A few weeks ago I sat down with Nille Glæsel, who was the Viking clothing and culture consultant for Robert Eggers’ newest film, The Northman (2022). Nille has had a lengthy career as a costume researcher and experimental archeologist in Norway, and she was kind enough to spend the better part of an hour talking about experience working on the film, as well as her background and the challenges with recreating authentic clothing from tiny scraps of textiles from thousand-year-old grave finds.
Nille demonstrating how to weave the varafell mantle (with additional help from the cat at the 2:55 mark):
You can check out more of Nille’s YouTube videos here, or check out her books if you’re interested in learning about the construction of early period Viking clothing!
Excellent! Thank you so much! I had been looking forward to something with her when her work was mentioned in the previous article.
Nille has some of her researched Norse garment patterns available for sale. I’m currently working with the men’s and women’s coats. There are practical issues with getting the patterns themselves assembled (confusing guidelines and a lack of registration marks), but the pieces themselves make sense with minimal instruction.