Apparently there is now available a new book that purports to be a genuine how-to guide about making Viking era costume (unlike Thor Ewing's book, which is a survey of the applicable scholarship, livened with his own speculations). The Jelling Dragon, a web site that supplies items to Viking age reenactors, is selling it here. According to the Jelling Dragon site, it comes with sewing patterns. The author is a Norwegian woman named Nille Glaesel, and the text will be in both English and Norwegian. Jelling Dragon includes a number of page shots that make the layout look wonderful, but there isn't enough information there to know what finds the author has used for her proposed reproductions, or whether Glaesel discusses any of the scholarship or archaeology in the text.
Jelling Dragon is selling the book for $93.13 USD (£60, €71.45) so I won't be able to afford it for awhile (the summer is the worst time of all for my personal finances). I am eager to read and critique it, but that's unlikely to happen before the end of the year at this rate. If any of my readers obtain a copy, please comment here! I would really appreciate the advance information.
EDIT: Here's a bit more about Ms. Glaesel's book, from her website. Apparently Thor Ewing wrote the forward to her book. I look forward to getting a copy, but suspect I'll be buying the Lithuanian costume calendar first.
EDIT: Here's a bit more about Ms. Glaesel's book, from her website. Apparently Thor Ewing wrote the forward to her book. I look forward to getting a copy, but suspect I'll be buying the Lithuanian costume calendar first.
Nille is associated with Lofotr, a lot of the diagrams look similar to these PDFs: http://www.lofotr.no/pdf/Rapporter/Lofotr%2005.08.pdf and http://multimedia.api.no/www.lofotposten.no/archive/02051/Pages_from_lofotpo_2051430a.pdf
ReplyDeleteThe PDFs are interesting (and they do seem to use some of the same diagrams seen in the page shots of the book). I was also able to get the URL for Nille's blog from one of the PDFs, which I plan to check out. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI looked at Nille's blog and her website, and found tons of pictures of Viking era clothing made and worn by herself, and family and friends, presumably.
ReplyDeleteHer choices accord with a lot of my choices about appropriate recreated Viking attire, including the following:
* Outerwear in wool in bright, plant-dyed primary colors (though I'm not sure how much of her own dyeing she does, the pictures show her doing some);
* Sparing use of beads and other appropriate Viking age jewelry;
* Clothing trimmed with tablet-woven trim in contrasting, period-appropriate geometric designs.
* Appropriate leather shoes and what appear to be nalbinded socks.
Nille's group appears to wear mostly closed tube, slightly fitted apron dresses on the Hedeby model, over white linen, non-pleated underdresses with keyhole necklines. The apron dresses are mostly worn unbelted, and quite a few of the women wear "front-cloth" type long aprons over the apron dresses.
The men mostly wear slightly to moderately fitted trousers like the Thorsberg find, with wrapped, longish tunic/coats over linen shirt/tunics. Interestingly, they don't use puttees-style legwraps; instead, they wear narrow tablet-woven strips cross-gartered over the lower portion of their trousers.
I would love to know the basis for some of these choices, but both the website and the blog have very little text, so I suspect I'd still be in the dark about that even if I could read Norwegian well.
My biggest criticism of their take on Viking costume is their use of embroidery. They replicate period motifs found on the Mammen garments and elsewhere, but they use embroidery much, much more lavishly than any of the finds of which I'm aware, including Mammen. (There's also some interesting shots of reproductions of portions of the Oseberg tapestry, done in embroidery on white linen.)
I find the asymmetrically-cut tunic pattern interesting.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it is based on the shaping of the Hedeby panel, but if I'm understanding the instructions correctly, then both sides of the tunic have gore-like pieces where bias is sewn to bias. I'm having trouble thinking of extant garments from around the same period that constructed garments like that. (The first place I thought to look at check doesn't seem to have any bias-bias edged garments either.)
There's a similar construction of the apron dress itself, too. But since we don't really know for certain what the desired Viking Age silhouette was I don't feel right criticising it.
I didn't see the undertunic as asymmetric; merely angled a bit at the top, which I've done myself (though I know of no historical support for it).
ReplyDeleteHer apron dress design is a bit asymmetric, and I agree that's odd.
I generally try to avoid sewing bias to bias, but the sort of thing she does with the undertunic hasn't posed problems for me.
I later realized that of course the underdress pattern is asymmetric; it uses the Hedeby fragment as a template. Thus, it assumes that the bottom of the tunic is flared on one side and that a right-triangular piece has to be sewn onto the other side to make the finished garment symmetrical. Odd.
ReplyDeleteHello again Cathy :o)
ReplyDeleteI know Jelldragon aswell, they have a lot of nice things but they are allways very expencive, to make money out of things of course but you can get the book cheaper here: http://www.medeltidsmode.se/Litteratur.html
For about 55 euro!
Hi hi, I hope Jelldragon wont get angry with me now ;o)
Kind regards from P...
