By Karin Mellbye Gjesdahl 

The following is part one of an article by Karin Melbye Gjesdahl, “Weaving in Valdres” [“Vevkunst I Valdres”] published in Valdres Bygdebok, Vol. 5, 1964, pp. 11-27. (A bygdebok is a compilation of local history.) Translated by Lisa Torvik, 2021.

Only a Fraction of Old Textiles Remain

In former times each farm was for the most part self-sufficient when it came to textiles for everyday use.  Spinning and weaving were among the capabilities one expected a young girl to be practiced in when she married.  Spinning wheel and loom were part of the dowry goods she brought with her to her new home.  This is a tradition which has been maintained nearly to our time.  Gjartrud Andersdatter Strand from Vang [in Valdres] hfigas told of the conditions in her rural home area at the close of the previous [19^th] century.  “Then began carding, spinning and production of all types of yarn.  In the long winter evenings the spinning wheel hummed in every home. It was mostly in the spring that they wove. It was common in every home to weave a length for shirts, for “vadmel” [homespun wool cloth, usually fulled], and a length for wool skirt or dress fabric. In addition to these annual textiles they often wove coverlets, blankets, tapestries, linen and cotton table- and patterned cloth and whatever else they called them.”  (Knut Hermundstad, Old Valdres Culture. Vol. 4,  Family Legacy. [Gamal Valdres-kultur IV. Ættararv])  

This was the way of doing things from way back in time. Yes, numerous excavated graves have contained weaving equipment of various kinds and demonstrate that weaving was already common in prehistoric times in Valdres.

But though we can be quite sure that everyday textiles were commonly woven more or less on every farm in times gone by, very little of such work has been preserved to this day. Textiles have of course that unfortunate quality of being quickly worn out and ending up discarded.  Only a fraction of the rich textile production that we know once existed remains today. And that which remains is of course finer pieces, those which have been regarded with especially great reverence and care. Therefore it is difficult today to obtain a true picture of the textile holdings of homes in the past.

Textiles can also be easily transported from one place to another, so it is difficult to determine what is locally produced and what is imported from other places. Items can have arrived later in time through inheritance, marriage or as purchased goods. But they all contribute to illuminating the culture of a place and create a picture of it in time. To some extent, they also indicate the valley’s cultural and commercial ties.  We will therefore consider here the essentials of that which is preserved of old weavings in Valdres, even though we cannot provide evidence that they have been created there.

To some degree, written sources can flesh out the picture where physical material is lacking.  Textiles are written about in certain parts of Old Norse literature, and for later times, property inventories and estate settlements are a good source. But as a rule the description of textiles is very brief, and those who recorded the items were of course not textile experts.  The names used on the textiles of former times do not correspond to the common terms of today, so identification is often very difficult and much can be only conjecture.

Historical Use of Textiles in Homes

A great deal of information has been written down in our times about customary practices of long ago, such as older people could relate, but there is not much concerning textiles and their use. Before we turn to discussing the different groups of preserved Valdres textiles, let’s review some of what the written sources can tell us about the use of these textiles in former times.

From the Old Norse literature we know that in the Viking period, the Middle Ages and up to the 1500s it was very common to cover walls and ceilings with textiles, to tjelde [“tent”) the rooms on festive occasions. The common form for these wall tapestries was the long, frieze-style strips or borders of cloth and underneath a simpler, wider cloth covering. Such a narrow border could be either woven or embroidered. We have preserved several fragments of such pieces here [in Norway], and the embroidery from Røn church in [Vestre Slidre] Valdres is certainly what remains of such a long, narrow border (see fig. 4).

But we know very little about how common “tenting” was in the homes of ordinary farmers of the Middle Ages. Where “tenting” is mentioned in the sagas, it is usually in the context of a different social strata. Only when estate settlements occurred, with the registration and valuation of all the worldly goods of the deceased, do we get a certain insight into the holdings of a farmer’s home long ago. These estate records begin in the 1660s. Is there then something in the description of textiles to indicate that an old tradition from the Middle Ages of long, frieze-like tapestries to decorate walls persisted in the homes of farmers up into the 16- and 1700s?

