Anglo-Saxons & Vikings

Anglo-Saxons

Cooking Section:

Anglo-Saxon Food Production & Distribution (combined edition) - $49.95
Ann Hagen. A reissue of the Handbook and Second Handbook in one volume. Extremely valuable in this field, where there is so little available. Prospect Books

Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England - $7.95
Mary Savelli. A carefully researched compendium of recipes from Early Medieval Britain, each complemented with historical and source information. General information about drinks & cooking techniques, followed by 46 recipes. 80pp, paper. Anglo-Saxon Books.

Costume Section:

Cloth & Clothing in Anglo-Saxon England AD 450-700 --$39.95 (May?)
Penelope Rogers. This archeological study of textiles & costume considers all aspects of early Anglo-Saxon clothing. Regional styles of dress, & Scandinavian & Continental influences help to place the study in its broader historical context. Amply illustrated w/ line drawings & reconstructions of costumes. PB. 250pp, biblo, index. Council/Brit Archeo

Dress in Anglo-Saxon England - $60.00
Gale R Owen-Crocker. Revised & expanded edition. Considerably updated, this new edition focuses on English dress from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. It draws evidence from archeology, text and art (manuscripts, ivories, metalwork, stone sculpture, mosaics), and also from re-enactors’ experience. It examines archaeological textiles, cloth production and the significance of imported cloth, and foreign fashions. Dress is discussed as a marker of gender, ethnicity, status and social role – in the context of a pagan burial, dress for holy orders, bequests of clothing, commissioning a kingly wardrobe, and much else… (Pub note) 12 b/w, 13 color plates, 140 b/w drawings, glossary of clothing terms, possible cutting plan for 11^th century gown. HC, 408 pp, extensive biblio & index. Boydell & Brewer

Vikings

Cooking Section:

Icelandic Food & Cookery - $24.95
Nanna Rognvaldardottir. Contains more than 165 recipes for classic Icelandic dishes, as well as a short history of Icelandic food. A discussion of traditional holiday dishes is followed by material on special locally found ingredients. "In most cases [for the older recipes] I’ve chosen either the most common version of a traditional recipe, or a version that has been used in my own family for a long time… The more recent recipes have been selected from recent cookbooks or columns [to show] what people are really cooking." Hc, 242pp, English & Icelandic indicies. Hippocrene

Libellus de Arte Coquinaria: an Early Northern Cookery Book – Temporarily Out of Stock
Edited & translated by Rudolf Grewe & Constance B. Hieatt. "The collection of medieval culinary recipes here...probably dates from the early 13th Century... This critical edition of 35 recipes from four Danish, Icelandic, and Low German mss records culinary themes that were to flourish throughout the later Middle Ages. The volume includes translations, textual notes, a commentary, and detailed indices covering utensils, procedures, ingredients, dishes, and a glossary for each of the three languages." [Publisher's note] 176pp. MRTS/Arizona State University Press.

Costume Section:

Northern European Women’s Garb - $5.00
Christina Krupp & Carolyn Priest-Dorman. Covers women’s garb in Northern Europe 450-1000 CE, focusing on Frisians, Angles, Franks, Balts, Vikings, & Finns. Although brief, this remains an excellent, basic source. 71pp, pamphlet. SCA.

Woven Into the Earth: Textile Finds in Norse Greenland - $49.95
Else, Ostergaard. The book offers an account of the 1921 find of textiles in Herjolfsnaes, Greenland. The garments had been used as swaddling to wrap around corpses. Woven into the Earth recounts the dramatic story of Norlund's excavation in the context of other Norse textile finds in Greenland. It then describes what the finds tell us about the materials and methods used in making the clothes. The weaving and sewing techniques detailed here are surprisingly sophisticated, and one can only admire the talent of the women who employed them, especially considering the harsh conditions they worked under. The weather conditions preserved the textiles extremely well, & the result was a spectacular find, and amazing insights into sewing & weaving techniques as well as the materials used in the garments’ manufacture. Heavily illustrated in color & b/w. HC, index, biblio,

Viking CDs - $20 each
‘Bringing history to life is our goal. We concentrate our work on transmitting accurate knowledge concerning Vikings & Viking history. Our base is the Viking island of Gotland, a real centre in the Viking world…. The Viking Gallery is a project dealing with publishing of Viking Age artefacts & monuments. We have chosen to do that in the form of a series of CDs.’ (publisher’s note)

So far, four CDs have been published. A forthcoming one will deal with objects of daily life, to be followed with ones on houses, graves, rune stones, & agriculture, and Vikings in general. These CDs are readable through a normal web browser. Each CD contains photos, both in galleries and in high-resolution .jpg files. They also include detailed measurements of the size, design, & construction of the different artifacts, and a short report on the general topic, in pdf format. You may view the CDs through your web browser.

Beads: displays almost 200 of the best-preserved finds. An introductory text gives a short view of Vikings & beads, how beads were made, and a short description of Gotland and the Viking port there.

Combs: More than 100 pictures, some showing an individual comb in various stages of production. Also includes a short report on the history of combs & comb-making in Scandinavia.

Knives: Knives are among the most common artifacts from the Viking Ages. Almost every gravesite, whether male or female burial, has contained a knife. Since knives found at settlement excavations are frequently broken or fragmentary, our best information about knives comes from these grave finds. Includes knives and sheaths, and mountings & ornamentation from sheaths.

Jewelry: Shows women’s & men’s jewelry, mostly found on Gotland, including different kinds of brooches, pendants, belt buckles, rings, & pins. Contact sheets of all the illustrations, as well as quick time movies showing two different forms of animal head brooches, and one box brooch.

Viking Clothing- $37.50

Thor Ewing. This accessible new book is the first to tackle the question of what the Vikings wore, drawing on evidence from art, archeology, literature, & linguistics to arrive at a fresh understanding of the nature of Viking clothing. Includes an overview of textiles & dyeing, an exploration of cloth production & clothing in the context of the society as a whole. Includes a detailed consideration of male & female outfits & a new interpretation of the suspended dress. Biblio, index, numerous b/w photos, diagrams, patterns, & contemporary drawings, 14 color photos. Tr Pb, 192pp. Tempus

Reference Section:

Viking Empires - $40.00
Angelo Forte, Richard Oram, & Frederik Pedersen. This book is a definitive new history of the five hundred years of Viking civilization, and is the first study of the global implications of the expansion, integration, and reorientation of the Viking world. Offering an assessment of Scandinavian society before the 790s, the book traces the political, military, cultural, and religious history of the Viking Age from Iceland to the Baltic states. The authors show that it is not possible to understand the history of the Norman Conquest, the successes of David I of Scotland, or the relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy without considering the impact of the history of Scandinavia. The book concludes with a new account of the end of the Viking era, arguing that there was no sudden decline, but rather the gradual absorption of the Scandinavian kingdoms into the project of the crusades, and a refocusing of imperial ambitions on the Baltic and eastern Europe. Hardcover, 446pp, 70 b/w photos & maps, extensive biblio & notes, index Cambridge Univ Press

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