[Regia-NA] Viking women's head coverings

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Please forgive the delay in responding to this question.  In addition to 
the sad loss of one of our kittens, I've had hardware, software, and OS 
failures lately.  *sigh*

Hazel wrote:

>Apart from the- possibility -that married Christian women of the Regia
>period, in a Viking context covered their hair somehow....is there any
>evidence for hair coverings? I know of the light weight cloth in the Oseberg
>finds, construed as hair 'veils' and surviving tablet woven bands which are
>found in areas of the skeleton that may be consistent with their being the
>edges of head coverings. Is there anything else that I have missed?

To my knowledge, the main sources for information in this area are the 
following.

1.  The 9th century "veils" found at Oseberg.  Hopefully more information 
on these will come to light in the long-awaited Oseberg textiles volume, 
may it come soon and in our time.

2.  The various 9th and 10th century headcoverings from Birka.  Some appear 
to be plain TW fillets or metal passementerie, while others seem to involve 
textiles.  Both Geijer and Hagg note the relative impossibility of 
determining what the "caps" might actually have looked like, though.

3.  The Jorvik and Lincoln caps.  Their cultural provenance is debatable 
but they're generally believed to be more Scandinavian than A-S.

4.  The 11th century Dublin materials.  Some are caps like the Jorvik and 
Lincoln ones; others are scarves that Heckett proposes may have been worn 
on the head.

5.  Visual clues from period depictions.  These include a large number of 
rock carvings from various dates and locations, the 9th century Oseberg 
tapestry, guldgubbar and "valkyrie" figurines, and a wall painting from 
11th century Kiev.  Most depict an elaborate knot of some sort, usually 
interpreted as a hairdo.  The Kiev depiction shows a princess in a simple 
coif not unlike the Jorvik, Lincoln, and Dublin caps.

Hope I haven't forgotten anything! ;>  I'm always on the lookout for more 
sources, though; does anybody know of any others?


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html