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Amanda Marksdottir
ragnvaeig
02 May 2008 @ 14:33
Uppsala  

Royal Interrment
Originally uploaded by Ragnvaeig.
The trip to Sweden with [info]smarriveurr for [info]celemon and [info]graylion's wedding was lovely. We flew through Helsinki each way, but still managed to spend 6 days exploring and being sociable. The happy couple were married in a lovely church with a fantastically eclectic audience, and the reception held to traditions (like having a Toast-master space out the various speeches) that I think ought to catch on in America.

Aside from wedding-ness, we visited Gamla Uppsala and gawked at the grave mounds (I climbed up the Thing-mound, because I am a dork) and the lovely little church. We saw the cathedral, so I could press my nose against the glass and refrain from drooling over the Sture garments in the Treasury. We toured the Museum Gustavianum, so I could scratch my head over the new Viking women's dress reconstruction (verdict: much ick!). We fed the Swedish economy with our devalued US$ by wandering around some of the design shops in the area. And we certainly dined on/drank some lovely fare. Group consensus among those on the not-quite-pub-crawl seems to be heavily in favour of the local Slottskällens Decennium Jubileum brew, with their blond ale and a brew by Eriksburg at close second. (Just don't expect to see a pub open on a Sunday.)

We'll need to spend a week in Stockholm on our next trek over. ;)

Pictures here, with more to come as the week progresses.


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wyvernfriend[info]wyvernfriend on 2nd May 2008 19:24 (UTC)
It was nice to see [info]smarriveurr for the first time and yourself again. We really want to get back to Stockholm again some time.
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Amanda Marksdottir: Vogue[info]ragnvaeig on 2nd May 2008 19:24 (UTC)
It was great to see you two as well. And thank you for pointing me at that yarn shop. I'm still squeeing over my linen thread!
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Jess: vikings[info]kraftigspeldam on 3rd May 2008 01:59 (UTC)
It's very odd to see someone's pictures who look almost exactly like yours, but were there at different times, if that makes sense. I think I have some pictures of Upsalla that look exactly the same as yours

Looks like you had fun though! Sweden is so pretty in the Spring.
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(Anonymous) on 9th May 2008 14:04 (UTC)
viking womans dress
I heard the "creator" of said recreation present it. It works if you take leave of most of your sanity and understand the desperate need to do it differently from everyone else who have played with the material before. The mans dress was not too bad, even if I think she went a bit far into the "rusification" in her lecture. At least the shoes were ok (did the man still have the modern icky scout knife sheet on the belt when you saw it?). And she had no idea what pattern the pants she had put on the man were made from!

Then I always wonder about the wool fabric over down designs; it ought to be easy to track the wearer by the trail of lost down. A linen layer underneath might be called for, but at least in the Uppland soil that will tend to be gone in decades IIRC.

/UlfR
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Amanda Marksdottir: Viking[info]ragnvaeig on 9th May 2008 14:28 (UTC)
Re: viking womans dress
I've seen Turkish coats that looked similar to the man's coat presented, so it wasn't quite so painful. I didn't notice the sheath, but I was still in shock over the on-the-breasts oval brooches and unimpressed by the store-boughten trim.

Linen preservation really depends upon the soil pH in situ. The ideal is alkaline, with a pH between 7 and 9, but it also depends upon waterlogging, &c.

As far as the down...I'm under the impression that feather/down remains were found in at least one grave, but that's a half-remembered incidental snatch from an aside at a presentation five years ago, now, and couldn't tell you where it was. I don't remember the evidence showing that it was widespread.

Edited at 2008-05-09 14:28 (UTC)
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(Anonymous) on 10th May 2008 03:14 (UTC)
Re: viking womans dress
I agree, the trim and the whole design was, erhm, interesting and different.


I know about the soil pH and linen, and around here you are much more likely to have podsol than anything else.

And I'm not arguing against its utility, just the utility inside a pure woolen garment in Uppland (look at a down sleeping bag and note that the have picked a densely woven fabric for the cover in order to minimize down migration though the fabric). If I would have made that garment I would have used linen-down-linen-wool as the layering.

Hmm, thought; have anyone noted any cattail down in connection to clothing in graves? A friend of mine has a sleeping bag filled with it, and that works fine (quite warm, but not nearly as compressible as down or modern synthetics). If quilted garments was popular, then cattail down might have been used as a poor mans substitute.
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Amanda Marksdottir: Viking[info]ragnvaeig on 11th May 2008 01:01 (UTC)
Re: viking womans dress
...have anyone noted any cattail down in connection to clothing in graves?

I don't remember it, but then, I've not been looking. Shall keep an eye out in any new articles I read.
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