"Danes and Norse differences?" Topic

Has anyone seen information suggesting differences in clothing, armor, weapons, personal grooming (tattooing or hair) between Danish Vikings and the Norwegian Vikings?

I thought Danish Vikings were more dark-haired and Norwegians were more red or brown-haired.

I read recently that certain colours were associated with certain regions.

Thanks to both of you. Green Tiger, did this relate to clothing shields? Did they mention colts?

One of the shortcomings of any such info is that it tends to come from much later sagas, etc., So no one is quite sure how accurate it might be. I do recall that in one of the Norwegian ship burials, shields painted alternately black and yellow were found, while some Icelandic material mentions red shields, but these later sagas also written by people of Norwegian descent. So again, who knows? On the upside, it leads one open to artistic license (within reason).

I believe the Ostmen in Ireland, who where of Norse origin, where said to carry red shields.

In a word no or no more then one village to another.

I searched "Viking dyes" and found an article titled "Viking Age Dyestuffs." This was produced by Vassar College. It claims, based on archaeological finds, that red was most common in the Danelaw, purple shades were common in Ireland, and blue and green were more typical in Scandinavia proper. I suppose this is a starting point for figure painting. The article also provides the names of several dyes that were used in use at the time, several less common.Sorry that i can't manage to link the article, but I am currently reduced to using a device that does not readily copy/past!

Great help Rvandusen! Thank you.

Not much.

If you are a successful raider, wouldn't you quickly start to look like whoever you are raiding?
I would be surprised if they didn't dump their old worn out homespun stuff for the first cool looking new clothes they found.

Slightly related – I just read an article on recent DNA analysis that,among other things, suggested that Scandinavians in the Viking era were less predominantly blond than the current Scandinavian population.

Cheers,
John

Fantastic feedback, thank you all for the information! This is what makes this site such an indispensable tool for our hobby.
Mark