[Ansteorra] Ansteorra Digest, Vol 21, Issue 143

[Sandra Geil]

----- Original Message ----

Dear folks
Since the ninth century isn't my time period I don't have a lot of research on it. I have been looking clothing and I have gotten the general impression that Byzantine was the "high" fashion style. I have recently made a Byzantine style coronet and a garment to go with it. Do you think I as a Scottish women would had worn such a  thing for dress occasion. I really don't want to wear "good" Danish garb because that would be the Norse apron if I am not wrong?  Scotland would of had contact with the Norse and I would have heard about the courts of  Byzantine. 
willow

----- response -----

Your Grace,

I am a bit sketchy on the exact timeline but, Father James -- the priest assigned to St Elias in Austin -- taught us that both halves of the church - the eastern and the Roman were very active in early missionary efforts in Europe and the British Isles. At some point between their arrival and the split between the East and West a Southern King married a Northern Princess. He followed the Roman calendar and fashion. She followed the Eastern ways. It was a year like this one in which the observance of Easter and Pascha were far removed that the question of the form of Christianity in the Isles would be settled. As the king wanted his wife to feast with him -- she was still in the midst of the Lenten Fast -- he decreed his land and people would follow Rome. After this point the majority of the people of the Isles followed the Roman Patriarch (Pope) though there were people who held to Eastern ways in the areas removed from court for some time. By 1100 all
 of Europe was under the authority of Rome.

I am fairly certain that a Scot of this period would have been familiar with byzantine fashion through religious art at the very least. The Byzantine style is so pervasive in writing icons that even the recently recognized passion bearers of the Romanov family are shown wearing Byzantine garments in their icon.

al Aeryn


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