“Did Vikings Smell?” and other questions you never thought to ask
There is no getting away from the fact that Vikings and the Viking era is one of the most popular historical topics, the issue with this isn’t the fact that we like it, its that we get a lot of stuff wrong, all of the time. The period of history from the mid 8th century CE to around the 11th Century is often referred to as The Viking Age, a time filled with horned Scandinavians, pillaging their way through Eastern England, or was it?
An image showing Scandinavian raidersfrom the manuscript, Miscellany on the life of St. Edmund (1130) SOURCE: the Morgan Library and Museum
What is a Viking?
When we hear the word Viking, we usually think of a tall bearded chap with a big axe, usually killing helpless monks of the coast of England, but this couldn’t be further from the truth (sort of). the term ‘Viking’ comes from the Old Norse ‘Vikingr’ which means ‘to raid’ or ‘pirate’ and was never used to describe a group of people. The people that we associate with the term Vikings where usually just referred to in geographical terms such as, Norse (from modern day Norway) or Danes (modern day Denmark) and both raider and raided never used Viking or Vikingr to refer to the vastly diverse peoples of Scandinavia.
The term Viking also ever refers to a complete nation. Vikings were usually small bands or a collection of families would live, work and of course raid together. one thing that stopped a massive Viking empire forming was the lack of unity and constant infighting within Danish and Norse people.
*For ease of writing I am going to refer to as the peoples of Scandinavia as Vikings*
Well if they weren’t all raiding and pillaging, what were they doing? a valid question with a rather mundane answer, unfortunately. Yes, raiding and looting was a large part of Viking life but so was farming, trading and other relatively normal tasks and jobs were carried about by the vast majority of peoples. Wether in their native lands or, in newly conquered territories, both men and women ran a household, made or farmed goods to trade and, lived in similar ways to their “civilised” Christian neighbours.
Where did they come from?
as mentioned before, vikings came from Scandinavia but due to the harsh weather and incredible amount of dense woodland, most settlements tended to be on the coast. Living on the coast of the north and Baltic Seas meant by the 8th Century, Vikings were adept seafarers, navigators and traders, having to rely on their now famous longboats to transport both men and good around their world.
An image of the stunning Oseberg ship, a 9th Century longship on display in the Viking ship museum, Oslo. SOURCE: Petter Ulleland via Wikimedia Commons
Viking longships were fantastically well designed vessels, with shallow hulls and interlocking planks, the ships were fast and manoeuvrable, allowing for both sea and inland river to be traveled. With both a desire and a need for life at sea, the Scandinavian peoples were designed to travel and to trade, far beyond what any had before and, many that would follow.
Didn’t they just raid England?
If you’re British or, have at least a passing interesting in Viking history, you've probably heard of Lindisfarne, the monastery on the east coast of Northumbria. Lindisfarne is the place where Viking raiders first landed in the British Isles, way back in 793 CE but England is absolutely not the only place these sea pirates people landed.
There aren’t many places in Europe and the wider western world that Vikings didn’t ‘visit’, with varying levels of success. from the Deserts of Baghdad to the east coast of North America, Scandinavian men and women traveled far and wide, usually in the search of new lands to settle and to trade with local populations. One place in particular that Scandinavians spent a lot of time was the Volga River, going all the way from Baltic down to the Caspian Sea. As Christianity wasn’t a thing in Eastern Europe, the Vikings decided to set up trade posts along the river, dealing in furs and wool that they bought down from the frosty north. This is not to say that there weren’t any ‘questionable’ activities going on, just more on that later.
As well as the Volga, the Vikings also moved through the Dnieper river, forming settlements including Kiev, leading to the creation of the Kievan Rus (Rus being another name for Vikings), a Viking-esc Slavic collection of peoples in Eastern Europe that eventually formed into the nations of Russia and Belarus. Moving south in 9th century Europe meant you would likely come into contact with another powerful group of people, the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. The Byzantines saw something in the Viking traders that traveled (and attempted to sack the city of Constantinople, shock) and offered the ‘Varangians’ as they called them jobs, and over the next few centuries, the Varangian Guard became the personal body guards of Byzantine Emperors, one of the most notable Varangians Guards was Harald Hardrada, the Norwegian King on the early 11th century.