The term husbonad [“furnishings”, modern “husbunad” = furniture] (Marta Hoffmann, A group of looms in Western Norway, pg. 111 [En gruppe vevstoler på Vestlandet]), which occasionally appears in estate settlements from the last half of the 1600s, can possibly represent a similar long, narrow tapestry.  Husbonad is known in sources from the Middle Ages and up to the mid-1500s, and the word is included in a dictionary from the Setesdal valley [Norway] from the end of the 1600s where it is defined as “the large woven cloths which formerly were used to cover the walls during weddings and parties.”

If we examine the approximately 190 estate settlements that occurred in Valdres in the periods 1659-1666 and 1697-1709 (the records from 1666-1697 are missing) we don’t see the term husbonad but instead we find vegge bonne twice. [“wall cloth”, “bonne”=teppe or cloth, esp. a woven wall cloth]  The first instance is in an estate settlement for Siffur Kiersten of Kjerstein [farm] in Øye, Vang. It is a relatively wealthy estate with a value of 375 riksdalar [Abbrev. as “rd.”, main silver coinage from 1544 to 1813], and the estate lists 1 Vegge Bonne for 2 rd. In a 1705 settlement for the estate of Thollef Olsen of Alvstad in Hegge, Øystre Slidre, we also come across a Veggebonne.  Here the estate value is just 130 rd.  A veggeteppe [“wall tapestry”] 13 ½ alen long at 5 rd. is registered in a wealthy estate settlement at Bren (Breie) in Etnedal in 1686 and it must also have been a long, narrow tapestry. (Olaus Islandsmoen, South Aurdal and Etnedal, pg. 171. [Søre Aurdal og Etnedalen])  [An alen is an ancient unit of measure = 47 cm in Viking times, gradually increasing to 62.5 cm when it went out of use in Norway in the 19^th century.]

Swedish tapestries which are 7 alen long are mentioned twice.  Each could have been a long, narrow tapestry to hang on the wall, but they also can have been tablecloths. The latter are often listed as 7-8 alen long.  We don’t have any more specific information about the appearance of the veggebonad or the veggeteppe, but the terms themselves indicate they must have been tapestries to hang on a wall [“vegg”].  They cannot have been a common form for tapestries in those times since we so seldom find them mentioned. It could possibly be interpreted then that this was a type of tapestry which was no longer in use, had become old-fashioned, but also that they never were very commonly owned by farmers. Such long, narrow tapestries were appropriate for the årestuen, an older type of home without windows, and with the long unbroken walls of the Middle Ages.  [Like the longhouse, a home with a firepit – åre -in the center of the main room and a smoke hole in the roof was found in certain parts of Norway into the 19^th century.]  When the fireplace became common, and walls were divided up by windows, this long design format no longer worked. Among higher social classes, in an urban setting, tapestries with a vertical design were those hung up on festive occasions.

We know little in regard to this practice of hanging tapestries with a vertical design format in farmers’ homes. The majority of all the tapestries which are listed in farmers’ estates are registered as coverlets and bed clothes. For this reason, some researchers have expressed doubt regarding the theory that farmers hung vertically designed tapestries on their walls in post-Reformation times, or that this constitutes a direct continuation of the “tenting” practice of the Middle Ages. (Roar Hauglid, Home, fireplace and tapestry weaving. Memories of the past (Vol.) XL [Hus, peis og billedvev. Fortids minner XL])

Of those estates reviewed from Valdres, we must of course be aware that it is not possible to go beyond the year 1709, that besides the two veggebonader and veggteppet there is only one specific mention of  tapestries hung on a wall. This is from Bø in Aurdal and the estate of Sigrid Olsdatter, married to Ingebrigt Michelsen, settled in 1706.  “A painted cloth on the wall” is mentioned in another estate settlement, which we will come back to later.  In the Bø estate, “1 pictorial weaving coverlet to hang up over the high seat for 3 rd. and 1 Lesnings [“Lesnings” – see discussion below] coverlet with geometric designs for 2 rd. and 2 ort.” [When 1 rd.=4 kroner, 1 ort=80 øre, an øre being 1/100 of a krone.  This fraction of rd. and its successor, the spesiedalar, also went out of use in 1875.]  This was a very well furnished home with no less than 18 sheepskin bedcovers, and a fortune valued at 462 rd., so this example probably does not represent the practices of the common farmer. However, though not specifically mentioned in the estate settlements that some of the tapestries and coverlets listed were used to hang on walls on special and festive occasions, we cannot be certain that was not done.

