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| What did Vikings wear? Did Vikings have horns on their helmets? Were all Vikings bloodthirsty and violent? What did the Vikings do for fun? Were there any black Vikings? Where can I find a list of Viking names? What did the Vikings eat? What would a typical 11th Century Scot wear? When did the pom-pom started to be worn? What is a porridge drawer? |
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| Did Vikings have horns on their
helmets? No. Viking helmets were designed to provide protection to the head by deflecting blows, so they needed to have smooth curved surfaces. It is possible that the myth about Viking helmets began because some of the conical helmets had cheek guards which could be worn folded up when the Vikings were attacking a target such as a monastery where they wouldn't expect anyone to be fighting back. Monks were among the few Early Medieval people who could write, so their stories of the Vikings are the ones we hear most often. |
| What did Vikings wear? Mens' clothing might be tunics, braes and hose (instead of trousers) and some kind of hat. Women typically wore a gathered and pleated underdress, a hangaroc (rather like a pinafore) and a headscarf. Both genders might wear cloaks and hoods in cold weather. There is an illustration of typical Viking clothing here. Simple patterns can be found here. |
| Were all Vikings bloodthirsty and violent? No more than other people at the time. Many of the Vikings who travelled to Scotland, and other parts of Europe were traders or peaceful settlers looking for land to farm. When raiding the Vikings' strategy usually seems to have been to give their victims enough time to run for the hills, but not enough time to pick up their valuables on the way out. After all, if you're raiding for a living it's not very sensible to get into a fight, because you might get hurt. The Viking culture did admire bravery in battle, but it also admired poetry. |
| What did the Vikings do for fun? Viking poetry and stories (Sagas) can still be read today. There are references to members of a household (including men) sitting round a fire spinning and telling stories on long winter evenings. Musical instruments such as drums, whistles and small harps have been found on Viking sites. There were boardgames such as chess (see the Lewis Chess set) and "Kings' Table" where there are two sets of pieces attackers aiming to capture the King and defenders aiming to get him safely to the edge of the board. Game boards have been found scratched into floors and rocks. Pieces could be stones, shells, carved of wood or ivory, clay figures or anything like that. Dice would have been used for betting games. Games like "catch" and "blindman's buff" also seem to go a long way back in history, and there was probably some sort of dancing as well. Click here for more information |
| Were there ever any black Vikings? There were trade routes between Northern Europe and Africa, India and China, so it is very likely that people from all over the world would have visited Scotland. It is also likely that some Northern Europeans would have settled in other parts of the world and some people from Africa, India and other areas would have settled in Northern Europe. Direct evidence of this is rather hard to find, however. There's a complication in translations of medieval records because a description of someone as "a black man" was used to mean someone with black hair, not black skin. Norse sagas describe Africans as "Blaumenn" (blue men). There are stories of Blaumenn in Dublin and of someone called Kenneth of Niger in Scotland in the 10th Century. |
| Where can I find a list of Viking names? The Norse sagas (reprinted by several book publishers, including Penguin) have Viking names in. The general format of a Viking name is - [name] [father's name]sson for a man or [name] [father's name]dottir for a woman eg. Leif Eriksson, Freydis Guthrumsdottir |
| What did the Vikings eat? Things like root vegetables, barley, wheat, oats, rye, bread, apples, pears, cherries, assorted berries, greens like cabbage and lambs lettuce, fish, shellfish, hare (not rabbit, which was introduced by the Normans after 1066), hens, geese, ducks, pigs, oxen, deer, pidgeon, eggs from a range of birds, milk and cheese. Two foods the Vikings didn't have were tomatoes and potatoes which were introduced from the Americas in the 15th Century. They didn't have as much meat in their diet as many people do nowadays, and a lot of the meat they did eat would be preserved by drying, salting or smoking so that it could be kept all winter. |
| What would a typical 11th Century Scot wear? Southern Scottish costume was probably much the same as Saxon or Viking clothing in the 11th Century. A few items of jewelery and some weapon styles are regarded as typically Scottish, for example the thistle ended penannular brooch. For further details check out the Scottish History books listed in the Bibliography |
| When did the pom-pom started to be worn on the Scots bonnet? The pompom is called a toorie. The original Scottish Blue Bonnet was knitted, then shrunk to make the fabric dense. It had tuft of thread left in middle. When the Tam O'Shanter and Glengarry style bonnets started to be made of woven cloth the tuft of wool became stylised into the toorie. Blue bonnets go back to at least the 16th Century. (if anyone has any earlier references to blue bonnets please let us know.) |
| What is a porridge drawer? A porridge drawer is a container into which porridge was placed to allow it to cool and set. Once it is set the porridge is sliced and can then be served in a variety of ways. More information on porridge. |