A modern drawing of both early (11th century) and later (13th century) Varangians SOURCE: nakedhistory.com
Did Vikings actually smell?
As the title of this suggests, one of the first things people tend tithing of when they hear Vikings is smelly hairy men with no sense of personal hygiene. this is wrong.
You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking ‘but all people smelled and didn’t really wash up until about 150 years ago’ and you’d be right but, the Scandinavians of the late first Millenia were known for their relatively good hygiene. Where written sources are lacking, recent archaeological sites have given us a wonderful insight into the world of the Vikings, a place that previously we have only been able to speculate about, and one slightly surprising discovering is the sheer amount of grooming tools found. In many viking burial sites, combs, brushes, razors, tweezers and even ear spoons (basically cotton buds but made of bone) were found amongst the other prize possessions usually found in the burial sites of highborn and noble Vikings.
An 8th Century Comb found at a Viking village in Ribe in Denmark, SOURCE: National Geographic
The discovery of tools such as combs doesn’t seem like a very important find but, it reenforces the believe that Viking men and women took great pride in their appearance, with the few contemporary sources we do have stating that the Danes were known for bathing at least once a week and, that the men would actively try to dye their hair blonde.
But what did they actually give us?
The Vikings and the Viking Age was a brutal time to be alive, death and disease was around every corner, but it didn’t mean that there were no cultural additions. In Anglo-Saxon England, the Vikings found for themselves, fertile, rich lands where, after a considerable amount of raiding and fighting, could settle and get back to farming. Danish and Norse men where more than happy to intermarry with the native populations, learning to become part of the societies that they lived along side. place names that end in ‘Thorpe’ or ‘ness’ can find their roots in the Scandinavian settlers that set up shop in the British isles, with most words in English ending in ‘ing’ having Viking roots.
Another slightly surprising aspect of Viking life was the treatment of women. No, I am not saying that women were treated anywhere close to fair but, compared to most societies the time, the females of Scandanavia were relatively well looked after. Able to divorce and inherit land, Viking women lived much freer lives than say their Frankish or Saxon counterparts.
The Vikings were able to easily blend into different cultures, especially in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland mainly because the languages spoke were so interchangeable. As both Old Norse and Old English (Anglo-Saxon English) came from Proto-Germanic languages, lots of the words were similar or at least allowed the languages to grow over time.
They were bad people though, right?
As with all people of history, using 21st century morals to decide ‘good vs bad’, is always going to yield more bad than good with the Vikings no exception. The Viking way of life was harsh and brutal, with life expectancy around 35 years, life was quick and often painful. One of the main ‘goods’ that the Danes and Norse traded in was people, with slaves propping up the economies of northern Europe. No one was safe from the slave ship, with men and women of all walks of life being sold into slavery throughout the world, making Viking raiding parties richer than any amount of fur trading would. England and the afore mentioned Slavic lands around the Volga river, were poplar slaving destinations, selling them to the Byzantines and the Arab world.
First and foremost, the Scandinavian people we call ‘Vikings’ were traders trying to make it in a world full of religious fanaticism, violence and death and I think, they added a lot more than they took away. The Viking age ended in and around the year 1066, ironically the year that a Norman Duke of Viking decent, invaded a country that was heavily influenced by Viking culture but that wouldn’t be the end of Viking-mania. Throughout history, the Vikings are their way of life have fasinated history fans both casual and professional with some, adding some ‘artistic flairs’ to the truth. With a culture so mysterious and wrapped up in mythology, it’s easy to embellish Viking history with arguably the most famous embellishment of all time, coming in the form of horned helmets. There is virtually no proof of any, I mean any, horned helmets begin worn by Vikings but, for some reason, we keep that lie alive (looking at you Minnesota Vikings).
I hope you enjoyed this and would love to hear what you think, please leave me a comment and follow me on Instagram @chrisriley_ for more medieval history!
Thanks for Reading.
