204 DRESS OF MEN. 



grey-haired, and carried his head on one side. He was amiable 

 and high-minded, and wore old-fashioned clothes, high-necked 

 and long-sleeved, kirtles and shirts, and foreign cloaks (valas- 

 kikkja) l and high shoes. Thus also he dressed King Magnus 

 while he was young, but as soon as he had his own way he 

 dressed very showily" (Magnus Erlingsson's Saga, c. 37). 



Shoes made of leather or skins were used, and made fast 

 by strings, sometimes adorned with fringes : silk strings w T ere 

 wrapped round the leg to the knees, and sometimes very high 

 shoes were worn, often seamed with silk and partly covered 

 with gold, but they were old-fashioned. 



" It is told about his (Sigurd's) dress, that he wore a blue 

 kirtle and blue hose, high shoes laced round his legs, a grey 

 cloak (kapa) and a grey broad-brimmed hat and a hood over 

 his face, a staff in his hand with a gilt silver-mounting at the 

 upper end, from which a silver ring hung " (St. Olaf s Saga, 2 

 c. 31). 



" Sigurd jarl had a brown kirtle and a red cloak, the skirts 

 of which were folded up ; he wore shoes made of the skin of 

 sheep's legs; he had a shield and the sword called Bastard" 

 (Magnus Erlingsson's Saga, c. 13). 



" The king (St. Olaf) and his men went into the bath and 

 laid their clothes on the ground, and a tent was pitched over 

 it. At that time it was common to wear silk strings like 

 garters, which were wound round the leg from the shoe to the 

 knee ; the first and high-born men always wore them, and the 

 king and Bjorn had the same . . . Bjorn always had these 

 thongs around his legs while he lived, and was buried with 

 them " (Bjarnar Saga Hitdselakappa). 



Magnus Barefoot (1093-1103) adopted the Scotch custom 

 (then also used in Ireland) of having bare legs and plaids, but 

 this fashion was antiquated a hundred years later. 



" It is told that when Magnus came from Vestrviking (warfare 

 in the west), he and many of his men adopted the customs in 

 dress that were common in the western lands (Scotland and 

 Ireland). They walked bare-legged in the streets, and wore 

 short kirtles and over-garments " (Magnus Barefoot, c. 18). 



On the hands gloves (glofar') of skin, especially hart's-skin, 



V.ilaskikkja = Welsh (foreign) cloak. | : Of. also Eyrbyggja Saga, c. 43. 



