After a battle at sea between King Ingi and Sigurd Slembidjákn, a pretender to the crown of Norway, in which Ingi got the victory, Sigurd jumped overboard and took off his coat-of-mail while swimming under his shield. The king’s men nevertheless found him.
“Thjóstólf Alason went to him (Sigurd) where he sat and struck off his head a silk cap ornamented with lace bands.”[[217]]
“Thorkel Sursson had on his head a hat from Gardariki, a grey fur cloak, with a gold buckle on the shoulder, and a sword in his hand” (Gisli Súrsson, p. 55).
Karl and Leif saw a man approaching, “who had in his hand a cudgel (refdi), wore a broad-brimmed hat, and a green woollen cloak; he was barefooted, but had linen breeches tied (with a band) round his legs” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 153).
“The everyday dress of Án was a white fur-coat, so long that it touched his heels; a grey short fur-coat over it reached down to the middle of the calf of his leg; over it was a red kirtle, which reached below the knee. Over this was a common trading cloth blouse (stakk), which reached to the middle of his thigh. He had a hat on his head, and a chopping-axe in his hand” (An Bogsveigi’s Saga, c. 5).
The wearing of moustaches by warriors seems to have been very common from the earliest time; this is seen from the bracteates and antiquities belonging to the earlier and later iron age. The custom, which continued to the end of the Pagan era, and which is also well illustrated in the Bayeux tapestry, was so common that it is but seldom mentioned in the Sagas.
Laughed then Jormunrek,
Put his hand on his moustaches;
He did not want tumult,
Was drunk with wine;