Fashioning the Viking Age
Research in textiles and textile production
Welcome to the project site of Fashioning the Viking Age at the National Museum of Denmark. Here you can read all about the ongoing and upcoming research in Viking Age textiles and textile production at the National Museum of Denmark.
You can also follow the different projects on Instagram: @fashioningthevikingage
Velklædt i Vikingetiden / Fashioning the Viking Age started as a collaboration between Ulla Mannering and Charlotte Rimstad at the National Museum Denmark; Ida Demant from Land of Legends in Lejre and Eva Andersson Strand at Centre for Textile Research at University of Copenhagen. The aim of the project was to create new and archaeologically well-founded interpretations and reconstructions of Viking Age textiles and clothing. The project was funded by the VELUX FOUNDATION with a grant from the Museum Program. It was launched in September 2018 and ended in April 2023. You can read more about the project and get access to its publications here.
In September 2022 Eva Andersson Strand launched the project Textile Resources in Viking Age Landscapes (TRiVAL) in which Charlotte Rimstad and Ulla Mannering are collaborators. The project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) and will finish in December 2025. You can read more about the project here.
In 2024 Charlotte Rimstad will launch the project Women’s Clothing in the Late Viking Age. In the project, CR will investigate what female clothing looked like in the late part of the Viking Age. Research has until now focused on the female outfits with oval brooches, but in the Late Viking Age this dress type is abandoned and new ways of dressing appear. Comparisons with other outfits in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe will also be included. The project is funded by Kulturministeriets Forskningspulje.
Also in 2024, Ulla Mannering will launch the project Textile Colours in the Viking Age. The project aims to identify the dyestuffs used in textile production from the Viking Age and to assess how textile colours interacted with social and cultural contexts. Danish Viking Age textiles have never before been subjected to a large systematic survey like in the proposed project. Samples will come from a wide range of Danish and North German grave finds and other contexts. The dye analysis will be supplemented with fibre analysis, bead colour analyses, and the meaning and use of colour terms in old Norse texts. The project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) and will finish in February 2028.