In this connection it might be interesting to discuss the previously mentioned painted wall cloth which is registered in two separate estates from Nordre Røn [farm] in Vestre Slidre. The first settlement is from 1699 and here we find “1 cloth on the wall at the lower end of the table” valued at 2 ort, and “1 cloth which hangs over the table for 16 skilling.” [1 skilling = 1/120^th of a (riks)dalar]  8 years later there was a new settlement on the same farm and here we again meet the cloth on the wall, now described as “an old painted cloth on the wall and 1 ditto [of the same type] used over the table.” The settlement from 1699 is also a very wealthy estate, well furnished with textiles and a fortune of 565 rd. Is this also a description of decorating the high seat? Of course, we might think it was normal to name the high seat as the seat at the upper end of the table, not the lower end. But many places had two high seats, one for the host diagonally opposite the fireplace at one end of the table [in the wall corner], and one for the most honored guest at the other end of the table. 

Were some of the textiles painted cloths?

In the settlement from 1707 we learn that this cloth was painted. Perhaps some of the husbonader or veggbonader which are described in [Norway] are painted? Painted wallcloths were common elsewhere in Europe in the period of 1400-1600s and were also known in Norway. They are mentioned several times, among others in an inventory of the personal property which Aslak Bolt in 1429 brought with him from Bergen to Trondheim when he became archbishop. Several husbonader are listed with painted pictures in water colors and also some with printed décor. Quite a few such painted bonader [cloths] are preserved in Norway and Sweden, most of them from the early 1600s, but one from Setesdal [in Norway] is also characteristic of the Middle Ages. They have probably been a cheaper substitute for the more costly woven or embroidered bonader.  The motifs of these painted bonader are in part the same which we see repeated in our pictorial tapestries. In Hedal church in Valdres there are several such painted bonader, of which “The rich man and Lazarus” (fig. 1) especially has much in common with tapestries such as “The Wedding at Cana” and “Herod’s Feast”.   We must perhaps search for the models for many of our later tapestries in these painted bonader and to the painted walls and wall coverings in Swedish farmers’ homes of the 1700s and 1800s.  This could explain why Norwegian pictorial tapestries and Swedish painted bonader largely contain the same range of motifs and could possibly solve the problem of the medieval characteristics which are common in both groups.  The inexplicable dates which we find on some of our tapestries could possibly be interpreted as copied directly from the dates on such bonader.

Let us look a little closer at the estate settlements from North Røn.  The painted cloth was valued at just 2 ort in 1699, which is only 1/6 of the value of the woven coverlet at Bø, and the cloth above the table at 16 skilling.  These must have therefore been relatively plain pieces. A painted cloth can also have been just a cloth with a printed pattern. We have seen that the word “painted” used in the sense of “printed” sometimes in settlements in discussion of sheepskin bedcovers, where painted sheepskins probably refers to printed patterns on the skin side, which we know was commonly done in Hallingdal [valley south of Valdres].  “Towels” with printed pattern are known from different parts of the country, so it is certainly possible that our painted cloth could have been something similar.

The cloth hanging over the table has been interpreted as possibly a fine horizontal extended cloth or ceiling [cloth].  Such “ceilings” over the table are known from farmers’ homes in Sweden, but we have little that indicates they have been used in Norway, so this is unlikely.  In addition, the valuation of 16 skilling is not more than a regular towel in the same settlement.

