Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Qupperneq 244

252
A pair of Hide Shoes
They are tall shoes with a low shaft, laced above the instep, and
with long thongs wound around the ankle and the lower part of
the leg. The remarkably thin sole is cut from one piece. The lower
edges of the uppers is stitched to the soles, and the two halves of
each upper are sewn together on top of the shoe, from the tip to a
little way above the instep. There is no seam at the back, from the
heel up. In several places small leather pieces were inserted, to make
for as perfect a fit as possible.
It is immediately apparent that the Oseberg shoes represent a far
more advanced type than the primitive shoes from Leksvik. They
have separately cut soles and uppers, and the shoes are stitched to-
gether from these two main parts as well as several smaller pieces
of leather. One of the Oseberg shoes has a thong intact, rather more
than 1.49 m in length. These long thongs or straps (skopvengr) are
a well-known feature of the clothing in fashion during the Viking
Age, and no more detailed description is required in the present con-
text.13) It may, however, be of interest to note that lacing with long
thongs passing through slits along the edge of the shoe, as seen in
the Leksvik shoes, must be an ancient feature of Germanic dress.
According to Falk, the term describing such a slit or loop for the
thong, at the edge of the shoe — xs (Færoese ás) — goes back to a
Germanic form ansio, which is related to the Latin ansae crepidae,
the holes for the thongs of sandals.
Nor do the very few other remains of shoes found in the soil or
in bogs in Norway provide us with any really sound material for
comparison. At Orten in Sandøy, Romsdal, on a peculiar, rectan-
gular site where a Lapp hut built of turf and wooden posts had once
stood, H. SAXLUND found the sole and upper of a 23 cm long,
low shoe. It was low-cut, and was tied around the ankle by means
of thongs passing through slits along the opening.14) This shoe is
bluntly rounded at the tip, and at the back the sole ends in a pointed
tongue, which corresponds to a wedge cut out of the heel of the
upper. This would seem to be ancient feature. The remains of this
shoe lay at the bottom of the hut, about 1.80 m down in the bog.
Here we clearly have a worn-out shoe, which was discarded. Un-
fortunately this find did not yield any other objects, so that a secure
dating is not possible.