| Who can join Lothene? Almost anyone who is interested in Scottish History is welcome. There's a three month period of provisional membership initially. At the end of this period the existing members decide whether you can become a full member. Only people over 18 years of age may take part in combat displays, although younger people may attend training sessions at the discretion of the person in charge. Under 16s need their parents' consent to join and to take part in activities, they must also be supervised by a responsible adult at events. Disabled members are welcome, although the range of activities open to them may be limited, and some events may not be suitable for wheelchair users. The Vikings had trading links to Africa and along the silk road to China, and they also visited North America to obtain timber for their colonies in Greenland, so there's no reason why any ethnic group would be unknown in Early Medieval Scotland. |
| Where do you get all the clothes and equipment from? Members of the group make a lot of their own equipment, based on archeological evidence and pictures in medieval books. Clothes, shoes, leather and wood items, mail shirts, and even small pieces of metal plate armour can be made relatively easily and do not require many specialist tools. Pottery items are easy to make if you have access to some means of firing them. Re-enactment events may include facilities such as blacksmithing forges or pottery clamps, so some of our equipment is made at these. Items like swords and helmets are bought from specialist re-enactment suppliers. Swords, in particular need to conform to defined safety standards in order to be used at events. NEVER buy swords or armour from tourist and gift shops, such as those on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The items they sell are made to be displayed, not used, and are almost always NOT SAFE FOR USE IN COMBAT. Improperly made swords and armour can be brittle and may shatter when hit. A wide range of items can be bought at re-enactment fairs around Britain. (See "Call to Arms" for a listing of events). There are also some specialist shops selling some items. Museum shops have some replica items (although usually more expensive than anywhere else) and the Past Times chain has a lot of replicas (be careful to check the labels, as they also have items "based on" or "inspired by" historical things). Although many re-enactment suppliers do run a mail order service, in our experience it is not a good idea to buy anything by mail order, or to order it at a fair to be delivered later. Delivery almost always takes longer than the supplier tells you, and in rare cases some unscrupulous suppliers claim that they have "lost your order form" or "don't have any record of that payment". Be careful. If you can't avoid ordering items, be sure to pay by cheque, not cash, and get a signed and dated receipt. It's worth phoning up local mail order suppliers and asking if you can visit them and buy items from their stock. Not all of them are prepared to do this, but some are. (See "Call to Arms" for a listing of suppliers). |
| Can women take part in combat activities? Yes. Lothene, and most of the larger re-enactment societies in the UK allow women members to take part in combat training and displays. For public displays women fighters should dress as men, unless they are playing a specific role such as townswomen fighting in a seige. There are historical examples of women warriors, but the majority of them wore men's clothing to fight in, either as a disguise or for convenience. |
| How often does Lothene group meet? Lothene holds combat practices, followed by informal meetings at which crafts can be practiced, once a week. During university term times members are also able to attend lectures, workshops and medieval dancing lessons organised by Edinburgh University Medieval Society. |
| How much time and money will I have to spend if I want to join? You don't have to spend any money at all. We have some associate members around the world who just join in with email discussions on history and/or turn up to see us at shows. If you want to take part in re-enactments and don't mind having bare feet then the minimum requirement is to have a tunic or dress to wear. Sometimes we have spares which we can lend to people. A basic outfit of tunic, trousers and hood (for men) or dress and headscarf (for ladies) can be made for £30-£40. Basic shoes can be made for about £10, or ones made by a professional shoemaker can be bought for around £90. Swords cost £120-£400, spears cost around £40. One substantial cost is likely to be travelling to events. Not all event organisers are willing to pay travel expenses, even when members of the public are being charged to watch re-enactments. Some re-enactment groups insist that members turn up at all training sessions and events, but in Lothene we believe that people should be doing this because they enjoy it, not as an obligation. If you want to fight at an event then you will need to have reached a sufficiently high standard of competance that you are not a danger to the other people there, and that will mean that you have to attend training sessions reasonably regularly. |
| Lothene recreates Scottish history, so where's all the Tartan?
The first historical record of the plaid dates from about 1560, and a lot of Lothene's historical recreations are from before that date. Also, Lothene (Lothian) is in the South East of Scotland, and up until the 19th Century the plaid was only worn by Highlanders, that is people from the North and West of Scotland. The modern kilt evolved from the plaid during the 18th Century and the first official Clan Tartan was registered in 1870. for further information see The Plaid article. |
| How do I find my family plaid? For clan tartans dating from the 19th Century there are various search pages available online. One of these is The Tartan Finder Before the 19th Century there wasn't really any such thing as official or clan patterns for plaids, although some colours would have been more common in some areas of the Highlands depending on what plants were available locally. Pictures showing a couple of examples of how a plaid could be worn An article on the history of the plaid |
How do we hire Lothene for our event and how much does it cost? Initially, drop us an email at nicky@lothene.demon.co.uk to discuss things. |
Will you do my homework assignment for me? We can point you in the direction of useful sources of information and answer specific questions, but that's all. |
| Any other questions? Mail us. |