Colours

Note: DL stands for "Dark warp, Lighter weft". Many of the garments in this survey are woven from different colours, a dark brown or even black (natural black wool is actually more charcoal) wool, and the weft from a lighter brown. In some cases the Herjolfsnes garments even appear to have been dyed to this colour code, the warp having been made darker and the weft, originally white, having been dyed brown! If it had only been Herjolfsnes garments that were made this way, it would have been easy to dismiss it as a regional thing, however the Ronbjerg garment shows the same darker warp and lighter weft.

BTB stands for "Bog Trash Brown", that indeterminate colour of wool left in a bog. Without dye analysis, it is impossible to say what colour the garment was originally. For example, H44, the child's gown from Herjolfsnes, is now a bog-trash brown, but appears to have been naturally white wool originally. The phrase was used by Marc Carlson to describe the Moy garment to me, and is an excellent descriptor which I chose to use.