Viking Fashion: Hose

edda-for-dummies:

These are the “Thorsberg hose”, found in a moor bog in Northern Germany, Thorsberg, near the bay of Angeln that’s close to the Danish border. They’re dated to the early 4th century, right when Germanic culture starts to pick up and the old Rome draws its last breaths. Pants + socks = tights = no more fuss with separate pants and socks! Brilliant!

And this fellow here is called “Bockstensmannen”, he was dumped in a Swedish mire bog some time during early 1300s. Not only did the low-oxide environment preserve his bones and dye everything red, it kept his bouncy hair and cool clothes in a tip top shape.

The remains are so good that he and his whole clothes ensemble have been documented, taken for safekeeping and reconstrued. And he had the coolest knee-high socks I’ve seen in a long while, complete with a cute bow at the front!

So the next time you think of viking fashion, think of nice socks. And tights.

ohwhatevers:

“Their chief Names are as follows. Ellinor Roden, China Mary, Flying Horse Moll, Smal Coal Mary, Johannah the Ox-cheek Woman, Tub Nan,’ Sukey Pisquill, Garter Mary, Hardward Nan, Prety Criss (a Soldier of the 2d Regiment), Aunt England (a noted Soap Boyler), Pomegranate Molly, Orange Mary (an Orange Merchant near London-Bridge),‘Old Fish Hannah, ‘Kate Hutton (an old Man that never wears a Shirt), Thumbs and Waste Jenny, Queen Irons (alias Pippin Mary), Hanover Kate (spouse to Pippin Mary), Miss Kitten (Oviat), Rose Gudger, ‘Black Moll, &c.”

— list of “maiden names” assumed by homosexual goers of molly houses in 18th-19th century london
(via yewbury)

About Húrin: Part 1

teamedain:

Húrin is a pretty well known human in the Silmarillion fandom, however the most obvious things about him is what happens to his children (not surprisingly, because there is a whole book called The Children of Húrin and Túrin gets a whole chapter to himself in The Silmarillion), which makes it easy when reading about him to pay little attention to his part in the story, and just focus on his kids (who we see more of).

Even though Húrin’s part in that tale is short, there is still quite a bit about him you can get from it, the first, and the biggest, is that he managed to make quite an impression on Morgoth. Even it you are a dark lord, going to that much effort to curse someone’s family and make sure they know exactly how their children are suffering is not something to just waste on anyone. It just isn’t practical. And so far as we know Húrin was the only one to have this fate. Which means that Morgoth didn’t just hate him in the general way he probably hated a lot of people, he very specifically had it in for Húrin. Which, given that Morgoth was the bad guy of this world, is quite encouraging for Húrin’s character.