I've never bought anything from Jelling Dragon because they are expensive!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the URL for the Medeltidsmode site. US $70 is a lot cheaper than US $92. I'll certainly keep them in mind when I'm able to spend the money to buy it!
However, I can't figure out from the site what Medltidsmode charges for shipping. It says it charges 80 (SEK?) for up to 20 kg in Sweden, but I don't know what it charges for shipping to the US. and that may make a huge difference. It turns out that, with shipping included, Jelling Dragon's price is US$129.35, not $92.
"Apparently there is now available a new book that purports to be a genuine how-to guide about making Viking era costume"
ReplyDeleteWhat a miserable and negative put-down! Sound like you might be a tad jealous.
Have you seen the book yet? No?
I have and it's a winner..... and 'yes' it does come with a set of full-size patterns. It doesn't 'purport' to be ..... it IS a guide to viking-era costume. Yes, her family members do feature in the photographs. Why not? They're good-looking viking stock, they live in Norway. The book is full of colorful images, color illustrations and descriptions of how-to put the clothes together. The book's not perfect, but it's way ahead of anything else yet available for the general public. It's NOT a scholarly tome for the librarian. It's a book for the rest of us to use and enjoy.
Mike Smith
Australia
Mike, my comment was not intended to put anyone down, much less Ms. Glaesel, whose book, as you've correctly noted, I have not yet had the opportunity to read. I was merely trying to be cautious about what I said *because* all I knew about the book was what little I'd seen on the Internet. As I said in my subsequent comments, I'm interested in the book and likely will obtain a copy when I have the money to do so.
ReplyDeleteHello Cathy,
ReplyDeleteI understand and appreciate that your subsequent remarks were more positive. You're an attorney. You would know that the word "puport" has the connotation of something not always being quite what it claims to be.
As I said, the book is not perfect. There are some unusual spellings in the English text. One or two of the many illustrations may be mis-labeled. In its favour it's written by somebody who lives the life, can weave the wool, dye the cloth, stitch the pieces by hand and wear the clothes, and lives very close to nature in the far north of Norway. No 'weekend warrior' here. I'm sure you'll enjoy the book, warts and all. Mike ps. you don't have to publish this if you don't want to. :-)
No book is perfect, and neither is my use of language in my posts, even though am, as you note, an attorney. In fact, my language in my posts is less perfect than I'd like sometimes because I work this blog, and my other blogs, as a hobby, and I don't always have the time I'd like to spend on them.
ReplyDeleteThe language I used in my original post was inspired, not by anything in Ms. Glaesel's book, but by the idea of a "how-to" book for Viking clothing when so many of our ideas about what the Vikings wore remain speculative. That was the only reason for my "presumably" language. As I commented above, from looking at her website many of Ms. Glaesel's ideas about what the Vikings wore are in accord with mine. But that fact doesn't confirm that either of us is right (though the fact that she does "live the life" and tests her ideas in practice does give her views of Viking costume extra support).
"p.s. you don't have to publish this if you don't want to."
I don't believe in censoring people for honest expressions of disagreement, even if the disagreement is with me! I only remove comments if they are not germane to the subject matter of this blog or if a commenter is being disruptive/rude to others. I have had to do the first very few times, and have not needed to do the second so far.
Thought you might be interested, there are two very brief reviews on Amazon:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Viking-Clothing-Garment-English-Norwegian/dp/8299832306
From browsing a friends copy, I have to agree with what Mike says:
"It's NOT a scholarly tome for the librarian. It's a book for the rest of us to use and enjoy."
Where the disappointment lies, I think, might be in the intention of the book. The book isn't overly interested in describing in any great detail the choices made, or the evidence, behind the cutting patterns and reconstructions. The book is mostly interested in getting people to cut out and sew things to wear.
But if you're the sort of Viking Age enthusiast who is unlikely to care too much about the archaeological evidence behind the patterns, or doesn't care what they're wearing as long as they can go fight on the field or display, I can't see that sort of person being willing to pay $100+ for a book on clothing patterns (in general... there are exceptions!) especially when there are so many resources available freely online.
Pearl: Thanks. I am interested. But I'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteWhat perturbs me is the probability that a lot of VA enthusiasts will treat the book as though it were the ultimate authority on Viking Age costume. I would respect the book if it admits, even in a brief forward, that there may be other interpretations, but this is the one the author believes best comports with the evidence (even if she never discusses, or even mentions, the evidence after that).
Even if the book is just a "how-to" for the author's preferred version of VA clothing, I suspect that there may be a larger market for it than you might think, judging from the number of people who regularly ask for help on the historic clothing-related lists. Not everyone has your Google-fu! :-)
I will be going to an event next weekend where a vendor of my acquaintance has the book. I'm not prepared to pay a three-digit price for it, but at least I'll get to flip through a copy and see how close my impressions about it from the Internet are to the reality.
ven if the book is just a "how-to" for the author's preferred version of VA clothing, I suspect that there may be a larger market for it than you might think, judging from the number of people who regularly ask for help on the historic clothing-related lists. Not everyone has your Google-fu! :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, no, I agree whole-heartedly that there is a market for simple, clear diagrams and patterns for making clothing. I'm just also sure that the price of the book may be a big deterrent for those same people to purchase it.
