4. A pater noster

Not all of the projects are going to be equally researched, so I allowed myself to have a little fun with this one.  I need a bit of bling to dress up my garb for the opening of the new exhibit this coming weekend, so I decided to make a paternoster to hang from my belt.

Bedes Bydding (CA #135) by Dame Christian de Holacombe, OL, is my only reference and informed the choices made.  The beads are made of colored glass, suggested as appropriate for lower/middle class (p. 26) or in my case, living in outlying areas.  These are  very similar to beads excavated on the Storvågan site here in Kabelvåg.  Only the gauds and terminal bead have a little color work and are slightly larger than the other beads.

I chose to use 63 beads plus 6 gauds for a Brigittine (six decade) rosary (p.55).  The author suggests that this system may be late for my persona, but St. Birgitta is Swedish, therefore almost ‘local’ for me, and she is also a source for some of my favorite head gear- the Cap of St. Birgitta.  The beads are threaded on a thin leather lace that extends through the terminal and is knotted.  This knot is covered by a tassel in madder-colored wool.  While the tassel suggests an earlier type of paternoster (pp. 38-39), I chose wool as a nod to local resources.

Sources: 

Laning, Chris.  Bedes Bydding: Medieval Rosaries & Paternoster Beads.  Compleat Anachronist #135.  Milpitas: Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. 2007.

Edited (originally posted to LiveJournal: June 4, 2012)