A Norse fishmonger — long apron-dress over a longer underdress, basket of cleaned fish balanced on the hip, ready to call out the morning's price. Period: Viking Age, c. 793-1066 CE.
Trade in the Norse fishing village was largely women's work: cleaning, salting, carrying to the dock for the next ship out, selling locally on market days. This figure wears the standard Viking-Age woman's kit — a long underdress with a strapped wool overdress (smokkr) fastened by two oval brooches at the chest, leather shoes, hair under a simple linen kerchief. The wide basket fuses to the hip, half-full of fish suggested as a chunky mass.
Painting tips
- Underdress: undyed linen pale.
- Smokkr (overdress): dyed tone — madder red, woad blue, or weld yellow if you want a wealthier trader.
- Brooches: warm bronze.
- Basket: tan willow, sepia weave wash.
- Fish: silvery grey-blue, darker dorsal stripe.
Historical sources & further reading
- Birka burial textile finds (women's smokkr + brooch sets)
- Saga references to market women
⚠ Small parts. Not suitable for children under 14.
