Eastern banners and colors

[voodooqueen126]

How about Braavos as Bruges (Bruges was an early banking centre)

Qohor could be German (they are great Crafstmen surrounded by forest) or Romania (they speak a Valyrian/Latin based language).

The way they repelled the Dothraki could be analogous to the Turks being repelled at the Siege of Vienna, or the way the Romanian Vlad the Impaler repelled the Turks by frightening them off.

Norvos definitly has this Russian or Serbian orthodox personality (or atleast Areo Hotah), but it is a theocracy like Rome...

[mor2]

• Slaver's Bay (Meereen, Astapor, Volantis)
  

The remnants of Ghiscar, have all the harpy as their symbol, see here (french, we still havent put them all in one place)

[voodooqueen126]

oh i wrote this random little thing over at my LJ about what I think the different styles of embroidery in Westeros and Essos (based off Medieval Embroidery)

Would anyone like me to post it here?

[Startide]

Sure, go ahead and post it.

[voodooqueen126]

Sure, go ahead and post it.

Thanks: Here goes. I am aware that the article has a very arrogant tone (nothing worse than someone whose presumptuous on the internet) but since it was posted only on my LJ which nobody ever visits please forgive me.

Begin:

Since GRRM being a manly man, he cannot be expected to take a serious interest in costume porn much less the even more obscure textile porn. Thus in thus post I will attempt to redress this gross lack of costume porn :drool: . After all if costume porn is analogous to mainstream pornography then textile porn is analogous to dwarf orgy porn or hermaphrodite porn.

:ack:

To start:

It’s fairly obvious to me that the form of embroidery produced in most of Southern Westeros would be Opus Anglicanum:

http://en.wikipedia....Opus_Anglicanum

http://medieval.webc...anglicanum.html

Since England during the Middle Ages was famous for producing Opus Anglicanum.

Which uses silk thread in split stitch and gold-work couching, really very beautiful, most of the surviving material is ecclesiastical clothing.

Opus Anglicanum could probably be known as “Andal Work” when exported to Essos. “Sunset Embroidery” is another possible name, although Andal work sounds much more sensible.

Presumably the embroidery produced in the Westerlands involves slightly more gold work than that produced in the Reach or the Riverlands.

However I also believe that in the North and the Vale would not produce Opus Anglicanum/Andal Work but would instead produce crewel embroidery, although at this point in history[1], it would be known as cleow[2] work. http://en.wikipedia....ewel_embroidery

This is because the Vale produces wool and the North is cold and also poorer. Presumably Northerners wear wool in the summer or as inside clothes and wear fur cloaks outside. This crewel work would not have the full diversity of stitches that is found in Jacobean embroidery or modern crewel embroidery.

http://en.wikipedia....bean_embroidery

Although it is worth noting that Sansa wears lace, and lace didn’t come into fashion in England until the 16th century which is the same time that Jacobean embroidery became fashionable, and is long after the Wars of the Roses. So it is almost forseeable that characters do Jacobean embroidery. However I think since that style of embroidery is so much associated with the Union of the Crowns (aka Scotland joins England). I don’t think any “Joramun Embroidery” is foreseeable within the next 250 years. So the Cleow work that Sansa and co would do will probably be much like that found in the Bayeux Tapestry: http://en.wikipedia....Bayeux_Tapestry which is to say stem stitch used to outline objects, but filled in with couching and laidwork.

Although legend has it that Blackwork was brought to England by Katherine of Aragon, Geoffrey Chaucer describes the Miller’s Wife wearing Blackwork embroidery.

http://en.wikipedia....work_Embroidery

http://medieval.webc..._blackwork.html

A good compromise between the legend and fact, fortunately this is something that Martinworld allows me to do. It is well noted that Dorne is greatly influenced by Moorish Spain, in culture, food and climate. Although it is still on the same continent as the Land-Beyond-the Wall[3], and as we all know Scotland is not on the same continent as Spain. Dorne fulfils many of the political functions that Wales fulfilled during the Wars of the Roses: Targaryen/Lancastrian loyalists, Henry VII used Welsh support as his father was Welsh/ Aegon, if he is the real deal will call upon Dornish support as he has a Dornish mother, also the whole Prince of Dorne/Prince of Wales thing and the different inheritance laws. But since climate is a far more important factor than politics in the production of textiles (and culture generally) it is would be likely that the the Dornish produce blackwork since they are both Spanish in culture (the legend of Blackwork’s arrival in England) but still part of Westeros (the fact that Blackwork has been known in England since at least Chaucer’s time).