Let me rephrase the bit about things being online: There are a lot of mailing lists and message boards online, and in most (if not all) living history/re-enactment groups you're going to have someone designated the local expert. If the online people can't point you to online resources (which, to be honest these days are around the same quality as the book's fairly generic patterns), or if your local expert can't point at resources and help with sewing and fitting, then there is something seriously wrong.
(And really, for controversial garments like the apron dress, you'd want to rely on what your local group does, so you can fit in, rather than relying on a book.)
If the online people can't point you to online resources (which, to be honest these days are around the same quality as the book's fairly generic patterns), or if your local expert can't point at resources and help with sewing and fitting, then there is something seriously wrong.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair point. I wasn't thinking so much about dedicated reenactment groups, frankly. I was thinking more about people interested in Viking era who are not really affiliated with any kind of group (other than maybe a local SCA chapter that may or may not have a
"local expert" with knowledge of period resources). That may be less common where you are, but there aren't that many Viking reenactment groups in the US.
I think we might both be right. :)
ReplyDeleteSigh, Probably. :-)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind having a copy of the book myself. It looks as though it's nicely laid out, and the pictures are pretty. But I can't bring myself to pay a three-figure price for what, for all I know, may be based purely on a reenactor's speculation.
Now, if I thought such a book was based on *authority*...maybe I would be willing to pay $100 USD for it. To me, that's the disturbing factor--that the book will be taken as "authority" though it is not. Possible case in point: http://einarrsigarda.blogspot.com/2010/11/book-review.html
The author could avoid inappropriately being taken as an "authority" by including a disclaimer in her book; I'll be interested in seeing if she did so.
And I wonder to what extent she is familiar with any of the issues relating to the evidence of Viking clothing?
And I wonder to what extent she is familiar with any of the issues relating to the evidence of Viking clothing?
ReplyDeleteShe seems to be aware of them (and in the introduction she says that Thor Ewing's book is extremely useful, which indicates she should be aware of some issues), but that isn't what the book is about. The book is about explaining how to sew an outfit.
She seems to be aware of them (and in the introduction she says that Thor Ewing's book is extremely useful, which indicates she should be aware of some issues), but that isn't what the book is about. The book is about explaining how to sew an outfit.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. That's interesting.
Saying that Ewing's book is useful doesn't necessarily show her awareness of the potential issues, if she takes his book as gospel. Still, I have a hard time believing that someone so seriously into VA reenactment as Glaesel seems to be would not be aware of the gaps in our knowledge about Viking clothing.
Still, I have a hard time believing that someone so seriously into VA reenactment as Glaesel seems to be would not be aware of the gaps in our knowledge about Viking clothing.
ReplyDeleteJudging from how people mention her, she obviously is a very serious Viking-interested person. And I suspect for people who do know of her, her name being on the cover might be enough to convince them that there is solid research behind it, even if it isn't laid out in the book itself for us skeptical sorts to pick over.
"Judging from how people mention her, she obviously is a very serious Viking-interested person."
ReplyDeleteIndeed. The Lofotr website appears to indicate that VA reenactment is her life. I don't want to pass judgment before I get a chance to at least skim through her book.
Pearl: You may find the reviews on Amazon.com so far interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Viking-Clothing-Garment-English-Norwegian/dp/8299832306/ref=cm_pdp_wish_itm_title_5
I just made a post about a particular type of shirt that used to be worn by untouchables in India
ReplyDeletehttp://lingni-net.blogspot.com/search?q=Untouchable+shirt
I was wondering If you could give me any lead to find out more about it.
Thanks!
@Bernard: No, I'm afraid I can't; I've never seen such a garment before. It was not mentioned in the few histories of Indian clothing that I have read. I'd suggest starting by reading whatever histories you can find of the untouchable caste in India, and seeing whether you can find references to or photographs of clothing.
ReplyDeleteI can't figure out how to get this to you any other way -- but have you seen this? http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2013/01/07/valkyrie-figurine-from-harby/#.UOraahlK2d8.twitter
ReplyDeleteapologies if this shows up twice ..... I can't figure out how to get this to you any other way.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen this? http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2013/01/07/valkyrie-figurine-from-harby/#.UOraahlK2d8.twitter
Sorry--I've adopted a policy of moderating comments on posts older than ...60 days, I think, to try to eliminate spam.
DeleteYes, I've seen Rundqvist's "Harby Valkyrie" post. In fact, I'm planning on blogging about it tonight. :-) Thanks for thinking of me, though!