THE KIRKKOMAKI CEMETERY AT KAARINA. Kaaro Katiskoski. Fennoscandia archoeologica IX (1992) Parts of journal article for future referencing in research and construction of persona.
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The Broken People: Deconstruction of Personhood in Iron Age Finland. Anne Wickholm and Sami Raninen. Estonian Journal of Archaeology, 2006, 10, 2, 150166. Parts of journal article for future referencing in research and construction of persona. During the 9th century, when the collective burial practice prevails. The next individual burials in the cemeteries are from the end of the Viking Age when occasional inhumation graves were dug in the cemetery.
My progress since: I have now started sewing on the coils along the sides, as well as knotting coils into the top fringe that was woven down so as not to sit against the neck line. As I already had some packets of pre-cut brass coils I decided to use them up before supplementing with my own made ones. I have a few hundred and as yet have not had to attempt coil making...phew! Though, I will need to eventually, as I plan on making many, many coil adorned items in the future. Sometimes people post great work in .pdf form, but it would be rude of me to download it from their site and upload it here. Not only that, but I want to have access to all of their work as all of it is relevant to my research. So, here are those links so that I may refer to them when needed.
Garb - Study and Recreation of the Eura Dress. (Oonagh Bhan. 2009). Jewellery - Early Period Beaded Necklaces. (Author and year unknown). Using Spirals - Recreating an 11th Century Finnish Spiral Apron. (Duchess Siobhán inghean uí Liatháin. 2013). - Eura patterns (Lady Orlaith inghen Cinada meic Briain. 2014).
Here is a collage of photos of Daáin and I in the layers of our new garb. I will write up in detail the contruction of mine at another post.
While a single name may be enough, I like to do things till they feel done. Therefore as a past Landed Baroness who is now a Court Baroness, I get to play around with alternative titles. I also want a by-name that goes with the whole 'Torvill and Dean' side joke. Finding a first name to go by was easy. Finding a by-name was difficult. The Finnish language now is not the same as the Finnish language in the 10th century. My research suggests that by-names in Finland around this time were standard fare, as were patronymics/matronymics. I want something that represents ice skater, ice traveller...or similar. Finnish is from an entirely different language family, Finno-Ugric, although through political and cultural affiliation Finland is part of Scandinavia. The language of Scandinavia was a form of proto-Germanic that showed up in runic inscriptions which gives a very primitive view of the language structure. The language of Scandinavia in the medieval period is called Old Norsk. Because of the trading/raiding expeditions of the Vikings Old Norsk had some linguistic influence outside of Scandinavia. Remarkably Old Norsk still survives after a millennium as Icelandic. Faroese is also closer to Old Norsk than are modern Danish, Swedish and the two forms of Norwegian. The Scandinavian Languages. Their Histories and Relationships. Thayer Watkins. Cultural influences from a variety of places are visible in the Finnish archaeological finds from the very first settlements onwards. For example, archaeological finds from Finnish Lapland suggest the presence of the Komsa culture from Norway. The Sujala finds, which are equal in age with the earliest Komsa artefacts, may also suggest a connection to the Swiderian culture. Southwestern Finland belonged to the Nordic Bronze Age, which may be associated with Indo-European languages, and according to Finnish Germanist Jorma Koivulehto speakers of Proto- Germanic language in particular. Artefacts found in Kalanti and the province of Satakunta, which have long been monolingually Finnish, and their place names have made several scholars argue for an existence of a proto-Germanic speaking population component a little later, during the Early and Middle Iron Age. Wikipedia. History of Finland. (June 2016). So a map of my 'burial find' reproductions is in order to see what I should be using to choose my by-name. Eura (Grave 56 location) is south west within Finland. According to the information I have obtained, my research suggest that Eura would have been most likely inhabited by Norse speaking/ proto-Germanic linguists as it was during the Nordic Bronze age and before inhabitation of Christians. So Old Norse it is for finding by-names. My first name is from an old Norse saga, so that is good as far as documentation goes. I consulted some texts for examples of old Norse by-names and found the following. skate = skata snow = snjár snow skate = skið bone = bein ski = snjó/r snow shoes = ondurr ice = svell traveller = fara I decided on svell fara (ice traveller) Websites used to determine by-name are: - http://norse.ulver.com/dct/zoega/f.html - http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm - http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/language/English-Old_Norse.pdf Next: title? Ok, so as I am no longer a Landed Baroness I have the right to use an alternate title. My options are: Finnish options: Baron = Vapaaherra/Paroni Baroness = Vapaaherratar/Paronitar So I will be now known as Paronitar Tórfa svell fara.
