“Borghild the Brave” Limited Edition Viking Tunic

Women’s dress tunic in herringbone linen

They say that her army moves in like an evening mist, strangling what remains of the light of day. Near dawn, they push forward, creeping as the moon fades before the castle wakes.

Feminine, bold and practical, this is the ultimate dress for the discerning shield-maiden who wants to stand out in the shield wall. Historically, the patterns for viking clothing actually don’t differ too much between men and women, which means that viking dresses were often much looser than the fitted garments you start finding later in history. This dress skims your figure, creating a flattering silhouette whilst allowing for movement around camp, running, and even fighting!

The skirt portion of this dress is generous, draping down ankle length and swishing fantastically as you walk. This is attained through a pattern similar to the historical bockston-tunic, which contains 4 gores to increase the volume of fabric. The ankle-length hem means that you won’t be tripping over this dress as you go about your daily tasks and plan your castle sieges. The sleeves of the dress leave a lot of room at the armpit and bicep, and narrow down towards the wrists to create a practical, straight sleeve. This allows for a decent range of movement, and you won’t have to worry about long sleeves falling into your soup or getting tangled in your spear.

Right away you’ll notice the red herringbone weave linen we’ve used. This is the ‘limited edition’ aspect of the dress, as we have a finite amount of the linen available. This linen is quite thick and warm, but it still drapes beautifully without too much rigidity. It can almost be compared to the warmth of a wool dress, whilst still being breathable and suitable for warmer climates. The texture of it adds a ton of interest to this dress, which looks great in person and comes out very well in photography.

This tunic is well finished with a ton of little details! When designing this tunic we took into account the old wives tale about finished edges repelling evil spirits and negative influences, so we took great care to make sure every single hem was decorated with embellished trim. The neckline is finished with a contrasting olive linen, along with a matching line of our ArmStreet-exclusive knot work trim in a natural color, and a line of dark blue jute cord. Each sleeve is finished with the exact same combination. The bottom hem is a little bit different, starting at the top with a band of natural colored woolen cord, followed by an ArmStreet exclusive trim, created by our in-house design team after countless hours of research into norse motifs. This thick band of trim is followed by the same olive linen that you’ll find on the sleeves and neckline, which is punctuated by the knot-work trim. Overall it creates a cohesive, complimentary design that is eye-catching and unique.

Because this item is limited edition, it will come with your very own commemorative charm, with a rune on it to show that your item is one in a limited run. This rune is etched into brass and makes for a beautiful necklace. The runic alphabet we use was created by ArmStreet designers especially and exclusively for our limited edition items on the basis of the Ogham alphabet. The following table shows how the runic Ogham numbers correspond with the serial numbers. Owning one of these tunics means having a truly unique piece!

To check how to measure yourself please click here.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions.