The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Blaðsíða 9

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
7
hours weaving tapestries and embroid
ering in the manner of other Eurpoean
ladies of rank.
Although historians give detailed ac-
counts of life in Iceland in ancient days,
they tell little of crafts, but the poets,
bless their beauty loving souls, have left
us some very valuable information. A
poem dealing with the period from 850
to 1050 A.D., describes spinning and
weaving, garment making and hemming
as well as embroidered cloths of fine
flax linen. Another ancient poem de-
scribes a high born lady weaving a
tapestry picturing summer scenes and
swans, gay scenes of court life, stately
ships with carved prows and lastly,
scenes of warriors brave in battle.
Though less graphic, the information
provided by prose writers is of value too.
We learn from them that ladies of the
Viking Age, not content to work entirely
with wool and linen, also used thread of
silver and gold, which was brought to
them from the Orient by their seafaring
men. In one of the sagas a robe orna-
mented with silver is presented as a gift.
Other references of this kind indicate
that patterns enriched with gold and.
silver were not unusual.
If the motifs used in Icelandic designs
are not entirely Norse in character, we
must remember that at the time of the
settlement of Iceland, Celtic art was at
its height, and greatly affected Norse
culture. The dragon, for instance, is
thought to be of Celtic origin and other
motifs may have come from the same
source. After all, the ladies who came to
Iceland from Ireland and the Western
Islands were no less expert with needle
and shuttle than were the ladies from
Norway, and their Celtic designs cannot
fail to have influenced later art.
The custom of decking walls with de-
corative drapes on festive occasions was
observed for centuries. When, after the
acceptance of Christianity, the churches
adopted this custom too, the arts of em-
broidery and picture weaving were taken
up by the cloisters and convents.
Now you may wonder why we have
not any existing examples of these earli
est arts, but this is due to the fact that
fabrics are very perishable. It is only in
countries where the climate is dry and
soil conditions are favorable to their
preservation that any ancient examples
of woven fabrics or embroideries have
been found. In the Scandinavian coun-
tries, where the climate is damp and
soil conditions are most unfavorable,
finds of any antiquity are rare; the most
remarkable being the tomb that was
discovered at Oseberg, Norway, in 1904,
which yielded among other things, loom
weights, weaving swords, spindle whorls
and flax carders as well as woven fab-
rics. While the fabrics were practically
destroyed with age, the implements
supplied valuable information. They
revealed that the Scandinavian people
had used the vertical warp-weighted
looms as did other countries of Europe,
and that flax as well as wool had been
spun and woven.
As the approximate date of this tomb
is given as 800 A.D., and the settlement
of Iceland began in 874, it is safe to as-
sume that the implements and methods
used by the early settlers in Iceland
were very similar to those indicated by
the contents of the tomb.
References in ancient writings support
this theory and a recent discovery of
loom-weights in a 13th century farm-
stead in Iceland provides still further
proof.
The warp-weighted loom is of very
ancient origin antedating recorded
history by thousands of years. It is found
in ancient Egyptian tomb-paintings and
on early Greek vase decorations. Weights
have been found amid ruins of greatest
antiquity, the Swiss Lake Dwellings, for
instance, yielded loom weights by the
score. These looms underwent little
change throughout the ages and were
used in Europe and the flax growing
countries until the 12th and 13th cen-
turies. They remained in use in Iceland
up to the close of the 18th century and
even longer. One, it is said, was in use
as late as 1860.