Rural dress and sleeping shifts:

Tyrion mentions wearing a sleeping shift and going under my theory that Westerlands=West Country I couldn’t help but imagine Tyrion in a smock frock http://en.wikipedia....iki/Smock-frock admittedly smock frocks don’t seem to have been invented until the 18th century, but hey if Sansa is going to wear lace then why can’t Tyrion and Sandor wear adorable smock frocks when they lounge around the house or sleep frigidly besides women who hate them? [4] Of course the smock-frock is largely farmers’ wear and in real life was rural dress for much of Southern England. So whilst Tyrion, Sandor , Gregor, Garlan, Sam, Randyll et al would only wear them in the privacy of their inner quarters or to sleep, the smallfolk in both the Reach and the Westerlands wear them all summer.

Iron Isles

The Iron Isles are known to be poor and are like the Northerners and Wildlings First Men.

http://en.wikipedia....ic_cross_stitch

I don’t especially like the Iron Islanders, and since cross stitch is the third lowest form of embroidery (Lowest being the Long and Short stitch tapestries that you get from Lincraft. 2nd lowest being Berlin Wool Work) I am tempted to arbitarily assign that style of embroidery to the Iron Islanders. Annoying stupid people should have annoying stupid embroidery after all. Perhaps they also do hardanger embroidery since, they are Viking expys. http://en.wikipedia....nger_embroidery of course the Iron Isles could also produce Mountmellick embroidery http://en.wikipedia....lick_embroidery (18th century) and fine crochet, as they occupy roughlythe same location as Ireland (smaller Island off the coast of Westeros/Britain, Firstmen/Celts). Sigh. Both Hardanger and Mountmellick are whitework and whitework is terribly elegant, although I prefer Mountmellic to Hardanger. Still most of these embroidery styles don’t seem to have been invented until the 16th century, so for now when I imagine Iron Islanders doing embroidery they will be doing cross stitch. Muahahaha.

Wildlings: whilst they probably don’t do much embroidery (or any) it is natural for humans to embroider, or at least humans that wear clothes. Possibly the wildlings have pattern darning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning which is both practical and decorative, and they may also knit. Who knows perhaps when the White Walkers are extinct the wildlings can establish some sort of civilization Beyond the Wall (the things you can do when Winters don’t last for 10 years and you are not being stalked by Ice Zombies) and eventually they will produce awesome Joramun embroidery in imitation of Cleow Work from the North, only it will be much better than Cleow workJ. Since Wildlings treat the Starks like they are incredibly glamorous (remember how Wildling women see Jon Snow and go “OMG sexiest man I have ever seen”) I can well imagine the ladies in waiting of a Wildling king producing embroidery that imitates that found in Winterfell.

Also a major feature of Jacobean embroidery is the tree of life motif, since Wildling follow the Old Gods-akay trees that live forever-trees could be a major religious motif for them and thus likely to feature in their embroidery.

Presumably applique is well known in all of Westeros since most of the heraldic devices would be appliqued on, unless they were brides cloaks which would be embroidered with Opus Anglicanum/Andal Work.

Essos: it is here that things get much more complicated. Since there are so many places on Essos and I know of only so many embroidery techniques that were current in the Middle Ages, I will give it my best shot.

Lorath

Something about Lorath seems very Dutch (although the Lorathi apparently speak a form of Valyrian so perhaps they speak Romansh with their whole neutrality schtick), I did a lot of searching for Dutch textiles and most of it was 16th century onwards and involved lots of lace and whitework. I found one of my inspirations magazines had an article on Marken Embroidery which included this picture

http://needleprint.b...connection.html

Here is an example that someone made

http://margaretmyblo...at-weekend.html

Here is a sampler of Marken work.

http://www.thestitch...79-p-14508.html

Anyway Marken embroidery involves blanket stitch, drawn thread work, eyelets, needle-woven bars and satin stitch. The other mouse that wasn’t shown on that ladies blog had a chessboard type pattern of blue and white with blue eyelets, which is cute but a little boring.

