Feather cloak from Hawaii in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena in her cloak, 1825
Display at Keauhou, Hawaii

Feather cloaks have been used by several cultures.

Hawaii

Elaborate feather cloaks called ʻahuʻula[1] were created by early Hawaiians for the aliʻi (royalty).[2] Feathers were also used in women's skirts called pāʻū.[3] The ʻiʻiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) and ʻapapane (Himatione sanguinea), which provided red feathers, were killed and skinned due to their abundance. Yellow feathers were obtained from the mostly black and rarer ʻōʻō (Moho nobilis) and mamo (Drepanis pacifica) using a catch and release philosophy to ensure future availability.[4]

Brazil

Feather cloaks were known to the coastal Tupi people, notably the Tupinambá. The cloaks called gûaraabuku were dressed by the paîé (Tupian shamans) during rituals. They were made from the red plumage of gûará (Eudocimus ruber) and had a hood at the top, which could cover the entire head, shoulders and thighs up to the buttocks.

Māori

In Māori culture feathers are a sign of chiefly rank,[5] and the kahu huruhuru (feather cloak),[6] is still used as sign of rank or respect.[7][8]

Irish

The elite class of poets known as the filid wore a feathered cloak, the tuigen.

Mercury wears a "bird covering" or "feather mantle" rather than talaria (usually conceived of as feathered slippers) in medieval Irish versions of the Greco-Roman classics, such as the Aeneid.[9]

Germanic

Bird-hamir or feather cloaks that enable the wearers to take the form of, or become, birds are widespread in Germanic mythology and legend.

The goddesses Freyja and Frigg own a fjaðrhamr ("feather cloak" or "feather-skin") or valshamr ("falcon-feathered cloak").[a][10][11][12] In Þrymskviða and the story of Iðunn's abduction in Skáldskaparmál, Loki borrows Freyja's fjaðrhamr so that he can fly to Jötunheim while in the account of his visit to Geirröðargarða it is Frigg's that he uses.[13][14][15][16] In Völsunga saga, the wife of King Rerir is unable to conceive a child and so the couple prays to Odin and Frigg for help. Hearing this, Frigg then sends one of her maids wearing a krákuhamr (crow-cloak) to the king with a magic apple that, when eaten, made the queen pregnant with her son Völsung.[17][18] In Ynglinga Saga Óðinn is described as being able to change his shape into that of animals and in the story of the Mead of Poetry from Skáldskaparmál he does not explicitly require a physical item to take on his arnarhamr (eagle-form).[19][15][16] In contrast, the jǫtnar Þjazi and Suttung put on their arnarhamir to become eagles.[15][16]

The master smith Wayland forges a pair of wings to help his escape from King Niðhad after he is hamstrung, as depicted on a panel of the 8th-century whale-bone Franks Casket and described in the corresponding episode preserved in the Þiðreks saga.[20] Though the flying apparatus is called "wings" or "a wing" (ON Old Norse: flygil), borrowed from the German Flügel,[21] the finished product is said to be very much like a fjaðrhamr (feather-skin) flayed from a griffin, or vulture, or an ostrich (Old Norse: "fleginn af grip eða af gambr eða af þeim fugl er struz heitir").[22][23][24][b][c] Furthermore, the three valkyrjur in the prose prologue of Völundarkviða own álftarhamir ("swan cloaks" or "swan garments") which would give the wearer the form of a swan, similar to the account of the eight valkyrjur with hamir in Helreið Brynhildar[25][14][26][27][28]

There are bird-people depicted on the Oseberg tapestry fragments, which may be some personage or deity wearing winged cloaks, but it is difficult to identify the figures or even ascertain gender.[29]

Famous works

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ In the poem Þrymskviða 3,6; 5,2; 9,2.
  2. ^ The terms grip and gambr (gammr) are both glossed as 'vulture' in Cleasby-Vigfusson and Haymes's translation collapses three birds into two: "winged haunch of a vulture, or of a bird called ostrich". The sense of 'vulture' (prob. for grip) is suggested by Schröder.[22]
  3. ^ The fjaðrhamr has also been rendered as "feather haunch" or "winged haunch",[23] even though the literal translation would be "feather skin".[11]

