Thorir’s bargain: gender, vaðmál and the law

Abstract

Archaeological textiles from Iceland have not been objects of significant analyzes until recently, yet they provide important new data on the use of cloth in legal transactions. Medieval Icelandic law codes and narrative sources include regulations governing the production of ‘legal cloth’ – vaðmál – and its uses for paying tithes and taxes, for economic transactions and in legal judgments. Archaeological data provide new insights on its production, the extent to which these laws were followed, and how ubiquitously Iceland’s ‘legal’ cloth was produced. This paper compares documentary sources and archaeological data to document intensive standardization in cloth production across Iceland from the eleventh to the late sixteenth centuries. The role of women as weavers is critical, as it is they who oversaw production and ensured that regulations were respected and as a result they may have been bestowed with more power than previously anticipated.

Keywords:

• Icelandic medieval textiles
• vaðmál
• cloth currency
• cloth as currency and the law
• gender and cloth

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible with funds from the National Science Foundation, Arctic Social Sciences, Polar Programs awards nos 1023167 and 1303898, and with the help of the following institutions: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University; the National Museum of Iceland; Fornleifastofnun Islands; Department of Textiles, Design and Fashion Merchandising, University of Rhode Island; the University of Iceland-Háskoli Islands; and the Árni Magnússon Institute. I would also like to thank the following individuals: Kevin P. Smith, Guðmundur Oláfsson, Guðrun Sveinbjarnardóttir, Gavin Lucas, Ramona Harrison, Howell Roberts, Vala Gaðarsdótti, Mjöll Snæsdóttir, Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, Doug Bolender, John Steinberg, Lilja Arnádottir and the curatorial staff at the National Museum of Iceland for all their help.

Notes

1 Rags to Riches – An Archaeological Study of Textiles and Gender in Iceland AD 874–1800 (NSF project 2010–2013, NSF award no. 1023167) focused on issues of gender in curated archaeological textile collections from Iceland, reflected through weaving.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michèle Hayeur Smith

Michèle Hayeur Smith is an archaeologist and research associate at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University, Providence Rhode Island. She is currently working on a three-year NSF-funded research project, Weaving Islands of Cloth, Textiles and Trade Across the North Atlantic from the Viking Age to the Early Modern Period (award no. 1303898), which expands upon her previous (2010–2013) Rags to Riches archaeological collections-based project, also funded by NSF’s Arctic Social Sciences programme (award no. 1023167). Both studies are generating new information on the roles of men and women in Norse societies of the North Atlantic, the structure of Viking Age and medieval textile production in that region, the role of textiles and women in international trade, and creative approaches developed by women as sustainable responses to climate change during the Little Ice Age in the area.