6 - The Function of Written Textiles in the Íslendingasögur

Summary

The Íslendingasögur (the Sagas of Icelanders) is a generic term which encompasses approximately forty early medieval narratives. Like much of the literature from this period, the Íslendingasögur are thought to have their origins in oral tradition. They were first written down in the vernacular during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but recount stories of people and events from the Viking Age some three hundred years before. They centre on the day-to-day existence of the earlier settlers of Iceland, focusing on legal disputes, social structures and familial relations (the reason they are also referred to as the ‘Family Sagas’). Within these accounts are an abundance of allusions to textiles, but these references are often overlooked or misread. Until recently, it was an accepted belief that descriptions of textiles in the sagas were authenticating details at best, or unnecessary and irrelevant at worst. This chapter will show how and why this is not the case, agreeing with Anita Sauckel's suggestion that textiles in the Íslendingasögur have an important literary function. In order to do this I will first explore the importance of textile terminology in the Íslendingasögur and outline some of the methodological challenges of investigating written textiles. ‘Written textiles’ are defined here as written representations of textile-making processes, such as spinning, weaving and embroidery, and the material results of those processes, such as clothing. I will suggest a potential resolution to the challenge posed by the written – as opposed to the physical or material – nature of textiles, in the form of the Old Norse vestimentary code.

Written textiles have not received as much attention in scholarship as some of their material counterparts, such as the textile fragments from the Oseberg Ship Burial, or even the later Bayeux Tapestry.I argue that Old Norse textile terminology is imbued with a wealth of culturally contingent meanings that, when used in saga narrative, act as signifiers for a broad range of significations. However, examining textile terminology in isolation does not reveal the function of written textiles, but merely illustrates the relationship between written object and an abstract social or cultural phenomenon. In order to ascertain what purpose textiles serve, and understand why they are important devices within literature as a whole, it is necessary to examine the textile terminologies within their Old Norse narrative and cultural contexts.