Veils and Wimples

Veils and Wimples

This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.

This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.

Large head cloth

A garment that resembles the Roman palla. Pallas are a rectangle of cloth about 3m x 1.5m in size. In roman times it was worn either wrapped over the shoulder or draped over the head. Only the later draped style is depicted worn by the late Saxons.
Art
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Literature

• Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica (731AD) refers to a girl who wears a linen headdress being miraculously cured

Archaeology

• Winchester (850-900AD) extremely rich veil edged with gold braid

Discussion
Walton Rogers discusses the use of the roman ‘pallium’ from the late Roman period to the 8th century , She makes a theoretical argument for its use in England. She also shows images from the C8th Stuttgart psalter to support her argument. In summary the word palla is preferred for this garment as pallium is now used as a male ecclesiastical garment and draped cloak implies the use of a heavy material.

…worn open at the throat and back on the head

Art

• Rothbury (early C9th) Woman with open veil and visible hair.

Literature

• Aldhelm DeVirginitate (c.700AD) refers to extravagant headdress that hang from a fillet to the ankle He also condemns curled hair at the forehead that implies that the wimple was worn further back than latter head coverings .

Archaeology
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Discussion
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...worn closed at the neck with a brooch

Art

• BL MS Cotton Galba A XVIII - Aethelstan Psalter (before 939AD).
• Stuttgart Psalter, C8th
• Franks Casket, Early C8th

Literature

• Psychomachia

Archaeology
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Discussion
Owen-Crocker describes this garment as a ‘symmetrical cloak which could be draped over the head and which was sometimes fastened by a central brooch.’ . I prefer to use the term palla as this implies the use of a lighter cloth than that would usually have be used for a cloak.

Veil

A long strip of cloth that can either be worn on its own or under a separate wimple Art

• T39:f.68v, The Nuns of Barking
• T48:15v
• T51:18r
• T72:f32v
• T86:66v

Literature
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Archaeology

• Dublin, Ireland: One large silk fragment was found (DHC17) which is described as a veil-type cloth by Wincott Heckett. It was 87cm (minimum) long and 24cm wide and had been dyed purple with lichen. The width of this fragment is however too small to be the garment depicted in the art work which covers the entire head.

Discussion
AS artists occasionally depict full flamboyant veils, two good examples include Luna and Pride. Both show their veils “cascading in great, wind-swept arcs” around their heads. Veils are also used to add “rank or dignity” to images of Mary or of nuns .

In France the vale is often depicted hanging open at the neck but apart from the Harley Psalter and the Hexatech this is not the case in Anglo-Saxon art.

Before 950AD women seem to have worn only the veil or the palla. From this date onwards veils can still be seen on women but wimples are more common.

… with long tails

A long veil style of headdress crossing over the shoulders and then hanging down the back, sometimes being tucked through a girdle. Art
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Literature

• Aldhelm (Early C8th) – women’s headdresses which hang right down to the feet

Archaeology
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Discussion
This is an alternative interpretation of the ‘Veil emerging from under a wimple’ discussed below.

Wimple [E]

A simple hood shaped garment, worn over a veil, scarf, cap or head band Art

• T49:7v
• T78:f6r
• T82:p1

Literature
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Archaeology
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Discussion
The wimple is often depicted being worn on its own. Sometimes a headband can be seen across the forehead beneath it and occasionally what could be interpreted as hair can be seen. It is likely that some kind of band, scarf or cap was worn under the wimple to help secure it.

Wimples can be worn either on their own or alternatively over a veil, scarf or cap. If the wimple was worn over a veil then the veil could be what is seen emerging from the front of the wimple as two long strips. The wimple could also have been worn over a shorter scarf or cap. The wimple is made from a piece of cloth that extends no further than just past the shoulders.

...with an emerging veil [E]

Art

• T35:fol.4v
• T48:fol.17v
• T49:fol.12v, 12r
• T56:fol.11r Virgin Mary
• T57:fol.1v
• T58:p.53
• T86:fol.10r, f56r

Literature
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Archaeology
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Discussion
Wimples are sometimes shown with emerging veils.
Long trailing strips of cloth are depicted on some illustrations of Anglo-Saxon women. Similar strips can be also be seen on some images of men. There are many more drawings that I haven’t included here due to time restraints.
“The foremost figure in a group of women addressed by Aldhelm in an illustrated version of his poems in Bodleian Library MS 577 (27645) fol. 1v, wears a scarf or veil under the hood. The two loose ends pass, together, from under the hood at the front, before separating and extending under the outstretched arms. “ (G. R. OWEN 1976, p.470 referring to T57:f1v)

References

Owen-Crocker, Gale R. (2004) Dress in Anglo-Saxon England. 2nd ed. The Boydell Press. *

Owen-Crocker, Gale (2005) Pomp, Piety, and Keeping the Woman in Her Place The Dress ofCnut and IElfgifu-Emma. Medieval Clothing and Textiles 1: pp.41-52. *

Walton Rogers, Penelope (2007) Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England AD450-700. CBA Research Report 145. Council for British Archaeology. *

Wincott Heckett, Elizabeth (2003) Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin. Medieval Dublin Excavations 1962-81: Ser.B Vol.06 *