Christmas Cloths

Could it be perhaps the Christmas cloth which we here see mentioned for the first time?  The custom of hanging up white, braided edgings along the walls and a towel with braided or knotted bottom fringes over a woven tapestry behind the high seat appears to have been widespread in Valdres. This is mentioned several times in [Hermundstad’s] Gamal Valdres-kultur, and one of the elderly sources the author used describes it thus: “The women trimmed the house for the holiday [Christmas]. Over the high seat they hung up the high seat tapestry. This was only used at Christmas. The fireplace mantle, the clock case, the main cupboard, the corner cupboard, the plate cupboard and the shelf hanging above the table – called the table crown – were decorated on their edges with woven lace with long fringes. Each thing had its own part of the decoration with a special design and weaving. The high seat tapestry and Christmas laces were packed away from one year to the next.”

Our “cloth which hangs over the table” could therefore be the cloth or border which was placed on the “crown”, the shelf that hung over the table. Christmas cloths such as this are not just preserved in the museums but also around on farms to this day, where we can find them laid away with instructions about where the different borders are to be placed. The Christmas “towel” itself was often embroidered. In Bagn Bygdesamling [The local collection of artifacts in Bagn, South Aurdal, Valdres] there is such a cloth, embroidered in holbeinsøm (fig. 2) in brown and blue with the year 1774 (?) sewn in. 

It is also possible that some can have had printed patterns.  Several “towels” with printed patterns and braided lower borders are preserved from Numedal [valley south of Hallingdal], where the size [approx. 100 x 60 cm] may indicate they were Christmas cloths.  We do not know how far back we can trace this custom. The first time we find it mentioned in the printed sources is in author J.N. Wilse, Description of Spydeberg Parish [Beskrivelse over Spydeberg Præstegjeld] from 1779. Eilert Sundt also discusses it in his book On Cleanliness in Norway [Om Renligheds-Stellet i Norge] in 1869. In estate settlements from Hallingdal of the 1750s, high seat towels or cloths are mentioned several times. But otherwise this topic is still little researched in this country. Some researchers believe we have here a throwback, a pale substitute for the “tenting” of the Middle Ages. This custom is not only known in different districts here [in Norway] but is also very widespread in Sweden and especially in connection with richer textile furnishings, which researchers believe is undoubtedly a continuation of the textile décor of the Middle Ages. It is of course possible that the practice has come to Norway in later times with Swedish traders, but it may also have an early common origin.

In any case it is certain that, as certain researchers have asserted, there is a connection between these braided borders and the custom of painting a narrow border uppermost on the walls of the røykovn houses [open corner fireplaces without chimneys] found in Western Norway, called kroting (Helen Engelstad, Borders-Bunad-Tenting, pg. 34. [Refil-Bunad-Tjeld])  [Kroting means decorative carving or painting; bunad is local traditional clothing.]  The decoration here normally consists of triangles, crosses and dots and is a tangible reflection of the patterns of such a braided border.  Kroting has also been known in Valdres. In Gamal Valdres-kultur Gjartrud Andersdatter Strand tells about Christmas: “Mother said that in her youth they chalked flowers around on the walls and ceiling in the smoke-blackened cabins.” [Raustestogo = small timber single-story homes]  An old man in Øye [Vang in Valdres] could also relate that these braided borders were replaced with “laces” cut in paper.

But though we cannot for now be clear about how widespread the custom was to cover walls with textiles in farmers’ homes, or whether we can at all speak of any direct continuation of medieval “tenting,” the estate settlements offer more precise information in regard to bed clothes.

Bed coverings mentioned in estate records

As for bed covers we find a rich variety of tapestries and coverlets, but it is very difficult to identify the different pieces today from the names they were given then.

