Fugela Feđerum in Archaeological Perspective – Eider Down as a Trade Commodity in Prehistoric Northern Europe

Abstract

Eider duck down is a raw material used in northern coastal areas. In Norway the resource has been of special importance in the archipelago of Helgeland, where there is a specialized production developed and managed by women. There, the eider duck is seen as part of the livestock. The local people build houses for them, tend their nests and look after them during brooding. The down left in the nests by the birds is gathered, dried and cleaned in a very demanding, labour-intensive process. The eiderdown is then used in down quilts and pillows. Down is known from written sources as an important trade item, particularly from the end of the Middle Ages. The increasing bourgeoisie wanted the light and warm down quilts for their beds. Already around AD 890 Othere from Hålogaland (North Norway) told King Alfred in England that the Saami paid him fugela feđerum (feathers or/and down) in tax. However, the use of down as a raw commodity used in trade must have started earlier, something the archaeological record might reveal. In any case, pillows and quilts of feathers or down are known from high-rank burials from Late Iron Age Scandinavia and Western Europe.

Keywords:

• Eiderdown
• Nesting places
• Trade commodity
• High-rank Iron Age burials
• Helgeland
• Northern Europe

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to conservator Leena Airola, NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, who gave me permission to use her results concerning her examination of down and feathers in archaeological material from central Norway. I also want to thank Arvid Pedersen and Gerd Jakobsen, my two local informants in the archipelago of Helgeland. The nesting place in Flovær is still managed, but with new users.

Notes

1. The units of measurement are discussed by Steinnes (1936: 154), Bj⊘rkvik (1982: 276) and Winge (1999: 483).