A Viking belt based on the Birka B21 band; 800-975 CE Sweden.

I was in need of a specific belt for a special occasion and was searching for ideas that would fit a male Viking persona. Initially, I focused on leather, but leather working has not yet captured my interest and I was procrastinating. Then, I took two tablet weaving classes at Fiber, Fabric & Fighting XIV and that resonated with my growing interest in all things weaving. The classes “Who’s afraid of brocade” by Lord Silvester Burchardt and “Warp float patterning (Snartemo): Yes, you can do it!” by Mistress Rosalind Ashworthe, gave me the inspiration, motivation and confidence that I could tablet weave a belt that would suit me. Particularly since Silvester’s class had several examples of brocaded bands from archeological finds originating from Birka, the commercial center of Sweden in the Viking age.

My finished green belt, of contrasting dark and light green silk.

I read and translated several relevant sections of “Birka III, die Textilfunde aus den Grabern” by Agnes Geijer (1938) to get an overview of the bands found in the Birka graves: their designs, dimensions and the materials and techniques that were used to create them. I fairly quickly gravitated to the B21 design. It has an intricate, appealing and well balanced design and suitable dimensions.

Historical background

Archeological research conducted by Hjalmar Stolpe in the years 1871 to 1881 showed with all certainty that the Viking settlement Birka on the island of Björkö in the Lake of Mälar in present-day Sweden was the commercial center of Sweden during the Viking Age. For almost two centuries, from about 800 to 975 CE, Birka served as an important trading center between Viking age Scandinavia and Western Europe and with the Orient through the trade routes in Russia. Die Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien commissioned Holger Arbman in 1931 to catalogue the enormous wealth of artifacts found in the Birka archeological sites. Agnes Geijer republished an extensive survey of the textile fragments from the Birka graves in 1938. This publication contains a complete chapter on the Birka bands (see Figure 1 for examples of some of these bands, including the one labeled as B21).

Technique, material and design
   
Virtually all the Birka bands are woven on tablets with four holes. A large variation of designs can be created by using differently colored threats in the different holes and turning the cards in a specific order, backward or forward, as individual cards or in groups. An alternative, and for me a more attractive, way of creating a pattern is by brocading with a contrasting color or with gold or silver thread. The B21 band is of the latter type. It consists of: (a) the basic ground weft that binds the warp threads together, hidden by them in the usual way, and (b) a second, brocading weft of double drawn silver wire, creating the actual pattern or design. The brocading weft consists of a pattern of floats and hidden sections by passing the weft underneath one or more warp threads of one or more cards.

Most of the Birka bands show a mix of repeating patterns, like diamonds, stars, swastikas or geometric patterns of diagonals lines (Figure 2). What sets the B21 design apart is the unique and very uniform base design, combined with two distinctive motives that stretch the full width of the band. Another attractive aspect of the B21 band is that both the warp threads and the ground weft are silk and a fairly long piece is almost completely preserved. This in contrast with many of the other bands, where to save on expensive silk a cheaper material like linen was used for the hidden threads. Here, the linen has decomposed completely over time making it impossible to determine the exact type of weave.

 (1)                 (2)                (3)              (4)

Figure 1: Examples from several bands : (1) B6-7, grave 965, (2) B21, grave 943, and (3)-(4) B19, grave 965.

  Figure 2: Examples of several patterns: (a) B6, (b) B22, (c) B20, (d) B19, (e) B21, and (f) my own reproduction of the pattern.

Details of the B21 band

Warp on 17 cards, four holes in each card, with silk threads in all four holes. Silk ground weft. A brocade of double drawn silver wire, tied down with two threads per cord. No stave border. All cards rotated in sync with quarter turns forward, leading to a completely smooth and uniform underside. Weft count 18/cm, width 10 mm (warp count 68/cm, length 25 cm).

Weaving the belt

I started by designing and building a warp weighted tablet weaving loom. Although I think the design is plausible, I have found no historical evidence for this particular design. I picked it because of an interest in Viking age warp weighted looms, but more importantly because as a total newbie to tablet weaving, I wanted a tool that allows me to experiment with warp tension in a consistent and deterministic manner.

The warp was created one card at the time, threading back and forth twice per card. The cards were warped alternating S and Z (to eliminate fouling of the warp threads during turns), mirrored with respect to the center. After warping the loom, I experimented a bit with warp tension and thread thickness to get roughly the warp and weft counts of the original band. I decided to add a stave border to the band increasing the full width to 25 cards in order to get a width and design that appealed more to me, keeping in mind its practical use. I also deviated from the original by passing the brocading weft under all four instead of two threads of the cord. This creates an inverted pattern at the underside, instead of a smooth and uniform underside, again appealing more to me for its practical use. As in the original, all cards are collectively rotated forward one quarter turn for each successive passage of the ground and brocading weft. The unfinished warp threads were periodically untwisted to eliminate the build-up twist.

After some trial and error, I ended up using 2/20 silk, which resulted in a width of 18 mm and a warp count of 56/cm. Using 2/20 silk for the ground weft and brocade resulted in elongated patterns, even at a relatively low warp tension, so I ended up using 2/60 silk for the ground weft and 2/20 for the brocade, which combined with a warp tension of 15g/thread resulted in a total weft count of 18/cm. The final woven length of the band is 75 inch.

Learning points

I found tablet weaving and brocading a very rewarding and surprisingly relaxing past time (even though it was slow going). The correct tension in the warp is crucial for the final weft count and I think that the initial experimenting with different warp tension and thread thickness paid of to get the look of the original band. Surprisingly, using a single weight for the four warp threads of each card, instead of combining several cards and using a larger weight, does affects the weft count, even when using the same weight per warp thread. It does have the benefit of easy untwisting of build-up twist.

Find a downloadable version of this post with its companion photo journal at:
https://www.academia.edu/33710000/A_Viking_belt_based_on_the_Birka_B21_band_800-975_CE_Sweden

Bibliography

Arbman, Holger (1940) “Birka I: Die Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala).

Burchardt, Silvester (2016) “Who’s afraid of brocade” (class handout)

Collingwood, Peter (1982) “The Techniques of Tablet Weaving”, Echo Points Books & Media (Vermont)

Geijer, Agnes (1938) “Birka III: Die Textilfunde aus then Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala).

Stolpe, Hjalmar (1878, 1880) “Meddelanden frän Björkö”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitetsak-ademiens Mänadsblad.