Slios Bruguaine

Domestic Hearths in Early Medieval Ireland Context In Iron Age Ireland (and earlier), the typical house was round, made of wattle (frequently without daub), with a domed, thatched roof and a rectangular door (1) . An entire nuclear family would dwell together inside this one house. Some houses contained internal wattle partitions to segregate a private area within this round structure, with multiple hearths inside, one in the common area and another in the partitioned, private area. By the Early Medieval Period, double houses were common. These were 'figure-of-eight' style houses, with two round dwellings built side-by-side so that the walls could meet and a doorway connect the two. Typically, these were multiphase structures: an older roundhouse received an addition, so that the new roundhouse became the new primary dwelling, and the old roundhouse, now at the back, became a storage and craft room. When this happened, the old hearth was usually filled in, and a new...

Early Medieval Irish Garb Part 4: The Rest of the Outfit To read about sources about Irish garb, see Irish Garb: Part 1 . To read about materials, colors and decoration, see Irish Garb: Part 2 . To read about the hooded tunic, see Irish Garb: Part 3 . Terms: Beyond the basic léine (1) , or tunic, the Irish had a variety of accessories for dressing themselves, and even more words for those garments. Just like blouse, camisole, polo, long-sleeve, tank-top, jersey, and t-shirt are all modern English words referring to shirts today, the same basic piece of clothing could have a variety of names in Old Irish. Thus the following terms represent only the most basic 'type' names for the garments that make up the full Irish outfit. Triús ( trubus , trús ): trews, trousers, breeches, leggings Cris ( creassanna ): belt Inar ( ionar , plural = inair ): short tunic, vest, long-sleeve jacket, coat, poncho Bratt : cloak, mantle, blanket Caille ( calla ): veil, headdress, c...

Early Medieval Irish Garb Part 3: The Tunic To read about sources about Irish garb, see Irish Garb: Part 1 . To read about materials, colors and decoration, see Irish Garb: Part 2 . Uniquely Irish Style Irish clothing varied, depending on the gender, profession and status of the wearer. They had long tunics, short tunics, sleeveless vests, long-sleeved coats, short pants, long pants and (most famously) shaggy cloaks, not to mention shoes and boots, all of which varied in quality and material according to status. The most basic, unisex item in this period, however, was a loose-fitting tunic with sleeves, called the léine (1) .   Although it varied by length, color and material, some version of this tunic is appropriate attire for almost every Irish man or woman from the Iron Age through the Norman Conquest. NB: the plural form is usually written as lénte or leni . However, spelling in Old Irish is quite variable from one manuscript to another, so many versions of the...