The most common bed cover has been the sheepskin coverlet.  [Skinnfell = prepared sheep or other skins, often two or more sewn together, with a soft leather side and an intact wool side with fleece up to several inches long. The soft leather side was sometimes printed with designs or covered with a woven textile, depending on local traditions.]  There could be from one or two up to 19 skinnfell in the same estate settlement. Most often they were skins of sheep, but calfskins have also been mentioned, and in a few cases we encounter reindeer skins and bearskins.  The latter have probably been used in sleighs.  The skins usually had a textile cover sewn on the leather side.  Swedish tapestries are mentioned, “a home woven, geometrically patterned tapestry” and several striped textiles.  Simpler fabric such as red or blue clothing material or “homespun” also appears.  These have sometimes been embroidered such as the coverlet owned by the Museum of Art and Design in Oslo that came from Løken farm in [Øystre Slidre] Valdres.  It is covered with red fulled woolen cloth, richly embroidered with flowers and birds and the inscription “P K S i 1786, B L D Enag”, initials of two people and date 1786 as well as most likely [indicating connection to] Einang [farm] in Vestre Slidre [Valdres.] [See photo here.] Many elderly sources in Valdres still tell of such skins covered with black wool and embroidered initials.  As mentioned before, we also see certain “painted” skins in settlements.  One assumes this means a printed pattern, but I have also seen the backside [skin side] of a woven pillow which was marked in squares with brown paint. 

Pile-woven bed covers seem to also have been used to some extent.  In the estate settlements which are reviewed,  we encounter them 12 times. These also are often sewn to another textile.  In certain cases we learn that the bed cover is gold or gray, gold- or gray-striped, and one is dated 1691. As far as I know, there are no pile textiles from Valdres preserved today.

Of all the different bed clothes which are named, it appears that the so-called lesnings are the most common. 46 are registered in the settlements reviewed, often without any further information about their appearance. A couple of times it is noted that they are striped, one is called checked or plaid, and one as “multicolored.” One is described as an old “half-lesnings” cloth. These must have been quite costly textiles, as the valuation is often between 2 ½ to 3 rd.  But what kind of textiles or tapestries hide behind this term lesning is difficult to say today.  The same term appears in other parts of the country, sometimes named as listning bed clothes, and the word was also known in the Middle Ages.   

In the district of Aust-Agder the term løssningsåkle is used, which today is the term used for a tapestry in krokbragd technique. (Marta Hoffmann,  A group of looms in Western Norway, pg. 165.)  But I don’t believe that can be the original meaning.  A valuation of 3 rd. is improbably high for such a relatively simple technique.

Could it possibly be geometrically patterned tapestries – ruteåklær –  we are talking about here?  In the districts of Bohuslän, Västergötland and Blekinge in Sweden, geometrically patterned tapestries are called läset or läsena cloths.  Is this the same word? It can be noted here that very few geometrically patterned tapestries from Valdres are preserved, and the description as “striped” is not very characteristic of this technique.  But we have examples of square patterns in ruteåklær being separated by woven borders and in that way give the impression of stripes.  This problem will likely remain unresolved until we have broader research of estate settlements from different parts of the country.

In terms of numbers, the next largest group after “leanings” bed clothes is the “døell” or “døles” group. The majority of them are recorded in the 1660s.  The usual valuation is from 1 ½ to 2 rd.  The term also appears in estate settlements that are reviewed from the districts of inner Sogn [west of Valdres] and Land [east of Valdres]. One might assume that this term refers to textiles or tapestries from the valley of Gudbrandsdalen [north of Valdres], but we are given no further information about what kind of textiles these are. [Døl refers to a person –a dalesman – or thing from the eastern mountain valleys of Norway, e.g. a person from Gudbrandsdal is a Gudbrandsdøl.] It is possible that these can be double weaves, as besides pictorial tapestries they were also a specialty for Gudbrandsdal.  In an estate from 1705 we find a “double Flemish “døel” bed covering” valued at 4 rd.  This must be a tapestry-woven coverlet because of the high valuation.  On the other hand, a “4-harness døle coverlet” for 1 rd. and 2 ort could possibly be a double woven textile.  This was registered in 1706 at Byffellien farm in Bruflat [Etnedal, Valdres] where there is also found an “old ditto” at 3 ort.

In her book on double weave in Norway, Helen Engelstad indicated that 4-harness or døles textiles were possibly identical with double-woven coverlets. In estates from Valdres “4-harness bed covers” are mentioned several times, primarily in the 1660s, and their valuations are between 1 ½ and 2 ½ rd. This term is known as early as the 1300s and 1400s, and in estate settlement it is used in Gudbrandsdal as well as other parts of the country.

