[Regia-NA] broad-brimmed hats?

[Yolli]

Hi, I think we can assume that both the Julius and Tiberius calendars are
Saxon in origin and largely show Anglo-Saxons working and to some extent
living in 'real time' 10th century style. There are other calendars which
demonstrate the same general outline of agricultural life - all they
disagree upon is what should be done each month - farmers, huh?

All of the folks who are doing the manual labouring are hatless to a man -
no women... obviously in the period before women were invented. Some could
be wearing close fitting skull caps and we do have instances of hoods in
carvings. But that is all from what I have seen.

All I can suggest is that hats were close fitting or not worn at all - Odin
not withstanding. He is Norse after all... Why only Odin, surely the rest of
the pantheon deserved hats too? 

The adoption of headgear for ladies is largely to my mind to do with reasons
of practicality. It doesn't take too long before all that fire smoke etc
necessitates some sort of protection from all the fire smoke and soot. Men
after all were able to swan about outdoors most of the day. Even the smith
was able to use charcoal as opposed to wood to work over.

Anyway, I have burnt arms and it's still just May. The Viking period was in
the midst of the mini warm period and I assume that the summers were pretty
hot - maybe the squint was a popular style at the time.

Just to add a wee bit of succour - I do recall a woven hat probably of straw
from Novgorod. It had a brim and looked like something from the Henley
Regatta. Must look it up as I have kept the info under wraps for some years
now. Bit like those scissors form Birka. The hat makes your average Viking
look so effete. I have a hunch it might be even later. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers, Roll.


-----Original Message-----
From: list-regia-na-bounces at lig.net [mailto:list-regia-na-bounces at lig.net]
On Behalf Of Folo Watkins
Sent: 17 May 2006 00:14
To: list-Regia-NA
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] broad-brimmed hats?


>>>Even in the summer months of the Julius and Tiberius work calendars, 
>>>with people working in the fields during the time of the year when they 
>>>were most likely to want protection, they are bare headed.
>
>Perhaps in the far northern latitudes, sun protection is less of a 
>problem, since the sun never gets that high in the sky, even in summer.

Both Julius and Tiberius work calendars were Anglo-Saxon, presumably 
created in England. Is England that far north? I've only been in England 
once, in February and it was raining...

Cheers, Folo
 

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