This document originally formed part of a paper I wrote for a competition at Ice Dragon in the East Kingdom, a Society for Creative Anachronism event in 1991. Later it became part of "Textiles and Clothing in the Viking Age," a chapter I wrote in 1997 for the on-site training manual for the open-air museum staff at the site of the Viking landfall at l'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. It has been augmented and redrafted for publication here and will be updated as necessary. The most recent update concerned the identity of Yellow X (24 April 1999). Christina Krupp and Denise Engelhardt Cross both provided me with invaluable references, for which I am deeply grateful.

This document is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial private research purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Colors, Dyestuffs, and Mordants of the Viking Age: An Introduction

Copyright © 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999 Carolyn Priest-Dorman

First Things First

This article is intended as an aid to people, generally re-enactors, who are engaged in experiments with natural dyestuffs. It is basically a list of which dyes and dyestuffs are known (or strongly believed by experts) to have been used in the Viking Age. It is purposely not detailed with respect to geographic information. That information can be found by consulting the sources listed at the end of the article. Also, for the purpose of this article the term "Viking Age" covers the period 800-1066 in northern Europe (i.e., not just Scandinavia but also the British Isles and the areas bordering the Baltic and North Seas). The international trade enjoyed by these areas permitted the free flow of dyestuffs, mordants, and textiles across wide distances; accordingly, textile products throughout northern Europe shared a basic set of dyestuffs in the Viking Age. Local products varied, of course; see below for more on that subject.

Through the use of modern chemical analysis it can be demonstrated that certain plants, chemical coloring agents, and classes of colorants were known and used on textiles from the Viking Age. For more specifics about the types of analysis in current use, see especially the works of Taylor, Tomlinson, and Walton listed below.

Based on chemical analyses of actual wool textiles, the following plants were more or less certainly used to dye wool textiles of the Viking Age.

• Galium boreale (northern bedstraw)
• Isatis tinctoria L. (woad)
• Juglans regia (English walnut)
• Rubia tinctorium L. (madder)
• Xanthoria parietina (common yellow wall-lichen, also called shore lichen)
• at least one lichen that yields purples, possibly from Ochrolechia tartarea

Based on chemical analyses of actual imported silk textiles, the following dyestuffs were more or less certainly used to dye imported silk textiles available in the Viking Age.

• Kermes vermilio (a red Old World bug dye)
• Reseda luteola (weld)
• Rubia tinctorium L. (madder)
• indigotin from woad or indigo
• a lichen purple, possibly from Rocella tinctoris

The following additional plants were most likely used to dye textiles of the Viking Age. Either they sport appropriate chemical proportions of the colorants listed below, or they have been found in Viking Age archaeological contexts suggesting use as dyestuffs.

• Calluna vulgaris L. (heather)
• Diphasium complanatum (also called Lycopodium complanatum, a type of clubmoss probably used as a mordant due to its aluminum content)
• Genista tinctoria L. (broom)
• Reseda luteola L. (weld)

The following unidentified colorants were definitely used to dye textiles of the Viking Age.

• "Yellow X" (see below)

And for the chemists among you, the following chemical colorants were definitely used to dye textiles of the Viking Age.

• Alizarin
• Flavone (on silk)
• Indigotin
• Luteolin
• Pseudopurpurin
• Purpurin

The following mordants are fairly certain to have been used to dye textiles of the Viking Age.

• alum
• copper (from bronze dyepots)
• iron
• tannin (possibly from elm bark, Alnus glutinosa)

Colors on Wool

Wool, the chief textile fiber of the Viking Age, was available in white as well as many different natural shades of browns and greys. Such shades could be and often were spun and woven without ever being dyed. Wool dyes very easily, though, and many finds of wool from the Viking Age were dyed in once-bright colors. Sometimes a dyer might use a naturally pigmented wool rather than a white one.