There are no double-woven tapestries from more recent times preserved in Valdres, but they could have existed long ago.  On the other hand, there are two double-woven textiles with geometrical knot and cross motifs in Lomen and Ulnes churches (both in Vestre Slidre, Valdres) which must date from medieval times.  Accordingly we can’t say anything definitive about which techniques lie behind the terms døl or “4-harness.”  They must in any case represent two different types of textiles, since both terms appear several times in the same estate settlement.

A great many Swedish textiles also appear in the settlements, mainly from around 1700 and later, with only one from the 1660s.  As mentioned before, we see them often in connection with sheepskin coverlets, but also separately.  It is common to interpret the term “Swedish tapestries” as textiles using the skillbragd technique, those of which in Valdres today are called kristneteppe.  [“Kristneteppe” or christening tapestry is woven with wool weft overshot on linen or cotton ground in characteristically patterned bands; hung at Christmas and also used for christenings and weddings, sometimes funerals.] 

It is possible that the designation can also cover textiles woven in other techniques.  Fragments have been preserved from certain thin, light textiles in Valdres, (fig. 3) woven in wool on a linen warp with patterned borders in monk’s belt between stripes of varying widths. 

As mentioned in the settlements, one such textile used as a backing on a sheepskin coverlet is found at the Norwegian Folk Museum [Norsk Folkemuseum, Bygdøy, Oslo].  It is preserved with somewhat dark colors, of which ochre gold and brown dominate, while fragments of a couple other tapestries have lighter, well defined colors. (NF 340-48 and 811b-06.)  Such textiles are reported in Sweden and were, besides skillbragd textiles, a common Swedish export item.  It is well known that Swedish skreppekarer or peddlers, the so-called Västgötaknaller brought these textiles with them along with other wares on their travels to Norway and Denmark.  In estate settlements from Valdres, bed ticking fabric, scythes and grinding stones of Swedish origin are named.  A few times it is noted that the textiles are striped.  In 1705, a double long striped [textile] is listed.  They are valued at 2 rd. while the usual value is around 1 rd.

In regard to “Hallingdal,” brøtnings, or braatnings bed clothes we find in the settlements, we don’t have any points of reference as to their meaning.  “Hallingdal” bed clothes or coverlets appear to have been fashionable in the 1660s.  Very many of them are described as being new.  In settlements from around 1700 however the term disappeared.  The value of the new items was about 2 rd.

The valuation of the brøtnings textiles on the other hand is commonly no more than 1 rd.  Once, a striped one is mentioned.  All those registered are from around 1700.  We could perhaps guess that it could be krokbragd tapestries going by this name, as they are in many places called “thick coverlets,” but we don’t know anything for certain.  

The Most Valuable Bedcovers: “Flemish Weavings,” or Tapestries

The decidedly most costly of all bed clothes were the “Flemish.”   And here we can in all probability assume that Flemish means tapestries which we now call pictorial weaving or gobelin weaving.  In Sweden today tapestry weaving is called Flemish weaving.  But we cannot totally rule out that they meant textiles which came from Flanders. In the settlements we reviewed approximately 25 Flemish woven tapestries are registered.  For several of them from the 1660s it is noted that they are new.  It was not everyone’s ability to own such an item, but on the larger farms they could have up to 3 pieces registered.  On the other hand it appears that Flemish pillows and bench cushions were fairly widely owned.  Just once is it noted that the tapestry had a pictorial motif.  That was at the inn on Skogstad farm, Øye, Vang, where on the whole there were very rich textile furnishings.  Here were in 1666 two Flemish tapestries, each with a value of 4 rd., and of which one is described as “1 new Flemish pictorial bed cover.”  The two on Steinde farm in Ulnes [Vestre Slidre, Valdres] in 1661 must have been somewhat simpler as they are valued at just 2 ½ rd.  On Upper Kvåle farm in Vang, they had acquired a new Flemish coverlet, possibly because the old one was “mouse-hairy.”  The settlement here was in 1698.  The same year there was also an estate settlement at “Stoer Qvale” farm in Slidre [Vestre Slidre] where 3 Flemish bed covers were registered, but the value for these was just 2 rd.  All of these examples are taken from settlements with fortunes between 500 and approximately 900 rd.  It is really striking that the value for such a tapestry in the Valdres settlements is not set higher than 4 rd.  From other settlements we know they could have been valued at 6 or 7 rd.  They must therefore have been simpler textiles with purely ornamental motifs.

