Location: Haithabu, Current-Day Germany Date: Approx. Late 10th Century Culture: Late Viking Age Danish Estimated Social Class: Middle to Low Garment Type: Separate-Leg Hose As joined trousers, a fashion well in use in Northern Europe for well on over a thousand years at this point, began to fall out of fashion by the end of the Viking Age, a new, and somewhat strange, leg covering began to take their place. These so-called “Hosen” were not a singular garment which pulled up and was belted or rolled around the wearer’s waist, but rather separate tubular “stockings” which pulled on separately and were tied off to a belt which held them in place. When and where these hosen began their life is still subject to much debate, with some suggesting they originated with Byzantine traders, and others theorizing they were Frankish in origin. What we do know is that, by some point, they made their way to Danish territories, either by way of trade or by conquest, and there they remained – and spread to the rest of Europe – and there they would remain for the better part of four or five centuries. Recovered in Haithabu, Germany (a former Danish territory), and dated to the latter part of the 10th Century, our fragment appears to be the upper portion of one of these stockings. It terminates at the top with a point, which is equipped with a leather tie for affixing it to a belt to keep it up, and is has a seam down the back, as well as a separate one that passes horizontally across it. How the completed garment looked in its original state we will likely never know, however we do have some theories. The features of these hosen seem to have remained quite consistent throughout their use, only really changing drastically during the final years of their time in fashion. As a result of this, much of what we believe about the ones worn in Haithabu at this time is surmised from this pre-existing knowledge. Most all of the ones found in contemporary art, from the Bayeux Tapestry to High Medieval depictions, seem to be quite tight-fitting, sometimes appearing in art as if the wearer has nothing on his legs at all, indicating they were cut on the wool fabric’s bias to facilitate stretching. They reach to the upper thigh, with a point in the front to which a tie (or sometimes clasp, as some art depicts) is affixed to hold them up. A seam ran down the back from top to bottom and they were likely either footed or affixed with stirrups, of which we have no idea what style the Haithabu hosen bore. With this general knowledge of Medieval hosen, and the fragment at-hand, we can begin to attempt to paint a semi-complete image of what these garments may have looked like in their original state The Original Fragments To date, only a single piece of this style of stocking has been recovered at the site at Haithabu, labeled as Fragment 2. The fragment is of two sewn parts, both of a semi-fine natural-colored, undyed 2/2 wool twill, with a dark weft and light warp, giving it a sort of lightly striped appearance. There is a seam down the back, which was the original connecting seam of the “tube” that made up the main body of the hose, as well as a horizontal seam, of which the original intent is unknown, though we will speculate on this later. The piece measures 27cm high with a wool thickness of around 0.15cm. Unfortunately, below his horizontal seam the garment is frayed and torn away, meaning we have no information on how the original construction was, or if the stocking had feet, stirrups, or simply terminated at the ankle. At the top of the fragment is a leather thong, originally used to secure the top of the hose to a belt to keep it pulled up and tight. Later in the Medieval Period, these would take form of woven ties with metal tips, called Aiglets, however, this piece is cut from an irregular, hastily-made leather piece, likely from scrap. Even though the piece is only fragmentary, several repairs can be noted, though interestingly enough, while they garment does appear to have been repaired on several occasions, there is no evidence of patching, as is seen on other finds of this type. The repairs, coupled with the worn and irregular leather tie at the top indicates heavy use by the original owner. The Reconstructions For our reconstruction, we opted to go with a more “conventional” approach in regards to their overall make. While the upper half is present, the full length, nature of the feet, and exactly how fitted these hose were is lost to us. As such, we needed to draw information from other contemporary examples for these. To start, the length of these hose has been debated for some time, and for good reason. While at first it should seem that they would extend the full length (to the groin and upper thigh) as later examples, certain contemporary works appear to show stockings of a similar make reaching only about the knee. While it is not debated hose of this style existed, I personally disagree that this is one such example, and rather opted to make these longer and higher like those seen on the Bayeux Tapestry and later works. My reasoning for this is two-fold: the first reason being the presence of ties and its length. While it could be argued the tie could have originally been longer, and had likewise been shorn off or deteriorated over the years, these also could have been the original lengths to affix the top of the hose to a belt, meaning they would need to reach at least to the upper thighs at the shortest in order for the tie to reach the waist and tie off. I would also argue that to make this particular style shorter, coupled with the rather short nature of the male-related tunics from the region, would leave an extreme amount of the wearer’s legs open and free, meaning a secondary layer would need to be worn to cover the legs from the groin to the knee. This could have been a potential use for the loose knee-length baggy trousers also recovered from the region, but how those would have been worn with such hose is still open for debate. The second reason has to do with the presence of the horizontal seam near the top. While it has been speculated for a number of years what this seam was originally meant to do, I personally believe it is because these particular hose are made from a pair of pre-existing trousers. As has already been noted, the hose show evidence of extensive wear and repair, meaning that they could have possibly started life as a pair of fitted trousers, and when the style of separate-leg