Erling jarl was tall and brawny, somewhat high-shouldered, with a long and thin face and light complexion; he was very grey-haired, and carried his head on one side. He was amiable and high-minded, and wore old-fashioned clothes, high-necked and long-sleeved, kirtles and shirts, and foreign cloaks (valaskikkja)[215] and high shoes. Thus also he dressed King Magnus while he was young, but as soon as he had his own way he dressed very showily (Magnus Erlingsson’s Saga, c. 37). Shoes made of leather or skins were used, and made fast by strings, sometimes adorned with fringes: silk strings were wrapped round the leg to the knees, and sometimes very high shoes were worn, often seamed with silk and partly covered with gold, but they were old-fashioned. “It is told about his (Sigurd’s) dress, that he wore a blue kirtle and blue hose, high shoes laced round his legs, a grey cloak (kápa) and a grey broad-brimmed hat and a hood over his face, a staff in his hand with a gilt silver-mounting at the upper end, from which a silver ring hung” (St. Olaf’s Saga,[216] c. 31). “Sigurd jarl had a brown kirtle and a red cloak, the skirts of which were folded up; he wore shoes made of the skin of sheep’s legs; he had a shield and the sword called Bastard” (Magnus Erlingsson’s Saga, c. 13). “The king (St. Olaf) and his men went into the bath and laid their clothes on the ground, and a tent was pitched over it. At that time it was common to wear silk strings like garters, which were wound round the leg from the shoe to the knee; the first and high-born men always wore them, and the king and Björn had the same.... Björn always had these thongs around his legs while he lived, and was buried with them” (Bjarnar Saga Hitdælakappa). Magnus Barefoot (1093–1103) adopted the Scotch custom (then also used in Ireland) of having _bare legs_ and _plaids_, but this fashion was antiquated a hundred years later. “It is told that when Magnus came from _Vestrviking_ (warfare in the west), he and many of his men adopted the customs in dress that were common in the western lands (Scotland and Ireland). They walked bare-legged in the streets, and wore short kirtles and over-garments” (Magnus Barefoot, c. 18). On the hands gloves (_glófar_) of skin, especially hart’s-skin, sometimes stitched with gold, were worn; occasionally they were lined with down. In the hand a staff was generally carried, with or without an axe. “Bard sat in a high-seat; he was bald and dressed in scarlet clothes, and wore gloves of hart-skin” (Fornmanna Sögur, ii. 148). On the head a _hött_ (hat) was worn. _Skálhatt_ (a hat formed like a bowl) is mentioned, also black, grey, and white hats. Another head-covering mentioned is a silken cap ornamented with lace; those from Gardariki seem to have been most appreciated.