Of Books and Burial Ships: a Study on 9Th and 10Th Century Viking Colors
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
I Of Books and Burial Ships: A Study on 9th and 10th Century Viking Colors Mazal Fernandez Undergraduate Senior Thesis Spring 2017 Advisor: Dr. Florin Curta 5th April 2017 II Table of Contents Cover page ..................................................................................................................................................... I Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements and Dedications ........................................................................................................... III Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Colors and Symbolism in Five Poetic Edda Poems ........................................................................................ 4 Colors Inside the Oseberg Ship Burial ......................................................................................................... 23 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 38 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 42 III Acknowledgements and Dedications Acknowledgements: To Dr. Florin Curta, for his unbounding patience as well as his expertise on medieval textiles—this thesis wouldn’t have been possible without you! To Dr. Sheryl Kroen, whose organized thesis workshop course was integral my thesis’ success; To Mr. Andrew Welton, who got me interested in archaeology in the first place! To Melanie Davis, my librarian-in-crime, who would search the ends of the Earth for a hard-to-find source; To Dr. Nina Caputo, for being a wonderful source of motivation and a great friend; Will Johnson, for being my only fellow Medievalist in our workshop Fall ’16; And finally, to David Portnow, my very patient fiancé, who dealt with all the tears, frustrations, and emotional turmoil this thesis caused without complaint and only with the utmost support and love. May we build a binyan adei ad (everlasting edifice) based on the foundations of Torah and mitzvos together in our upcoming marriage. Dedications: who always encouraged me to read and ,ז״ל This thesis is dedicated to my Zaidy, Murray Moshe Andler instilled in me a great love for learning. This thesis is also dedicated to my wonderful nuclear family: my parents, Marco and Myrna Fernandez, who gave me the opportunity to live in Iceland and discover a passion for Scandinavian history; my big sister, Maritza, who always pushed me to do my best in everything and is my closest confidant; and my little brother Maximo, for teaching me that even throughout life’s highs and lows, we can get through it together. - 1 - Introduction “So was my Sigurd, beside the sons of Giuki, As if a leek were grown up out of the grass, Or a bright stone were threaded onto a string, A precious gem, among the nobles.”1 Perception is everything. How the world is seen depends on factors such as one’s culture and upbringing; suffice to say, how the world is perceived in modern day America is different than how a Viking would see his or her world a thousand years ago. What did a Viking see when he or she observed the world? Days of yore did not have the vibrant colors which decorate today’s urban landscape, but that does not mean it was monotone and gray in the 9th century. In an exercise to understand how the 9th and 10th century Viking age was colored, two different primary sources will be used to understand the colors and color usage within the Viking world. The first is a literary work entitled the Poetic Edda, complied in the 9th or 10th century.2 The second is an archaeological site from 834, known as the Oseberg Viking ship burial.3 Through a detailed analysis of select poems in the Poetic Edda as well as specific textiles and ornamentations within the Oseberg Viking ship burial, it is hoped that an understanding of Viking color usage will come to light by seeing if there is a visible correlation between the fictional Viking world and that of the actual Viking world in turn-of-the-second-millennium Scandinavia. Although color term and perception work has been done in the past, this thesis aims to fill a gap in the historiography relating to Viking age colors.4 1 Carolyne Larrington, The Poetic Edda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 179. 2 Larrington 1996, X. 3 Marianne Vedeler, Silk for the Vikings (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2014), 3 4 Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969). - 2 - It is first important to clarify a few things before delving into the subject matter at hand. Firstly, why a literary source and archaeological site? Would not either of them suffice on its own? The answer here is simple: reality does not always reflect fiction, and vice versa. Of course, to the Vikings, the Norse myths of gods and giants found within the epic sagas and Eddas were not fiction; but even so, there can be a lot to learn from comparing literary and physical sources to each other, such as corroborating facts or catching discrepancies. It is also important to clarify a concept which will be mentioned throughout the paper: that of the “color world.” In this work, a color world refers to how the world is seen by its inhabitants at a certain time and location in the world; this perception may be different depending on a multitude of factors, such as language or acculturation. Perhaps the Norse conception of the word “blue,” or its connotations, have changed over time, or maybe the color spectrum was wider or narrower than is perceived in the English language. Whichever the case, this term allows for a frame in which to observe colors in a historical way. This then lends itself to a clarification of hue versus color: where color is chromatic and can be expressed as “blue” or “green,” hue expresses “cerulean blue” or “hunter green.” Hue also allows for a discussion of words not directly related to color terminology but give off a colorful impression, the way “gold” can be interpreted in the mind’s eye as a bright, shining yellow. While it is not always clear to determine the hue of a color in texts and textiles, it is still important to differentiate the two as contrasts between colors are seen through hues, which can be bright or subdued, not through chromatic colors. As will be seen further on, colors may have different meanings in Viking society depending on the shade depicted. As with any historical source analysis, there are bound to be a few issues—by looking at a physical site and written word, it is hoped that some of these issues will “fill in” for the other. For instance, languages are constantly evolving. Norse may be related to the modern day Icelandic, - 3 - but there are still differences in the nuances of the language. Then, applying an English translation on top of that makes things all the more difficult; what might be one word in Norse might be a whole phrase in English, and what might be “white” in English could be expressed in multiple ways in Old Norse. In addition, some phrases or words might be literally or metaphorically translated. For the purposes of this paper, Carolyne Larrington’s translation of the Poetic Edda will be utilized unless otherwise noted to keep a semblance of consistency within translations. In any case, by comparing colors utilized for art and textiles, it may give a clearer interpretation of how the colors in the poems examined were, and should be, seen. While physical sources might also have an issue with how the colors are interpreted, it is still less subjective and open to interpretation than literary works. Another large issue at hand is, of course, aging. Whereas the Poetic Edda has more or less been preserved through various translations and oral transmissions, it is difficult to ensure the preservation of objects and textiles a millennium into the future.5 As such, the degradation of textiles over time due to aging and other factors such as mold or being exposed to the elements, makes it harder to interpret them. In these cases, literary works are integral for describing or pointing research to otherwise unknown topics and issues, as with Viking Age tapestries, as will be discussed in the second chapter of this thesis. The first part of this work will discuss the Poetic Edda, particularly looking at five poems selected for their colorful imagery. The poems will each be examined for color, color mentions, and any other words which may allude to the Viking color world. Then, the second half will delve into the Oseberg ship burial, where Nordic customs and rituals may be depicted through the 5 Larrington 1996, XI - 4 - luxurious textiles and equipment left within, and colors associated with textiles and objects will be observed for possible meanings. Finally, a conclusion will be developed which will summarize and point to any important prominent deductions gained from comparing the two sources, as well as describing where the results of this thesis may lead. - 5 - Colors and Symbolism in Five Poetic Edda Poems “…. Her head-dress was set straight, there was a pendant on her breast, A short, full cape and a blue-stitched blouse….”6 The Poetic Edda is mainly known for its often bloody,