Ludwig loved my name and this encouraged him to get on the bandwagon. He said it reminded him of Torvill, as in Torvill and Dean. So he set about trying to find a period Norse name similar to Dean. Ludwig even plans on learning Bolero on his ocarina. Ludwig will be hereby known as Dáinn (da-win). We have also found period references to ice skates that can be documented - time to clean some bones. For use later: Reference 1 2 3 And of course, I cannot leave this post without paying homage to Torvill and Dean. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwAC1vV38Y Study and Recreation of the Eura Dress In deciding where to start I considered the following points: - something that caught my eye - ability to expand my knowledge - ease for use in summer and winter - bling (higher class than average to go with Baronnial staus) - cost and time - if possible narrow down to one find to make replication simpler, (not necessarily easily) and documentable. Grave 56 at Luistari, Eura fit this criteria. While not much fabric was obtained there was enough for modern research and scientific techniques to obtain information regarding colours, fabrics and metals used. Dyeing techniques including mordants can be ascertained using liquid chromatography methodology, giving us information about plants/roots and metals involved in these processes. We also know that indigo was used to obtain the blue, thus indicating that Eura was on the trade route for indigo was not locally obtained or produced. Fabrics were mainly wool, though hemp and linen were detected. In our Australian climate I will be using linen for my under-dresses instead of wool as it would be too temperate to wear wool in our summers. Metals were vastly bronze and brass in grave 56. The woman aged approximately 45, was considered to have been wealthy, so probably a wife of a prominent member in the region. The five main components of this dress style include a headdress, under-dress, mantle dress, apron, and cloak. This I can do ;-) Here is the research that I obtained to help me navigate and choose it as my first Finnish attempt. Eura Dress Construction Study and Recreation of the Eura Dress Prehistoric Eura - From the Stone Age to the Crusade Period Here is a single grave, of a woman, around my age, wearing higher status garb that I can make and replicate. All aspects can be looked into and researched and documented - plus most aspects I can have a go at myself over a period of time (making fabric on a loom, dyeing techniques experimenting with mordants and plants, tablet weaving both on and off the fabric weave loom) . I can also get access to, or make, the accessories. It allows scope for research, persona development, lifestyle research and development as well as a new name choice! This is the one. I have my new garb project that can be simple to begin with, and extended and added to as I research and experiment with techniques along the way. Examples of Eura dress reconstruction for resource and further reflection: A persona needs a name. I couldn't wait for Ludwig to begin looking at names for himself so I went ahead and looked at ideas for what I wanted. I liked quite a few, but eventually I settled on Tórfa. First stop: The Academy of Saint Gabriel, the herald's one-stop-shop for all things device and name specific. Their information for this name was: Past reports: 1121: The feminine name <Torfa> is recorded in early medieval Iceland; it is pronounced \TOR-va\ Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). 1525: <Ska/ld-Hrafn> 'Poet-Hrafn' and <Ska/ld-Torfa> 'Poet-Torfa' both lived about the year 1000, and there are several other examples of the epithet as well. (Here <Hrafn> and <Torfa> are masculine and feminine given names respectively.) Lind, E.H. Norsk-Isla"ndska Personbinamn fra*n Medeltiden (Uppsala: 1920-1921); s.nn. <Ska/ld-Hrafn>, <Ska/ld-Torfa>. 2334: The name <Torfi> was quite common in Iceland and Norway from the 10th century on, but we have found no evidence of the name in Danish or in any of the languages of Britain. <Skagi Torfa son> (in its normalized spelling) would be a fine West Norse name, appropriate for Iceland, Norway, Ireland, the Orkneys, or the Western Isles of Scotland; but we can't recommend it as good re-creation in Denmark or southern England. In your period, of course, the name would have been written with runes. If you are interested in the runic spelling of this name, write us again and we'll be happy to help. Here are some links that I found to begin to give me direction on the name and when and where it may have been found: Nordic names: female form of Torfi - Icelandic and Old Norse. From an Icelandic - English dictionary - torfa, u, f. turf, a green spot; á yztu torfur sinna herbergja, Fbr. 156; þar sem sær mætisk ok græn torfa, N. G. L. i. 13. 