Vikings Essay, Research Paper

The Vikings

The Vikings liked clothes and jewelry. The Vikings were proud of

their appearance and liked to dress well. Most of their clothes were

made of wool or linen that they had spun and woven themselves. The

cloth was dyed with mineral or vegetable dyes of green, brown, red,

yellow or blue. The men wore sleeved jerkins or three-quarter length

coats over woolen shirts and long cloth trousers. On their feet they

wore tall leather boots or soft shoes with short socks. The women

wore long woolen dresses and linen petticoats which reached to their

ankles. Their legs and feet were covered with thick woolly socks and

soft leather shoes. Both men and women wore fur or woolen hats and

cloaks when they went out in cold weather. Cloaks were fastened at

the shoulder with brooches. Children probably wore the same kind of

clothes as their parents. Everyone liked to wear gold and silver

brooches, bracelets, necklaces, armbands and rings. Some of their

jewelry was part of the loot from raids on foreign churches and

monasteries.

The Vikings and there war gear. The Viking was not a soldier in

the modern sense. He spent as much time being a farmer, sailor,

trader and explorer as he did fighting; and he had to provide his own

equipment. Armor to protect the body took many hours of skilled work

to make. It was certainly expensive, and was probably worn only by

Viking leases and their picked household warriors. The other fighting

men would have worn their everyday clothes, relying on an iron helmet

and a sturdy wooden shield for protection. The sword was the most

admired and honored weapon, and many Vikings would have carried one.

The other weapon which became almost the trademark of the Norseman,

was the heavy, two-handed battle-axe. This fearsome weapon, swung by

a big, muscular man, could shear through any armor. Some warriors are

said to have been able to behead a horse at a blow. Men who could

afford neither sword nor axe used a thrusting spear.

The northern people of Europe, the Barbarians, wore warm tunics

and cloaks. They lived in colder, wetter conditions than did the

people of the Mediterranean world. They needed to wear layers of warm

and relatively close-fitted clothes. Celtic, Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon,

and Viking men wore woolen trousers of various styles. Sometimes

these were long and loose, or they were strapped onto the lower leg by

bandages of linen or by leather thongs. A typical Barbarian wardrobe

consisted of undertunic , shirts, trousers, overtunic, and cloak.

Cloaks, tunics, gowns, nightgowns, boots, and mittens were often fur

lined or edged with fur. The women did not wear trousers, but under

their long tunics they sometimes wore leg coverings that were made of

wool or linen. When it came to decorative details, individual

cultures had distinctive styles

The Viking Handbook, 1982 (Scott Jackson)