The Vikings and colour

The Viking people

Most Viking settlements were small farming communities, but there were large towns such as Jorvik or York as it is now known. These were crowded, noisy and dirty, but traders and merchants were attracted here to sell and buy their goods.

When the Vikings came over to Britain they brought with them their own style of clothing that changed little throughout the Viking period. Most wore clothes made from linen or wool, which were dyed with a variety of dyes made from plants and minerals. Both the men and women liked to wear bright colours. They produced blue using woad, reds from madder, bedstraw and kermes, yellow from weld, and purple from lichens. Variations in colours such as greens could be made by dyeing with more than one dye such as weld and indigo. Darker colours could be obtained by dyeing the textile more than once.