Qohor

Due to my thesis that Qohor is Germany (it’s surrounded by Forests, the people are craftsmen and Vargo Hoat’s funny accent. Also i am to lazy to research Romanian embroidery during the middle ages, if any examples survive). I have based my image of Qohorikum Work on Opus Teutonicum, which was a famous form of embroidery in the middle ages

http://medieval.webc...teutonicum.html

Opus Teutonicum is whitework that is thought to have been developed in response to the cost of Opus Anglicanum. It consists generally of white linen threads on white linen fabric, with perhaps silk thread to highlight something like a halo. Like a lot of white work it uses textured stitches, such as brick stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch, goblien stitch, stem stitch and buttonhole stitch.

Norvos

All that we know about Norvos is that it is a theocracy, this is surprising because we actually have a POV character from there (Areo Hotah-the only Essos Pov we have) and he doesn’t seem to think much about religion for a man who was trained by priests. We don’t have much of a clue about what they believe, other than it is a simple religion meant for simple men, or what Norvos is like other than it has mild sunlight and produces beautiful textiles.

With fine textiles and theocracy in mind, I looked at Medieval ecclesiastical wear, which was often done in gold work and was needless to say a very high standard of textile production.

http://medieval.webc...que_or_nue.html

http://medieval.webc...e_goldwork.html

Now unfortunately I still don’t know what Norvosi believe, other than that they are religious: Do they worship some sort of deity like the Black Goat of Qohor? Icons of an obvious expy of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus? Or are they like Muslims in that they ban pictoral representation and have mostly abstract art? Don’t ask me why but Areo Hotah reminded me of a Serbian Orthodox Priest I once met (who was rather sexy actually) so I am inclined towards iconographic. I must research pre-Christian Slavic religion to find subjects of for this gilt embroidery, someone at Ran’s board said that the Old Gods reminded him of pre-christian Slavic religion and I remember reading about a Slavic deity that protected the house and others that served the family so perhaps something along those lines. If their religion does involve protective nature type deities then perhaps even their religious art is export quality (unlike say Andal Work which would focus on the Faith of the Seven and would therefore be uninteresting to the Essosian consumer) since it would likely to consist of bears, trees, etc which are motifs enjoyable to people of all faiths (unlike say embroidery featuring the Mother, Maiden, etc).

When I was searching for information on Byzantine textiles (since I Constantinople seems similar to Volantis) I came across this on wiki

http://en.wikipedia..../Byzantine_silk

Whilst it is tempting to imagine Volantis the centre for such silk production it is canonical that Norvos is a producer of textiles, so’ll give Norvos Byzantine silk:P

Still don’t know what kind of embroidery they have in Volantis, the article on Byzantine dress mentions embroidery around the sleeves of clothes. Will have to read all the ADWD chapters set in Volantis but since the article does mention that Opus Anglicanum was heavily influenced by Byzantine embroidery, I am thinking that Volantene embroidery involves lots of chain stitch, rather like Indian embroidery, it is also worth noting that Volantis produces pepper like India and is much more tropical than Constantinople. Here are some examples of Indian Ari work from Kashmir

http://www.hiwtc.com...-1315-34151.htm

http://www.kashmir-l...hainstitch.html

These examples are all wool embroidery-it’s Kashmir after all- but presumably Volantene embroidery is silk and on lighter fabric. It makes sense if Volantene embroidery influenced embroidery in Westeros: Aegon 1st spent time in Volantis as a young man, so perhaps “Andal work” was brought to Westeros by the Targaryen dynasty.

Tyrosh

I have always imagine that Tyrosh is Madeira/Portugal due to its mercenary and seafaring culture (almost all of the Tyroshi we meet are either seafarers or mercenaries). Thus it follows that Tyroshi embroidery would be Madeiran embroidery but colourful, very colourful because that’s how Tyroshi role.

http://www.oliveiras...lao-vendas.html

The colour means that Tyroshi embroidery could end up looking a bit like Kalocsa from Hungary but hopeful not too much. I am sadly very aware that making Madeira embroidery colourful would probably render it tacky, but then every Tyroshi we have met has indeed been tacky.

http://www.kalocsaem...om/gallery.html

Pentos: Something about Pentos reminds me of Florence (a city that I have admittedly never visited) perhaps because Illyrio Mopatis reminds me of Lorenzo Medici or Pope Leo. Anyway therefore Pentos=Northern Italy. Thus for Pentoshi embroidery I have decided on Voided work, which is rather interesting looking although being cross work or satin stitch it does not require extreme amounts of talent, it would also be expensive (since most of the surface is covered in thread) so that fits in with the conspicuous wealth that one finds in Pentos.

http://medieval.webc...oided_work.html

another name for Voided work is Assisi Embroidery

http://en.wikipedia....sisi_embroidery

http://home.comcast....edle/assisi.htm

Myr: in canon it is known for its fine lace production. Since we know that the Myrish are dark, perhaps the lace they produce is more like Italian or Maltese Lace. I kind of think of Myr as being a bit like Southern Italy or possibly Catalan…

http://lace.lacefair...onal/Italy.html

http://www.kipar.org...tumes_lace.html

http://lace.lacefair.../MalteseID.html

http://webspace.webr...h_time_lace.htm sadly most of the examples I have found seem to be Northern Italian (specifically Venetian) and are 16th century when lace came into fashion.

Lys: Like the French very fond of sex, unlike the French their weather is tropical. I suppose their embroidery is all delicate, soft and sexy. Since Lys is in a tropical region (it's near Volantis which ADWD reveals to be tropical) then I guess they speak Occitan.

Monograms seems to be important in French embroidery:

http://www.needlenth...m-house-of.html

http://www.emsheart....inen_museum.htm

http://www.wildflowe...com/french2.jpg

Braavos : I think Braavos has more in common with Bruges than with Venice(except the Sealord is similar to the Doge, however when it comes to textiles and food, climate is much more important than how a place gets a ruler). However as Braavos is not known for its lace work (that’s Myr in Martinworld) this is slightly problematic. However as Bruges didn’t develop its lace industry until the 16th century, this could work. At the time of the Wars of the Roses Bruges was being ruled by Philip the Good (a great patron of the arts) Charles the Bold (whose last wife was Margaret of York who has some things in common with Daenerys Targaryen, Margaret of York was a great friend of William Caxton) Mary of Burgundy and Philip the Handsome (for the last 3 years of the Wars of the Roses).

Since Braavos does get a lot of the cold weather from the Northern Westeros (being the northern most Free City-remember Arya’s chapters mention the shortage of firewood). It would be quite logical for there to be quilting. I say this as someone who loves quilting, both whole cloth and patchwork (though I don’t have the skill to make whole cloth) but I have been really admiring these Jacquie Harvey quilts and began to think about Quilting in the Middle Ages. Needless to say most of Jacquie’s Quilts are very modern, although the jacket is beautifully inspired by history.

http://picasaweb.goo...758891812785554

http://picasaweb.goo...668513523900482

http://picasaweb.goo...668534272018082

http://picasaweb.goo...668495749857250

The earliest surviving quilts are the Tristan and Isolde Quilts from Sicily. Since Myr is producing lace, it doesn’t seem fair that they should produce beautiful quilts as well.

http://medieval.webc...ique_quilt.html

http://en.wikipedia....i/Tristan_Quilt

(pictured in this post) which are worked in trapunto.

http://en.wikipedia....apunto_quilting

Anyway since Bruges is in Belgium, I thought about French embroidery, particularly boutis. Now admittedly Boutis is from the south of France (nowhere near the Belgian border) but if Braavos does get as cold as they say it would be quite logical for the Braavosi women to wear quilted petticoats and for beds to have quilted bedcovers.

http://en.wikipedia....%C3%A7al_quilts

Some of you may say that only Norvos and Myr are known to produce textiles in Essos, however these are only the textile traditions that are considered export quality. Real life Marken embroidery isn’t exactly fabulous but it is still the local embroidery technique. All countries (or at least all countries where people wear clothes) are likely to have embroidery traditions: whether they are fabulous and worthy of export like that of Madeira, Japan, Belgium, France and Italy (or in Martinworld Myr and Norvos) or just something that women use to decorate homes and clothes and to pass the time, such as Marken embroidery from Holland, Native American Quill work, Afghan Embroidery, the endless amounts of bullion roses that seem to characterise Australian embroidery. In Martinworld Sansa seems to embroider constantly, likewise most of the embroidery traditions that I have been inventing for places other than Norvos and Myr are not producing export quality embroidery.

[1] 3^rd century in Westeros but analogous to the 13^th to 14^th century in the real world.

[2] an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ball of wool

[3] I really wish that there was some other name than “Lands-Beyond-the-Wall”, how about “Freeland” or “Wildeland”?

[4] The latter only applies to Tyrion :cool4:

I have since discovered that Valyrian shares names and morphemes in common with Greek. Which is a bit of an "Oh Crap" moment for me.