Herjolfsnes no 41

Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns

Herjolfsnes no.41

Pattern drawing based on Nörlund

A long sleeved man’s garment. It has waist-high gores in front and back, and four shaped gores on each side running from the arm holes to the hem. The side gores are only 4 cm (1.6″) at the waist and along the torso. They begin to increase abruptly in width about the hip level.

Length from Shoulder to Hem: 120 cm (47.2″)
Waist Circumference: 100 cm (39.4″)
Hem Circumference: 425 cm (167″)
Armhole Circumference: 63 cm (24.8″)
Neck Circumference: 88 cm (34.6″)
Sleeve Length: 62.5 cm (24.6″)

The sleeves are full. There are 15 closely set buttons running on each sleeve from the elbow to the wrist. These buttons are each made from a glued wad of cloth, that is then covered in cloth. In the neck, the material is turned under and the raw edge set with an overcast stitch.

Where the seams of the gores come close together at the waist they are ornamented with a row of backstitches making them very noticeable. The long opening of the sleeve is decorated with a row of backstitching. The bottom hem is decorated with two rows of backstitching. The material is a thin ”fourshaft twill”; dark brown, although the weft is slightly more pale than the warp.

These, and many of the other Herjolfsnes garments have been re-examined by Else Ostergaard in her ”Woven into the Earth: Textile Finds in Norse Greenland” (forthcoming), and hopefully I will be able to make corrections to this material at that time.

Based on the measurements above and observations made by Robin Netherton, and work done with mock-ups, this item is clearly not a ”cote-hardi” of any kind, it is not closely fitted. Based on the proportions of the garment, and the correlation to the skeleton it was found with, we can strongly suggest that it was a man’s garment, and specifically a small and wiry man about 5′ 5″ (165 cm or 65″) tall. suggested by the remains found with this garment. Netherton also stipulates that Norlund’s drawings are not consistent with his written measurements and are most likely inaccurate, and so should be used cautiously. She adds that later authors’ re-interpretations of those drawings appear to be increasingly removed in accuracy from the original. (That observation, I should note, also applies to the drawing above.)

This page was last modified 10 June 2003

Some Sources:

Netherton, Robin. ”The Greenland Gored Gown: A Comparison with Clothing Construction on the Continent,” May 6, 2001, 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Netherton, Robin. . email to Rec.Org.SCA 12 Sep 2002.
Netherton, Robin. Pers.com.
Nörlund, Poul. ”Buried Norsemen at Herjolfsnes: an archaeological and historical study.” Meddelelser om Gronland: Udgivne af Kommissionen for ledelsen af de geologiske og geogrfiske undersogelser i Gronland. Bind LXVII. Kobenhavn: C.A. Reitzel, 1924.

Go to Tunic Page; Herjolsnes Site Page

Some Clothing of the Middle Ages — Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns — Herjolfsnes 41, by I. Marc Carlson, Copyright 1996, 2003 This code is given for the free exchange of information, provided the Author’s Name is included in all future revisions, and no money change hands-

22 maj, 2025

Herjolfsnes no 39

Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns

Herjolfsnes no.39

Pattern drawing based on Nörlund

A short sleeved woman’s dress made from a front and back piece with center gores, and two gores on the right side, and a single, wide gore on the left side with a false seam running down the center.

The sleeves are 30 cm (7.9″) long, and the bottom is 360 cm (141.7″) in circumference. The armhole is 58 cm (22.8″) around, while the neck is 70.5 cm around. The waist measurement is 98.5 cm (38.8″). There is a 4.5 cm (1.77″) slit in the front, with two pairs of edged eyelet holes. Both the neck and the bottom edge are turned back and sewn with a row of backstitches. The raw edge is overcast. The sleeve ends are simple turned over.

The material is full and heavy and well made. The weaving is ”four-shaft” (i.e. 2/2) , with the weft so firmly worked that the warp is no longer visible.

Maggie Forest made a separate examination of the materials of H33, H38, H39, H43, H45, H61, H65 and had the following to say:

The fabric is invariably 2/2 twill. The threads are less than a mm thick, the fabric wasn’t fulled. The result is a slightly open weave, which would have held warmth like a modern knitted sweater. The gap between each thread would be about 1/3-1/2 mm – noticeable. The warp is spun with kemp hairs included for strength, the weft is just the soft under coat, and so the fabrics have a distinctive almost tweed-like appearance. The open weave and the twill weave would have made these fabrics drape like dreams. Despite the fact that they weren’t terribly tight-fitted (although I have a thought on that too) they would have looked it, because the fabric would have clung quite closely.

