Cleanliness - Did Vikings Take Baths?

The Vikings have long had the reputation of being filthy, wild animals. Even in modern day
films the Vikings are usually portrayed as dirty savages. However, close examination of the
facts seem to dispel the myth of the filthy Viking.
It's important to remember that most of our accounts of the Vikings come from Christian
writers. A Viking writer would not be likely to give an account of the general cleanliness of
his people as a whole. The Christian writers were writing about a fearsome group of pagan
people who were ravaging Europe. A Christian writer would have had a strong bias to
present the evil pagans in the worst light. To this day it is the writings of these Christians
which give us the impression that Vikings were physically powerful, terrifying, and dirty
savages. The reality of what a Viking was seems to be very different than conventional
wisdom.

What we do know from the excavation of Viking burial mounds is that personal grooming
tools are some of the most common items found. Items such as razors, tweezers and ear
spoons have been found. In fact combs seem to be the most common artefact found from
the Viking Age. We also know that the Vikings made a very strong soap which was used not
only for bathing, but also for bleaching their hair. Vikings bleached their hair as it seems
blond hair was highly valued in the Viking World.
Accounts of Anglo-Saxons describing the Vikings who attacked and ultimately settled in
England suggest the Vikings might be considered to be ‘clean-freaks’, because they would
bathe once a week. This was at a time when an Anglo-Saxon might only bath once or twice a
year. In fact the original meaning of Scandinavian words for Saturday (laurdag / lørdag /
lördag) was ‘Washing Day’.
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Viking combs.

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Viking ear scoop.

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A Viking hot spring bath in Iceland.

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Arabs who encountered Scandinavians who had journeyed eastward depicted them as
handsome people but filthy and barbaric.

They are the filthiest of all Allah’s creatures: they do not purify themselves after excreting or
urinating or wash themselves when in a state of ritual impurity after coitus and do not even
wash their hands after food.

The Arab writer Ahmad ibn Fadlan noted the above after meeting Viking travellers around a
thousand years ago.

The aforementioned writer Ahmad ibn Fadlan was not fully repulsed by the Scandinavians
he met:

I have never seen more perfect physiques than theirs – they are like palm trees, are fair and
reddish, and do not wear the tunic or the caftan.

Ahmad ibn Fadlan describes funeral rites which generally conform to the Norse rituals of
Scandinavia, but were very exotic for an Islamic intellectual:

In the case of a rich man, they gather together his possessions and divide them into three
portions, one third for his household, one third with which to cut funeral garments for him,
and one third with which they ferment alcohol which they drink on the day when his slave-
girl kills herself and is burned together with her master.

Hanne Jakobsen

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Where did the Vikings Trade?

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Viking traders went west as far as Newfoundland in the New World, and East as far as the
Volga River, down to Constantinople. When the Vikings left their homelands in the
beginning of the Viking Age in the 790s, they didn’t just go to raid and loot. Many of them
set out to discover or open new trade routes, to establish a more secure foundation of
future income. In general, the men of Sweden went east to Russia while Norwegians and the
Danes went to the west to Ireland and Scotland, England and France. All along the way they
traded the goods of the north such as fur, amber, iron and walrus tusks for goods they
needed from other places. They also traded in slaves.

Western Trade

Vikings raided, traded and settled all along Europe’s coasts. For 300 years, churches would
pray to be spared the “wrath of the Norsemen.” The Vikings were equal opportunity traders
and raiders. If they found an unprotected church or monastery, they’d raid. If they came to
a well-defended town, they would set up trade. Early in the Viking Age, trade was done by
direct barter. Eventually, Viking traders obtained a great deal of trade silver and Arabic
coins, which then was used to buy goods.

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 Vikings established home bases and trade centres in both Dublin, Ireland and York,
England. Not only did these towns attract international traders, but many Viking craftsmen
settled there. Their workshops produced cups, tableware, glass beads, pottery, drinking
glasses, bone and antler combs, leather goods, jewellery, and cloth. Blacksmiths and
armour makers produced swords, battle axes, chainmail and armour.

During the Viking Age, Norsemen traded all up and down the coasts of Europe,
establishing new homes in many locations. They took over and settled Normandy in
France and southern Italy. They settled on all the Atlantic islands, the Orkneys, Shetland,
Hebrides, Scilly and Isle of Man. Eventually, these Vikings intermarried and settled in
permanently.

Hedeby, market centre in the Viking Age. Hedeby was located in Southern Denmark.

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Eastern Trade
Vikings had always traded around the Baltic Sea, but in the 8th century, they began to
venture into Russia, looking to establish profitable trade routes. The Norsemen, mostly
Swedes with some Danes and Norwegians, found they could go south by river routes. The
two main trade routes were via the Dnieper River down to the Black Sea and the Volga River
route to the Caspian Sea. Vikings established trade centres and towns along the way,
notably Novgorod and Kiev. Another trade town was Bulgar, where the Volga Bulgars ran
the trade along with the Rus, as these Vikings came to be called.
Vikings fostered close ties with Constantinople, becoming the Varangian guard to the
Byzantine emperor. From Constantinople, Baghdad and perhaps even Persia, the Vikings
could obtain goods from the Far East. Timber, iron, furs, amber, soapstone, whetstones and
slaves were carried south by Viking traders. On return trips to the north, the cargo
contained Arabic silver, coins, fabrics, spices, silk, fruit, wine and other goods of the south.

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By the end of the Viking Age, Norsemen had created a trading empire, covering most of the
known world.
Vikings as Traders" History on the Net© 2000-2019, Salem Media.
October 1, 2019 [Link]

How were the Vikings governed?

During the Viking Age, the Norse had an oral culture and only rune writing existed. However,
the Vikings had both law and government even without written law. All free men of the
Vikings would gather in their communities to make law and to decide cases in a meeting
called a Thing. Each community had its own independent Thing.
Rather than have all disputes settled by duel or family feuds, the Thing was instituted to
both write Viking law and to decide cases of disputes within the law. The Thing met at
specific, regular times. Each Thing had a law speaker who would recite the law from
memory. The law speaker and the local chieftain would judge and settle the cases of dispute
they heard, although all free men of the community had a say. Things were most likely
dominated by a local, powerful family or families.
At the lowest level were the local, community Things. The community Thing was then
represented at the next higher level Thing. In Iceland, disputes and laws were finally settled
at the national Thing, or the Althing.
Malefactors who were tried at the Thing and found guilty were either fined, declared semi-outlaw or
fully outlawed. To be an outlaw was a dreadful punishment for a Viking. That person was put outside
of Viking law, banished from society and his property confiscated. They were to receive no help, no
food and no support from anyone. Besides the terrible loneliness, these people could be killed by
anyone. They often fled the country and tried to settle in some other location.

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