hose was adopted later on, the owner simply cut the legs off their trousers, took fabric from another part, and sewn it to the top to create the points we see now. This makes more sense when one superimposes the hose on top of a pair of trousers cut in a fashion to those based off fragments from Haithabu, and can see that the horizontal seam lays almost exactly where the trousers widen in the groin and would need to be cut off. We know fashions evolved rapidly during this period of transition at the end of the Viking Age, with tunics growing longer, trousers evolving into hose, and various arms and armor also undergoing extensive changes, as well. However, with these changes, means that those living in areas where the changes were taking place would need to adapt to keep up with the “fashionable norm”. Since these hose are of a heavily-worn “middle-fine” textile, it is likely the owner could ill-afford to trash his trousers in favor of the new fashion of separate-leg hosen, and rather chose to simply amend his pre-existing trousers to emulate the new fashion. This theory of trousers evolving into hosen also falls in line with another issue with these hose: did they bear feet? While most contemporary art from the Medieval Period depicting hosen show them either with feet or stirrups, which these particular examples bore has been lost, however, an extensive argument has been made for the prevalence of fitted and footed trousers, as well (more on that in another article), which means the two styles may have corresponded to one another, meaning that tightly-fitted trousers with sewn-in feet, such as the Damendorf and Thorsberg trousers, may have given way to hosen which also incorporated these features. Because of this, our reconstruction has had feet incorporated into them. With footed trouser fashions aside, it should also be noted that few forms of soft foot protections have been recovered from the Viking Age, much less in Haithabu. This means that in the cold Danish winter months, some form of warmth would have been needed on the feet. Whether socks were a thing during this period is still up for debate, however, incorporating feet sewn into the leg garments not only reduces the need for extra material, but also ensures the wearer’s feet will always be protected, even should the shoes get wet with snow and rain. Adding feet also allows the hosen to be worn more fitted, as tying them tightly at the top will create pull from the foot, and thus tighten the overall look of the hosen themselves when worn. The recreated hosen have been made from the same middle-fine 2/2 wool twill as the originals, with a dark weft and light warp. They have also been cut at the same angle as the original fragment, which when completed, has a good deal of stretch, meaning that cutting clothing on the bias for a more fitted cut was known at this time. At the tops are roughly-cut leather ties for affixing them to a belt. To date, not analysis has been done to determine the animal the leather tie on the original fragment is from, so we opted for deer, as we know red deer was commonly harvested in the region around Haithabu, as has been noted by the extensive antler and bone fragments found within the settlement. Since deer hide is very durable and easy to tie in tight knots, we opted to cut the ties off some scrap, trying to carefully cut them in the rough, hastily-constructed fashion of the original example. Now that the hosen have been completed, the next issue is what they were worn in conjunction with. In later periods, we know that linen underwear, referred to commonly in literature as “braies” were worn. These appear to have started life as a linen wrap that was wrapped, tied, and held in place with a belt to which the hosen were donned over, with later examples evolving into sophisticated tailored undergarments. To date, we have virtually no evidence of what style was worn during the Viking Age in Northern Europe. While trousers could be worn sans any form of underwear, hosen like this undoubtedly needed something to cover the groin region, especially given the short nature of men’s tunics at the time. Whether this was a form of wrap, or some sort of linen underwear tailored akin to trousers we do not know, however, for our recreation, we opted for a conjectural underwear cut. Early attempts to create this fashion with these hosen and a short Haithabu Tunika showed that the linen wrap tended to not hold itself in place very well and wanted to “droop” out from the bottom of the tunic, creating a rather unsightly look which fell apart when use. As a result, we decided an actual tailored undergarment would likely work best. This piece has two separate legs, and the waist is taken in via a drawstring encased in the waistband – a technique already known to us from finds such as the Norwegian Skjoldehamn trousers, which were dated to around the same time as these hosen. It should be noted that the use of these drawstring linen ‘braies’ is purely conjectural, however, a silver crucifix from Gotland, Sweden, that is currently housed in the Swedish History Museum, appears to depict an image of Christ wearing undergarments very similar to this fashion In Conclusion
It should be emphasized at the importance of this find that, while overshadowed by the trouser finds from the region, it gives a glimpse into the ever-evolving fashions of the period, and shows that there is potential for the people that lived then to have adapted their pre-existing fashions to emulate those influencing them. This particular example is clear evidence of a fledgling style that would take root and be worn throughout Europe for the next several-hundred years, until coming full-circle and evolving back into the trousers we know today. Its discovery further adds to the already evident hotbed of cultural trends found in Haithabu, and when coupled with the longer slit tunic also recovered from there, we can begin to see the birth of the fashion styles later made famous by the likes of the Normans, further showing the long-lasting cultural and fashion influences Viking Age Scandinavia and Denmark had on shaping early Medieval Europe. Photo & Information Sources
Tom
7/4/2020 02:31:10 am
Hello! Lovely, Lovely work on these. Absolutely beautiful. Comments are closed.
|
AboutThis part of the site will look at the various aspects of life on Viking Age Danish people. From what they ate, to how they may have fought. Archives
July 2021
Categories
All
|