As we see, there must have been a rich variety of different types of textiles on beds, but in many places the furnishings were relatively simple with a featherbed or thin mattress, a pillow and a cloth or sheepskin coverlet.  On the other hand, it is seldom that the family was so impoverished as in the home of a widower “who in response to questioning said they owned no bedclothes of wool or linen, and that he together with his children had nothing that was of value.”  At the same time there were estates with very rich furnishings, such as for example at Ellingbø farm in Vang in 1697, where there were 9 featherbeds, 7 pillows, 18 bed covers, 20 sheepskin coverlets, 14 cushions and 5 bench cushions, besides linens of all kinds.

Textiles Were Used at Funerals and Christenings

The estate settlements thus give no other information about all these textiles and coverlets other than they have been used as bed clothes, aside from the 2 described as “hung up over the high seat.”  But we have a couple of sources which indicate that woven textiles have also been used as funeral coverlets.  In author Knut Hermundstad’s Old Valdres Culture. Vol. 2, Farm Life [Gamal Valdres-kultur, Vol 2, Bondeliv, 1940] Ragndi Nilsdotter Moen from Leira related that when the coffin was placed in a wagon or on a sleigh to be taken to the cemetery “a folded home-woven cloth was laid over the coffin.”  And in Hermundstad’s Family Legacy, Dorte A. Dokken tells about a vision that Jens of Sandhaugo [farm] had:  “I became aware of a coffin between two giant spruce trees.  A cloth was spread over it.  It was black in background with so many fine flowers on it, I have never seen such a fine cloth.”  We can of course interject here this was just a vision, a dream, but the basis for such visions lies always in a scene from experience.  He must have seen something similar at an earlier time. 

From other parts of the country we also know that woven or embroidered textiles were used as covers for coffins.   In Gudbrandsdal and South Trøndelag, we know that double-weave coverlets were used in this way, and from other districts we have examples of both geometrically woven and skillbragd textiles which were used as coffin covers.  (Helen Engelstad,   Doubleweave in Norway, pg. 69. [Dobbeltvev i Norge])  The tapestry with three holy kings, the Magi, from Leine [farm, Valdres], which has ended up in the USA, is said to have been used in funerals and lent out for that purpose around in their rural community.

It is of course well known that skillbragd textiles and to some extent dreiel [tightly woven cloth of linen and/or cotton] textiles were used to wrap children when they were taken to the church for christening.  This is the origin of the term “kristneteppe” or christening blanket.  The term and the custom are also known in other parts of the country.

Bench Covers Were Common

The textile furnishings of a farmer’s home also included bench cushions or bench coverings and pillows.  Very few chairs were found in the older houses.  The most common furniture for seating was a bench attached to a wall.  For festive occasions, bench cushions or covers were laid on these and pillows or cushions were set up for the back.  Such bench pillows and cushions appear in most of the settlements.  The number can vary widely.  As many as there were at North Røn [Vestre Slidre] was unusual.  In 1699, 22 pillows and 6 bench cushions were registered there.  Such bench cushions could often be of a considerable length.  Here lengths up to 6 ½ alen are mentioned.  We learn that both the pillows and the bench cushions could be in Flemish or lesnings weave technique, in gold and red, gold and blue, in blue, red and gold or other colors.  Some are described as plaid or striped, red and white checked, and some are noppete [nubbly].  This must have meant they were woven in half-pile [short, uncut loops].  These are basically the same types we see in those which have been preserved.  They are very often made with leather undersides, sometimes reported to be backed by cloth, for example red wool cloth.  Pillows made for sleighs are also reported several times.