References

  1. ^ Mary Kawena Pukui and Elbert (2003). "lookup of ahu". on Hawaiian dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  2. ^ "Na Hulu AliʻI: Royal Feathers ~ An Exhibition Of Rare Hawaiian Featherwork". Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. 2 September 2006. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  3. ^ Mary Kawena Pukui and Elbert (2003). "lookup of pā.ʻū". on Hawaiian dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  4. ^ Hiroa, Te Rangi (1944). "The Local Evolution of Hawaiian Feather Capes and Cloaks". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 53 (1): 1–16.
  5. ^ Te Ara
  6. ^ Te Ara
  7. ^ "Elton John gifted rare Maori cloak". The New Zealand Herald. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  8. ^ Kay, Martin (9 April 2009). "Clark gets cloak for a queen". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  9. ^ Miles, Brent (2011). Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland. The Concept of the Goddess. Cambridge: DS Brewer. pp. 75–76. ISBN 1843842645. ISSN 0261-9865.
  10. ^ McKinnel, John (2014). "8 Myth as Therapy: The Function of Þrymskviða". In Kick, Donata; Shafer, John D. (eds.). Essays on Eddic Poetry. University of Toronto Press. p. 201. ISBN 9781442615885.
  11. ^ a b Cleasby & Vigfusson (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, s.v. "hamr".
  12. ^ Byock, Jesse (2005). "Introduction". The Prose Edda. Penguin UK. p. xxii. ISBN 9780141912745.
  13. ^ Þrymskviða – heimskringla.no. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  14. ^ a b Orchard, Andy (2011). The Elder Edda : a book of Viking lore. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141393728.
  15. ^ a b c "Skáldskaparmál – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no.
  16. ^ a b c Brodeur, Arthur. Prose Edda, Skáldskaparmál. ISBN 9798534277388.
  17. ^ "Völsunga saga – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  18. ^ Crawford, Jackson. The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781624666339.
  19. ^ Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (1968). The road to Hel : a study of the conception of the dead in Old Norse literature. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0837100704.
  20. ^ Vandersall, Amy L. (1972). "The Date and Provenance of the Franks Casket". Gesta. 11 (2): 12–13-. JSTOR 766591.
  21. ^ Cleasby & Vigfusson (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, s.v. "flygil".
  22. ^ a b Shröder, Franz Rolf (1977) "Der Name Wieland", BzN, new ser. 4:53–62. Quoted by: Harris, Joseph (2005) [1985]. Clover, Carol J.; Lindow, John (eds.). Eddic Poetry. Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. University of Toronto Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780802038234.
  23. ^ a b Þiðreks saga Ch. 77, Haymes, Edward R., tr. (1988). The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Garland. pp. 53–54. ISBN 0-8240-8489-6.
  24. ^ Þiðreks saga Ch. 77, Unger, Henrik, ed. (1853). Saga Điðriks konungs af Bern: Fortælling om Kong Thidrik af Bern og hans kæmper, i norsk bearbeidelse fra det trettende aarhundrede efter tydske kilder. Christiania: Feilberg & Landmark. pp. 92–94.
  25. ^ "Völundarkviða – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  26. ^ Bellows, Henry Adam (2007). The poetic Edda : the heroic poems (Dover ed.). Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 0486460215.
  27. ^ Benoit, Jérémie (1989). "Le Cygne et la Valkyrie. Dévaluation d'un mythe". Romantisme. 19 (64): 69–84. doi:10.3406/roman.1989.5588.
  28. ^ "Helreið Brynhildar – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  29. ^ Mannering, Ulla (2016). Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography. Oxbow Books. pp. 6–27. ISBN 9781785702181.
  30. ^ Ron Staton (9 June 2003). "Historic feather garment to be displayed". The Honolulu Advertiser.
  31. ^ Burl Burlingame (6 May 2003). "Rare pa'u pageantry The grand cloak is made of hundreds of thousands of feathers from the 'oo and mamo birds". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved 29 November 2001.

Further reading

  • The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Translated by Edward R. Haymes. New York: Garland, 1988. ISBN 0-8240-8489-6.