2. many farms built together are in Icel. called torfa. II. a slice of sod (if square it is called hnauss, q. v.); þá fellr torfa ór garðinum ok skriðnar hann, Ísl. ii. 357; eyri fyrir torfu hverja (troðu, næfra kimbul, torfu), N. G. L. i. 101, Ld. 58, 60, referring to the ordeal of going under a sod of turf; torfu bugr, the bend of the sod, Ld. l. c.: metaph., höggva torfu, a slice, af höfði, N. G. L. i. 81. torfu-þíðr, adj. thawed, Jb. 302. Torfa, u, f., and Torfi, a, m., pr. names, Landn. (in Skáld torfa). Cool, so now I began to search for it elsewhere. Icelandic and Heathen Names listed Torfa: (Torfu); f. - turf. Nordic Names: female form of Torfi. Norwegian and Old Norse. Old Norse: torf = 'turf/sod'. The sagas are also a great way to document late period names: Skáld Torfa/Tórfa was the mother of 10th -11th century Icelandic Skald, Bersi Skald-Torfusson or Bersi Skald-Tórfuson. The Icelandic Sagas, or also known as family sagas, are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature. - Valla-Ljóts Saga: Torfajokull - Ragnar and Aslaug - Torfaeus - Grettir The Strong Saga - Skald-Torfa or Torfa the Poetess - Landnamabok - Torfa - Bianni Arnissen - Tórfa Tórfa can also be found (apparently, but I cannot as yet get hold of a copy) in the book: Barthi Guthmundsson's The Origin of the Icelanders. trans. Lee M. Hollander. Lincoln: Univ of Nebraska Press. 1967. Library of Congress Catalog Card # 66-19265. pp. 26-31 I really wanted to do Finnish, so off to a map we go. So, most of the sagas are Icelandic, yet Iceland is over to the left all on its own. My next step will be to find out from those in the know if using an Icelandic saga name is suitable for a Finnish persona. If not, I may have to go generic to register it. More research to be done ;-) After such consultation I may look into the migration patterns and raiding parties during the years 900 - 1050, as this could allow some reasoning as to why a girl named Tórfa could have been born in Finland in the later 900's. The short version. A journey as the local Baronage is a mixed bag of good and bad. In fact it is probably in the ratio of 85/15. So faced with our time as Baron and Baroness coming to an end we decided that maybe it would be nice for Ludwig von Lichtenstein and Anastasia del Valente to step down as Mordenvale's (Kingdom of Lochac) 3rd Baronage and walk out into the night for a much deserved sabbatical. Then later in the proceedings (the time it takes to get dressed), in will walk us in our new personas. So...I did as I do. I jumped on the internet and began researching. I had recently had my DNA tested only to discover that I had a large Scandinavian (and surrounds) heritage. This combined with my new found love of all things Finnish 10th century after beginning a project as part of the Lochac Largesse Challenge ( Laurel Prize Tourney edition) - find us on Facebook. I am currently finishing a Finnish ;-) mantle with all the brass coil trimmings. These ladies knew how to bling with style. I discovered a few garb pics that I loved and from those I jotted down reference words to increase my search and narrow down my new persona. (See slideshow below) Into Google search went: Finnish SCA, 10th century Finland, Eura, Luistari, Finnish burial, just to name a few. There was so much to see and ohhh and ahhh at. It was hard to narrow it done and keep up with what was what. So I did what any good SCA researcher does. I then created a Pinterest board to save all that I could find into one place to use as a resource along the way - https://au.pinterest.com/baronesstasia/sca-finnish-persona/ There are so many variants of garb from regions close together. The influences are amazing. You can see the progression of ideas and styles as you move around the Norse countries. Even the changing of time shows a pattern. My next plan was to research literary papers ( I also have a freaky love for recently published PhD/thesis papers). This allowed me to view what research had been conducted in the regions of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and such. I came across some interesting papers written on a big dig done in Eura, Finland. Bingo. I found my starting point. |
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AuthorI love to research....anything. So, faced with time on my hands at the end of a University degree and also stepping down as the Baroness of Mordenvale, what have I done to fill my time. Study of course. Period feasts and the decorating of them. A new persona for after I stepped down (bye Tasia). This blog is a summary and more of the research that lead to this point, and what ever I do there after as Tórfa. Archives |