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:
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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 |