If the rectangular cloak is the typical outdoor garment for men, then the shawl is the typical outdoor garment for women. The shawl is also a very simple garment consisting of a square or rectangular piece of fabric.

We know the shawl mostly from depictions, where it can be seen in two versions. One consist of a square piece of fabric which has been folded diagonally and the diagonal is put over the shoulders so that one tip hangs down at the back and two at the front. The other consists of a rectangular piece of fabric where one of the longer sides has been put over the shoulders so that two corners hang down at the front, as on the picture.

In graves it is hard to recognize shawls because it is so simple, but we at least have the brooch used to hold it together at the front and its placement. Sometimes this brooch, called the ‘third brooch’ can be found a little below the tortoise brooches and sometimes at the throat. If you put on a shawl with the the brooch below the tortoise brooches it will not take long until it sits at the throat anyhow. This means that we should be able to suppose that those brooches belonged to a different garment.

In Birka, most of the buckles are at the bottom, but on Gotland they are normally at the neck. This may indicate another difference in costume on Gotland besides the peplos. On Gotland, it is normally a back-shaped buckle that is used in this way. In the rest of Scandinavia, the third buckle can be a straight-arm buckle (which is most common), a three-lobed buckle or a large disc-shaped buckle. There are certainly additional options, but these are the most common.

There is nothing that indicates that the shawls had fringes during the Viking age, fringes seem on the contrary to be out of fashion during this period.

The photo is taken by Iduna Pertoft Sundarp.