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The appearance of the Vikings

According to archaeological studies, in which numerous skeletons were analyzed, and according to Scandinavian traditions, the inhabitants of Scandinavia during the Viking Age were on average slightly taller than Central Europeans and significantly taller than Arabs who came into contact with the Vikings. The Fulda Annals, which were hostile to the Vikings, report on the year 884 that among the fallen Northmen “were men such as we have never seen among the Franks in terms of beauty and height.” A century later, the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan from Baghdad also wrote about the Scandinavian Rus on the Volga, saying that they were as tall as date palms and red-haired. A later Arab source mentions that the Varangians braided their beards like horse manes.

In the rare pictorial sources, the warriors were depicted in a rather stereotypical manner: with pointed helmets, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, but never quite long hair, and a mostly carefully trimmed full or pointed beard. While there is no evidence of tattoos or piercings, another detail seems strange: many warriors had their front teeth filed down with horizontal grooves, which were also dyed black or blue.

Vikings washed regularly and apparently bathed once a week. While the Arabs criticized the fact that the Varangians in Rus all washed themselves from a shared bowl, in England, even after the end of the Viking Age, Abbot John of Wallingford complained that the Vikings combed their hair daily, bathed once a week, changed their clothes regularly, and seduced the wives and daughters of the locals with their well-groomed appearance.