Examining Textiles that have been Preserved

This is then the essential information we can derive from the written sources about woven textiles and their use in Valdres in former times, but now let us look at what is preserved up to our present day.

It is reasonable that we cannot expect to find a great number of textiles that date to the Middle Ages, even fewer of secular use.  But that does not mean that they never existed.  First and foremost in churches we find hope that medieval textiles have withstood the ravages of time.  In this way, Valdres is well situated.  We are so fortunate to have saved both a fragment of an embroidery depicting figures from Røn church (fig. 4) and the remains of two tapestries in reversible double weave from Lomen and Ulnes churches (plate I and fig. 5).  [All located in Vestre Slidre, Valdres.] The embroidery from Røn must certainly have originally been a long, narrow tapestry which was common in the Middle Ages.  It is dated to approximately 1200.  (Helen Engelstad, Borders-Bunad-Tenting, pg. 81.)  But as embroideries do not come under the subject of this paper, we will not discuss it further here. 

Can the tapestries from Lomen and Ulnes also have had a long-narrow format and been meant to decorate the walls?  Or is it right, as has been interpreted about the Lomen tapestry, that it was a funeral tapestry?  (H. Engelstad, Borders-Bunad-Tenting, pg. 91.)  The Ulnes tapestry has not been addressed previously.  Anders Bugge mentions it in Valdres 900 Year Journal of 1923, [Valdres 900 Årskrift 1923] but it has only now been brought to light by Egil Sinding-Larsen’s inventory of the church.

Both tapestries display a complex, entirely symmetrically constructed knot motif, a “valknute” in one area of the tapestry [a “valknute” is an ancient knot-like symbol, with three or four rounded corners formed by an single unbroken line], a somewhat simpler and coarser knot on the Lomen tapestry than on the Ulnes work, while the rest of the tapestries are covered with repeated patterns.  On the Ulnes tapestry, the “crossed cross” is placed within squares set diagonally which fill the entire surface, while the Lomen tapestry is divided up in small rectangles which again form a little cross.  On the latter tapestry, the knot motif is on two sides bounded by broad, geometric borders. 

The “valknute” most certainly has been imbued with magical meaning.  We find it on other textiles from the Middle Ages and in later times, and within folk art it has often been used on everyday objects.    Originally it was probably a pagan symbol, but later was given a Christian content.  We can’t know for certain which meaning it is given here.  People probably believed it had protective power, and that is likely part of the reason Helen Engelstad thought that the Lomen tapestry had been a funeral coverlet, that the “valknute” would prevent the dead from rising from the grave.  This tapestry is cut off on one end, has selvedges along the two long sides and its width is 80 cm.  Approximately the same width that the Ulnes tapestry must have had, though it now measures 74 cm.  Even if it has cut edges on all side, the knot is complete.  This width corresponds in height to a group of tapestries in double weave with figurative depictions that are preserved in fragments.  They must have had considerable length and been intended to hang on the wall.  The clothing of the figures in these tapestries show that they must have been made as late as the 1500s or 1600s but there are many old fashioned elements in them which indicate strong traditional influence and partly hearken back to older archetypes.  Among others we again find several of the motifs from the Ulnes and Lomen tapestries.  (Helen Engelstad, Doubleweave in Norway, Fig. 3, 4, 25, 27.)   A couple of these tapestries come from Trøndelag and one from Inner Sogn.  Although all these tapestries have figurative motifs, tapestries with purely ornamental patterns may also have existed, which were intended to hang on walls.

The Lomen tapestry is woven in white linen and red and blue wool.  The same for the Ulnes tapestry, but here some green wool is also used.  These are the same colors and materials which we find in other double weavings from the early middles ages in Scandinavia.  The Lomen tapestry is dated by Helen Engelstad to the 1200s or 1300s, and that from Ulnes must likely originate in approximately the same period.

Part Two of Art Weaving in Valdres discusses a highly valued type of textiles–billedvev, or tapestry.