Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Page 252

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A pair of Hide Shoes
or lambs. In THOMAS TARNOVIUS’s description of 1669, quoted
by DAHL, we may read:
»Naar samme huder saaledis ere barkede, da tilskære de hver deres
sko og bruge ikkun en eneste saale, men samme sko sammensyes over
tæerne og op over hæle.« (When these hides have thus been tanned,
all cut their own shoes, and they us merely one sole, but the shoe is
stitched together across the toes and up along the heel.)
A more recent description (JØRGEN LANDT 1800) states about
the shoes for everyday wear:
»de dannes af eet eneste stykke skind der net og tæt sammenrimpes
og rynkes fra taaen og lidet op paa fodbladet; ligeledes bliver de
bag hælen tæt sammenrimpede ogsaa med rynker« (They are made
from one single piece of hide, which is neatly and closely sewn
together and gathered from the toe a little way up on the foot; in
the same way they are closely sewn together behind the heel, and
gathered there too.)
From MARGRETHE HALD we know that hide-shoes of a pri-
mitive type were in use in Iceland until the present day.
These shoes consisted of one piece of hide, with slits for a thong
along the edge; the hide was not cut in any way, and was put around
the foot and drawn up around the ankle by means of the thong. In
order to acquire the correct fit, the shoes must be cut wet and put
on wet.
The traditional footwear of prehistory has, in fact, to quite a
remarkable extent continued in use among the common people of
many parts of Europe. Hide-shoes of primitive types, made from one
piece of hide, were in use until the present day in several parts of
Sweden: in the coastal districts of Nyland and Østerbotten, in Dale-
carlia and on Gotland. The type of shoe used in very recent days by
both Swedes and Estonians in Estonia is extremely similar to the
hide-shoe of the Iron Age.42)
Numerous bog finds in Ireland bear witness to the importance of
hide-shoes in that country during the past. Until very recently, the
inhabitants of the Isles of Aran, off the west coast of Ireland, used
a kind of hide-shoe known as »pampooties« (fig. 5) which, accord-
ing to Professor E. ESTYN EVANS, is very similar to the Leksvik