The Oseberg Rabbit Hole: How One Scrap of Silk Became This Year's Embroidery

Did you know? In the year 834 CE, two wealthy women died. The Oseberg ship was pulled ashore and used as a burial ship for these two ladies. The Oseberg mound and grave are named after the farm on which they were found, Lille Oseberg in Tønsberg in Vestfold in 1904.

The discovery revealed something extraordinary. Though popular movies showcase Vikings as only sporting wool and leather, the elite occupants of the Oseberg burial surrounded themselves with luxurious imported silks, evidence of trade routes stretching deep into the Byzantine Empire and beyond. The elegant scrolling motifs woven into the original samite I was searching for is a remarkable symbol of wealth, prestige, and international connection over a thousand years ago.

My challenge was to create embroidery that echoed the rhythm and character of the original textile as faithfully as today's production methods would allow.  For me, recreating a design using a scrap of samite silk from the Oseberg ship burial became a detective story that lasted months! 

The original design seemed to survive only in poorly copied Pinterest photos of old drawings and in fragile fragments kept behind museum doors. Many of those records are buried within Norwegian archives that refuse to cooperate with English translation software. When Google Translate and Gemini failed to translate the museum navigation, the only path forward was to manually describe each page, button, and menu until I could slowly work my way through the collections. (Boo!! So.Much.Typing!)That search eventually led me through more than 2,400 photographs, excavation images from 1904, museum records, books, newspaper archives, and conservation photographs before I finally uncovered the original watercolor rendering that preserved the swirling silk pattern I had seen.

Even now, as you read this, I imagine there are those kinds of people that appreciate authenticity and exciting "rabbit holes"... YOU are my people, nodding along, understanding exactly why this collection exists!  Every LinenGarb edition begins with original archaeological evidence. The finished embroidery is more than a pretty pattern... it is the result of countless hours spent searching forgotten archives, comparing museum references, redrawing damaged artwork, and transforming a thousand-year-old fragment into something that can once again be worn. When you wear this design, you are carrying forward a small piece of one of the most remarkable textile discoveries ever made from the Viking Age, recreated with the same attention to detail that first inspired me to begin the search! 

With Love to all our Linengarb Family, 

Gwenhwyfar Mwynn 

Photos Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo.