With regard to the national costume, mentioned above, it is, unfortunately, a fact that it is gradually disappearing. There are parts, however, where there are no railways, no steamboats, and few tourists, and in such places the people still live much as they did a hundred years ago, even the men wearing clothes similar to those worn by their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and some of these are quaint in the extreme.
Perhaps the quaintest dresses are those of the people of Sætersdal, a district in the South of Norway, between Christiansand and Telemarken; and, when properly turned out, the men are quite as “dressy” as the women. They wear a pair of trousers buttoned with half a dozen silver buttons tight round the ankles, and coming right up to the armpits. Several broad stripes adorn the legs from top to bottom. And the coat takes the form of a curious little cape, richly embroidered with silver, and having sleeves, fastened at the wrists with more silver buttons. Shoes, with buckles, white stockings, and a cut-down tall hat, gaily decorated with ribbons and embroidery, complete the costume. The women wear short skirts—only a little below the knees—of dark blue, with a bright trimming round the bottom; coloured stockings; a bodice laced with silver, and covered with silver brooches and other ornaments; a waistbelt, which is sometimes entirely of metal; a kerchief tied over the head, after the fashion of the bandana of West Indian negresses; and on occasions a shawl of many colours.
A step farther north, in what is called Lower Telemarken, a similar kind of dress still exists, though the man’s waistcoat-jacket is of a somewhat different pattern and colour, and the women wear their skirts a trifle longer. On Sundays and great occasions the latter also put on cloth stockings and gloves, embroidered tastefully with trails of flowers.
But such dresses as these are not the national costume of Norway. For that we have to go still farther north—to the Hardanger. If an English girl wishes to dress a doll as a typical Norwegian, the clothes would be those of the Hardanger, and they would be these: a dark blue serge skirt (to the ankles), trimmed with black velvet and silver braid; a white chemisette with full sleeves; a red flannel bodice embroidered with white, black, and silver, and glittering with brass saucer-shaped ornaments; and a waistbelt adorned with metal buttons. The effect is neat, bright, and decidedly piquant. The girls plait their fair hair in two long tails, wearing a handkerchief as a head-dress; but the married women have a most elaborate coiffure, something of the sister-of-mercy type, consisting of the so-called skaut, or hood, and the lin, or forehead band. It takes a considerable time to put on, as the snow-white linen has to be most carefully stretched over a frame, which is first fastened on the top of the head, and then so arranged that the numerous small plaits hang in a particular manner. This is the ordinary head-dress, though the country women coming in to church on Sundays often wear curious old-fashioned bonnets, which have the appearance of being heirlooms handed down from generation to generation.
The men do not dress up to the women. They confine themselves to a rough trouser suit, generally of dark blue, and a black felt hat. Even amongst the older men of the Hardanger one seldom sees the knee-breeches and stockings which used to be worn.
A Hardanger Bride
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