The seams are just amazingly fine. They’re done from the same thread as the fabric is woven from, and stitches are frequently only about 1mm long. There are places where Nörlund states that there is no hem, only a fold-over, but in fact there is a seam there, it’s just so fine you need to look under the microscope. Leaning back, you can just see a shadow line from the seams, but the stitches are minute.

[The Greenlanders] used a stitch now known as priksom for a top stitch. It is a running stitch, but it goes through the fabric diagonally and ends up looking totally like a modern machine seam, with each stitch butting close to the next..

The tablet woven edge that is extant in the London material also appears in the Greenland material. A couple of the hoods have a quite wide edge, about 1.5 cm wide, done in this way, which gives a really distinctive looking edge with wide stitches on the back. Very tidy.

[Forest agrees with Robin Netherton’s assertion that the Nörlund’s pattern diagrams are flawed.] They really look nothing like it. This may be because he drew the diagrams before the first conservation, but for example, there really aren’t those curves in the 39 gown.

The false seams were not used to add additional fit – they are even all the way through the garment.

Although I have not been been able to verify this, I have been told that the new examination of these garments Som syel til jorden says that this garment has been carbon dated to 480+/-60 BP, or 1420-1530

This page was last modified 24 April 2004

Some Sources:

Forest, Maggie. email to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Authentic_SCA 7 Feb 2003.
Forest, Maggie. Pers.com.
Nörlund, Poul. ”Buried Norsemen at Herjolfsnes: an archaeological and historical study.” Meddelelser om Gronland: Udgivne af Kommissionen for ledelsen af de geologiske og geogrfiske undersogelser i Gronland. Bind LXVII. Kobenhavn: C.A. Reitzel, 1924.

Go to Tunic Page; Herjolsnes Site Page

Some Clothing of the Middle Ages — Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns — Herjolfsnes 39, by I. Marc Carlson, Copyright 1997, 2003 This code is given for the free exchange of information, provided the Author’s Name is included in all future revisions, and no money change hands-

22 maj, 2025

Herjolfsnes no 38

Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns

Herjolfsnes no.38

Pattern drawing based on Nörlund

A long-sleeved dress made from a ”four-shaft twill (i.e. 2/2 twill) of medium stoutness” with a black warp and a brown weft (although these may not be their original colors). The garment was used to cover the body of a small woman [140-147 cm. (4’6″-4’8″), aged 25-30, based on analysis of her bones], who may or may not have been the owner of the dress. Norlund’s hypothesis that the garment belonged to a woman of roughly this size, based on the size and shape of the garment itself, is supported by Robin Netherton’s study and mock-up of the garment based on the proportions recorded by Norlund.

It is cut as a front piece, and a back piece, each having two separate center gores (although the back gore was really a single piece with a false seam running down the center). There are four side gores on each side (although again the rear gores on each side are actually a single piece separated by a false seam, with a real seam only at the top. The sleeves are long, with an opening at the wrist, with a triangular gore set into the armpit.

Among the more interesting features are the side gores, which narrow down from the upper edge to the waist, then expand to the hips. In each of the front side-gores, on a level with the lower part of the sleeve, is a pocket-slit, edged with a thin, plaited cord [6-ply]. The sleeves, which are pieced with a narrow band of material at the wrists, [possible a border that has not totally survived], has an edging of the same cord, as well as along the wrist openings. The bottom of the dress has been edged in embroidery to represent similar cods. At the neck, the edge has just been turned under with a row of backstitches and the raw edge overcast. The seams joining together the side gores are ornamented at the waist with a row of backstitches. The armhole is rather large, the sleeve narrows quickly.

The body of the dress is closely fitted, with the waist size being 94 cm (37″), while the hemline is about 3.2 meters in circumference (10’6″) (This is my estimate since Nörlund has it at 6.8 meters in circumference (22’4″]). The neck opening is 76 cm in circumference (29.9″).

