This is my red hat. It is based on historical finds and considerations about those finds in places like Hedeby and Birka. I don’t wear it very often, because I only play at being a Viking (Scandinavian Völva from 10th century Unst) a couple of times a year, and at least one of those times it’s much to warm to wear a naalbound hat designed to get you through a night 100 miles into the Arctic Circle. This hat is incredibly thick. It doesn’t get wet, as it’s made of hand spun sheep wool. It smells a bit of lanolin, and it’s warm. In 10th century Unst, this would have been THE hat to wear at the winter holy days, because it was bright, warm, and naalbound (sort of a Viking form of knitting with one needle and a thumb). While we don’t know whether hats were popular or not (because most of what we know about the Vikings is gathered from pot scrapings, weathered carvings, grave finds, and stories written many years after the Vikings we’re talking about ceased to exist), the few writings from medieval times and the carvings we have do seem to indicate that this would have been worn. It’s definitely something that’s come down in German and Scandinavian heritage (hence the garden gnomes and the Tomten, who are sort of like garden gnomes but more demi-god and tricksy).
I wore my red hat this past weekend. It’s one of the two events I wear my Viking garb at, and it was cold at night (down in the low 20s). I was all dressed in wool, cooking happily over a fire, making meals from a Norse cookbook called Vikingars Gästabud, which is a modern book based on archaeological finds. I made green soup, and a beef stew, and a chicken stew, and barley porridge (called grot). It was a delicious weekend, though a bit smokey.
I enjoy wearing the hat. It makes me look like a garden gnome, I’ll be honest. I’m good with that. It’s fun, and it’s historical, and it starts conversations that I love having.
This year it did something else, as well. I’m a lot less happy about it.
Apparently, there are folks in Minnesota who are now wearing head gear very similar to mine, and using it as a “victory hat” of sorts. They’re protesting ICE while wearing these hats. I’m guessing it hearkens back to the red hats worn by the French during their revolution, but I really don’t know. During the course of the weekend, I had five or six people (separately) come up to me and give me a thumb’s up and call out anti ICE slogans of various types. One lady went so far as to trap me in the bathroom line and explain to me that it was AWESOME I was wearing a hat to show that I was rebelling. I explained to her about ten times that I was wearing a historically accurate Scandinavian hat, but she persisted. Like they do.
All that led to this morning’s conversation with Chris, wherein I lost my shit entirely. I found myself saying, quite loudly and irately, “My culture is not your costume!” I know that’s a leftist screed, but it’s true in this case. I love seeing kids dressing up as stuff at Halloween, or to cosplay, but being TOLD the reason for wearing what I was wearing was extremely offensive. Yes, both sides of my ancestry go back to Scandinavian “Vikings” and it’s something I’m proud of. I don’t want to give up my hat!
But I also don’t want to be mistaken for someone rioting or causing problems. Is my hat going to get leftists riled up and assuming I’m one of them? Worse, is it going to get conservatives upset, thinking I’m with the Left? Why the hell can’t I just wear my hat in peace?
I want the anti-ICE people to stop wearing my hat. I want them to stop using my symbols for their hatred and rancor. It’s not right!
But of course… they have a right to do what they want. So I have to decide whether to stop wearing it, at least until this trend is over. Because I do not want to be associated with those rioters at all. Not for one second. I was horrified this weekend. 🙁
On a nicer side, I made it into the Gardner news again:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Dn4BktgU9/
https://www.thegardnernews.com/picture-gallery/lifestyle/things-to-do/2026/02/16/northfolk-night-market-is-an-annual-winter-festival-that-features/88684515007/
The “sagas” I thought were fairly close to contemporary. Wikipedia says not quite but still reasonably close. My childhood neighbor studies those things and got her Ph.D. on a topic based on those.
How is your Old Norse? 🙂