A report on the analysis of 220 samples of Viking Age textiles mentions 90 samples which yielded evidence of dyes. The samples come from Dublin, Jorvík, and 19 sites in Norway and Denmark; the dyes mentioned are

red from madder or bedstraw; a purple derived from lichens; our mysterious yellow X [from an unidentified plant]; and a colorant identified as indigotin, almost certainly derived from woad. The insect dye kermes has also been found, and luteolin, presumably from weld, but only on imported silks. (Walton 1988b, 17)

Blended colors are also represented. Indigotin was used in conjunction with other dyes to produce several purples (with madder) and a green (with the unidentified yellow). Madder and lichen used in conjunction yielded a red-violet result (Walton 1988, 18, figure 9). Some evidence of brown from walnut shells has also been found, as well as one or two pieces that were intentionally dyed very dark brownish-black with walnut shells and iron (Hägg 1984, 289).

The chemical evidence of textiles from several different sites seems to point to a preponderance of particular colors appearing in particular areas: reds in the Danelaw, purples in Ireland, and blues and greens in Scandinavia proper (Walton 1988, 18). This seeming preference could of course be explained by any number of variables--availability of dyestuffs, the differing site climates, or the sheer vagaries of archaeological discovery. However, although it is carefully hedged, there is a hypothesis in the scientific world that this might possibly reflect regional color preferences rather than archaeochemical factors. It is pleasant to think that this sort of "Viking heraldry" might have been practiced.

Colors on Linens

Linen does not take most historic dyes readily, even when a mordant is used. Accordingly, linen was often bleached or left its natural color (grey if dew-retted, straw if water-retted). Substantive dyes such as woad, however, are fairly successful; accordingly, blue linen may have been more common than we know. There are a few examples of woad- and madder-dyed linens from Birka.

Colors on Silks

Imported silks may have gotten their colors from plants or other materials not available in northwestern Europe, such as indigo or Tyrian ("royal") purple. No further consideration is given to this issue in this article.

Sources

Report on controlled chemical experiments with three clubmosses and synthetic alizarin.

Not much on the dyestuffs, and it's usually buried in the text.

These textiles were recycled remnants of clothing. Not much information, but a brief chemical report by Helmut Schweppe.

Brief note about some positive identifications of indigotin in the raw materials chapter, but most of this work has long since been superseded.

A concise early summary, anticipating some of his later work.

Discusses the contexts of several of the finds of dyestuffs.

Adds another Anglo-Scandinavian site at York (Queen's Hotel) to the list of places that have revealed dyestuffs. Hanks of harvested broom were found there.

Archaeological examination of the little coifs worn in Dublin in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Dye analysis turned up colors on the silk ones but no colors on the wool ones.

Textiles from a proto-Viking Age town (6th to 8th centuries) in Schleswig, North Germany. Chemical report on the dyestuffs by Helmut Schweppe.

The garments, sails, and bedclothes from Oseberg, sketchily catalogued and discussed. Very rare information, very useful.

Notable for proposing an identity for lichen purple--Ochrolechia tartarea.

Some interesting conclusions about when in the textile process the dyeing occurred. Backs away from a definitive identity for lichen purple.

Summarizes types of extant wool textiles from tenth- to twelfth-century Dublin. Lists dyestuffs identified.

Technical. Discussion is confined to finds of blue and red dyes due to limitations of the technology. Plenty of discussion about red dyes.

Focuses on the problem of identifying sources of the colorant pseudopurpurin. Recounts an interesting experiment: several red dyestuffs are used at different temperatures and their thin-layer chromatography results compared. Also summarizes the results of an earlier madder experiment by Su Grierson.

Heavily botanical approach, focusing on the identification process for each set of plant specimens.

Suggests that remains of heather (Calluna vulgaris) found at Anglo-Scandinavian York served as a dyestuff.

A report of a 1985 project: laboratory analysis of over 50 textile samples for fleece type and dyestuff content. Includes several samples from the Viking Age, many of them from lesser-known sites. Text includes many graphs and a complete catalogue of findings in table format.

Although kind of technical, the best few-page summary out there. Contains information on spectrochemical analysis as well as botanical information for various Viking Age dyes.

Careful, detailed archaeological analysis of the textiles found from the late ninth- through early eleventh-century period of the Anglo-Scandinavian site of Jorvik. Helpful discussion on the colors, especially with respect to lichen purple.

A technical report on results of several tested textile samples from Mammen; includes fleece types, fiber sizes, and some good in-depth information on red plant dyes.

This page was created on 8 December 1998 and last updated on 24 April 1999.