, she found nearly 75% of her samples
from the Norse textiles (found in Norway and Denmark) to have been dyed
with woad, compared with only 20% in England and less than 5% in
Ireland.
This chemical evidence seems to confirm what can be inferred from both the literature (not only the Sagas, but other poems and prose records as well) where blue is mentioned more often than other colours and from anecdotal evidence, such Irish epitaphs that refer to the Norse with a word that translates "the blue-greens". The Norse did seem to have a marked preference for shades of blue.
As I said, blue more frequently than red, and when red is mentioned, it is an indicator of either wealth, status, or someone putting on airs. Now this, of course, maybe merely a literary device (akin to our referring to a good guy as a "white hat"), but it also seems to be born out by the archeological evidence where red markers (most often madder) are more frequently found in high status graves like that of the Oseberg Queen.
On the other hand, Rogers found red markers most frequently in English samples from the same era: in more than 60% of her tested samples. Of course, madder can be grown in England, or easily imported from France. The availability of the dye stuff may have impacted where it was used. This also begins to make one of the Norse descriptions of red: "foreign-red" make more sense.
The truly surprising one (for me) was extraordinarily high number of Irish textiles from that era that had chemical traces of the purple lichen dyes (which can yield of a whole range of pinks, lavenders, and purplish-shades, even fuchsia when its fresh).
For the record, Rogers identified indigotin, kermes (only on silks), madder, bedstraw, purple lichen, weld, and a "Yellow-X" in her tests.
~ Wencenedl ~
This chemical evidence seems to confirm what can be inferred from both the literature (not only the Sagas, but other poems and prose records as well) where blue is mentioned more often than other colours and from anecdotal evidence, such Irish epitaphs that refer to the Norse with a word that translates "the blue-greens". The Norse did seem to have a marked preference for shades of blue.
As I said, blue more frequently than red, and when red is mentioned, it is an indicator of either wealth, status, or someone putting on airs. Now this, of course, maybe merely a literary device (akin to our referring to a good guy as a "white hat"), but it also seems to be born out by the archeological evidence where red markers (most often madder) are more frequently found in high status graves like that of the Oseberg Queen.
On the other hand, Rogers found red markers most frequently in English samples from the same era: in more than 60% of her tested samples. Of course, madder can be grown in England, or easily imported from France. The availability of the dye stuff may have impacted where it was used. This also begins to make one of the Norse descriptions of red: "foreign-red" make more sense.
The truly surprising one (for me) was extraordinarily high number of Irish textiles from that era that had chemical traces of the purple lichen dyes (which can yield of a whole range of pinks, lavenders, and purplish-shades, even fuchsia when its fresh).
For the record, Rogers identified indigotin, kermes (only on silks), madder, bedstraw, purple lichen, weld, and a "Yellow-X" in her tests.
~ Wencenedl ~
So, my North Sea dress is Right On, and putting red trim on the neckline of the underdress for higher class/Englishness is also Right On. Sweet! I'm going to look for small brooches to close the underdress...yes, I know you haven't seen it yet, I'm still finishing the seams. More handwork to do at War.
After you survive Gulf Wars, check out this instructable
http://www.instructables.com/id/Viking_shoes/
Making Viking shoes. Don't know how authentic they are, and they don't give sources, but they look pretty good.
Posted by: Ann | March 18, 2009 at 08:21 AM