Herjolfsnes 45

This is a short sleeved man's dress, made from very heavy, coarse 2/2 twill. It appears black, but the weft threads have a brown tint to them. The seams were carefully overcast, but it has no ornamentation. It has fitchets. It's quite wide, giving the impression that the wearer was big. It is also unusually short, hardly lower than mid-calf.

There is a decorative stitch on the seams done in 'prick stitch'. The thread is z/s spun, and less than a mm thick. The seam allowances are very narrow, 6-7 mm wide. They were separated and flattened on the shoulder and side seams, the others were folded over and sewn to the side with an overcast stitch. The gusset seams were folded into the gusset, the front-to-side-gusset seam outwards toward the gusset (i.e. into the bias in both instances).

Nörlund draws the pattern with curved rear side-gores, but Nockert considers this wrong based on an examination of the garment in the National Museum of Denmark.

Bibliography: Chapter IV, The Costumes in Buried Norsemen at Herjolfsnes, by Poul Nörlund. Bind LXVII - Meddelelser om Grønland. Kommissionen for ledelsen af de Geologiske og geografiske undersøgelser i Grønland, Copenhagen 1924.

Bockstensmannen och hans dräkt, Margareta Nockert m.fl. Hallands länsmuseer, Halmstad och Varberg, 1997.

Personal communication, Else Ostergaard, at a visit at Brede in September 2002.