Friday 27 March 2009

Vikings: What NOT to do

I'm no Viking costume expert, but even I know this is wrong:



There is NO evidence for horns on Viking helms, and just imagine how impractical they'd be in battle!  I don't know quite how this myth got started, but it reminds me more of Wagnerian opera singers than of real Vikings.  I've never seen big, wide, buckly belts and arm bracers either, though I'll leave dear Selkie to supply the details.

And this is even worse: 



This is the general SCA consensus on what Viking women really wore.  Recent research suggests that perhaps they dressed more like this.  In either case, tattered suede minidresses are RIGHT OUT.

And if you rent this thing, you'd better be staging the Ring of the Nibelung:


Ladies' golden, breast-accentuating armour is Victorian.

4 comments:

  1. Whoever made these wasn't even trying for most of it, like the plastic breastplate and the axe-on-a-stick and the miniskirt.

    The stupidest part is that when they did try, they put cross-gartering on the guy there in an attempt to imitate the leg wrappings.

    And cross-gartering is definitely wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm also seeing boots with fringe. Was there ANY era of the middle ages where they used boots with fringe!?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boots during the Viking age were rare enough. I know of one pair found in Denmark and they only reached to about the lower to mid calf. I have never seen any fringe on any Shoe find from the European middle ages.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vikings grew horns in the 1840's. By 1890 everybody "knew" Vikings had horns on their helmets.

    ReplyDelete