Based on the measurements above and observations made by Robin Netherton, and work done with mock-ups, this item is clearly not a ”cote-hardi” of any kind, it is not closely fitted. Netherton also stipulates that Norlund’s drawings are not consistent with his written measurements and are most likely inaccurate, and so should be used cautiously. She adds that later authors’ re-interpretations of those drawings appear to be increasingly removed in accuracy from the original. (That observation, I should note, also applies to the drawing above.)

Maggie Forest made a separate examination of the materials of H33, H38, H39, H43, H45, H61, H65 and had the following to say:

The fabric is invariably 2/2 twill. The threads are less than a mm thick, the fabric wasn’t fulled. The result is a slightly open weave, which would have held warmth like a modern knitted sweater. The gap between each thread would be about 1/3-1/2 mm – noticeable. The warp is spun with kemp hairs included for strength, the weft is just the soft under coat, and so the fabrics have a distinctive almost tweed-like appearance. The open weave and the twill weave would have made these fabrics drape like dreams. Despite the fact that they weren’t terribly tight-fitted (although I have a thought on that too) they would have looked it, because the fabric would have clung quite closely.

The seams are just amazingly fine. They’re done from the same thread as the fabric is woven from, and stitches are frequently only about 1mm long. There are places where Nörlund states that there is no hem, only a fold-over, but in fact there is a seam there, it’s just so fine you need to look under the microscope. Leaning back, you can just see a shadow line from the seams, but the stitches are minute.

[The Greenlanders] used a stitch now known as priksom for a top stitch. It is a running stitch, but it goes through the fabric diagonally and ends up looking totally like a modern machine seam, with each stitch butting close to the next..

The tablet woven edge that is extant in the London material also appears in the Greenland material. A couple of the hoods have a quite wide edge, about 1.5 cm wide, done in this way, which gives a really distinctive looking edge with wide stitches on the back. Very tidy.

[Forest agrees with Robin Netherton’s assertion that the Nörlund’s pattern diagrams are flawed.] They really look nothing like it. This may be because he drew the diagrams before the first conservation, but for example, there really aren’t those curves in the 39 gown.

The false seams were not used to add additional fit – they are even all the way through the garment.

This page was last modified 11 June 2003

Some Sources:

Forest, Maggie. email to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Authentic_SCA 7 Feb 2003.
Netherton, Robin. ”The Greenland Gored Gown: A Comparison with Clothing Construction on the Continent,” May 6, 2001, 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Netherton, Robin. . email to Rec.Org.SCA 12 Sep 2002.
Netherton, Robin. Pers.com.
Nörlund, Poul. ”Buried Norsemen at Herjolfsnes: an archaeological and historical study.” Meddelelser om Gronland: Udgivne af Kommissionen for ledelsen af de geologiske og geogrfiske undersogelser i Gronland. Bind LXVII. Kobenhavn: C.A. Reitzel, 1924.

Go to Tunic Page; Herjolsnes Site Page

Some Clothing of the Middle Ages — Kyrtles/Cotes/Tunics/Gowns — Herjolfsnes 38, by I. Marc Carlson, Copyright 1996 This code is given for the free exchange of information, provided the Author’s Name is included in all future revisions, and no money change hands-

22 maj, 2025

Nockert Type four

Tunic

Type 4

According to the typology given in Nockert, Type 4 Tunics are typified as

”Garments consisting of two straight-cut (?) main pieces — front and back — joined together with a shoulder seam. Side gores inserted between the main pieces — narrow at the top, flaring heavily from the waist downwards — and forming sleeve openings together with the main pieces. Gores inserted to the same height in the main piece, in the middle of the front and back. Neck slits and pokcet slits occur. Straight sleeve openings. Sleeves long, tapering downwards and straight at the end. Gores under the sleeves.”

This is an outer garment, possibly a sleeved surcote, although pocket slits are only found in one of the examples. Norlund’s typology identifies them as identical to the cote-hardie. The women’s version of the garment was full length, while the men’s seem to have reached mid-calf. There are three examples of this type of tunic; Herjolfsnes no.38, Herjolfsnes no.39, Herjolfsnes no.41.

Go to Tunic Page or Proceed

Some Clothing of the Middle Ages, by I. Marc Carlson, Copyright 1996, 1997. This code is given for the free exchange of information, provided the Author’s Name is included in all future revisions, and no money change hands-