Interior textiles in the Viking Age : pillows, bedding and wall hangings : beðr, ver og húsbúnaðr / edited by Eva Andersson Strand, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Ulla Mannering, Marianne Vedeler.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Strand, Eva B. Andersson, editor.

Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte, editor.

Mannering, Ulla, editor.

Vedeler, Marianne, editor.

Series:

Viking Europe

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Textile fabrics in interior decoration--Europe, Northern--History--To 1500.

Textile fabrics in interior decoration.

Textile fabrics, Viking--Europe, Northern--History--To 1500.

Textile fabrics, Viking.

Physical Description:

224 pages : illustrations (colour) ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"When Viking Age house interiors are reconstructed, the focus is usually on the fireplace and the placement of tables, benches and beds. These features help us understand how people lived. However, we often forget that textiles, such as blankets, sheets, tablecloths and wall hangings, were also important in everyday life. Textiles were used for comfort, cleaning and decoration, and they helped tell stories as well as signal a person's or family's social status. Most Viking Age textiles that have survived are found in graves. These include not only clothing but also bedding, pillows and fabrics used to wrap objects. A burial can be seen as a kind of room for the dead, filled with items that reflect how people lived and what they valued. Because of this, grave finds are important when discussing the interior textiles used in Viking Age houses. Wall hangings are mentioned as status symbols in the Icelandic sagas, and examples from the late Viking Age and early medieval period have been found and preserved in churches, giving us insight into their use and value. Old Norse texts also mention soft furnishings such as tablecloths and handcloths, and the use of interior textiles can be seen on the Bayeux embroidery. Other types of iconography, such as on rune stones and picture stones, help us understand how interior textiles may have been used. By combining information from textiles, written sources and iconography, and by applying different approaches, the chapters in this book offer various perspectives on how interior textiles were used in the Viking Age, why they were needed and how valuable they were." -- From publisher's website.

Contents:

Introduction / Eva Andersson Strand, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Ulla Mannering and Marianne Vedeler

1. Houses, homes and textiles in the Viking Age: a perspective from assemblage theory / Anna S. Beck

2. Techniques, textiles, and texts: interior textiles from Birka with a few other examples from Scandinavian Viking and Early Middle Ages / Eva Andersson Strand and Amica Sundström

3. Textile materials found in the Valsg̃rde boat graves in Sweden / Marie Bengtsson

4. Bedding equipment in Scandinavian Viking Age burials / Charlotte Rimstad

5. The embroidered textile from the Viking Age burial of Bjerringhøj / Ulla Mannering and Charlotte Rimstad

6. Tapestries in visual and oral storytelling : the Oseberg example / Marianne Vedeler

7. The imagery of the Gotland picture stones compared to the tapestries from Oseberg and Överhogdal / Laila Kitzler ¿hfeldt

8. Textiles in a martial context: evidence of production and use in the Garrison at Birka, Sweden / Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson

9. Early medieval textiles from a house in Sigtuna / Amica Sundstr̲m

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781836245131

1836245130

OCLC:

1559963347

Publisher Number:

CIPO000315757