Hurstwic: Health and Medicine in the Norse era

Health, Grooming, and Medicine in the Viking Age

Personal appearance. People kept a neat appearance during the Viking age. One of the few naturalistic renderings of the human face from the Viking age is the antler carving shown to the left. He wears a helmet, with his hair neat and trim. On his face, he wears a beard and a long moustache.

Literary evidence suggests that women wore their hair long. When Hallgerðr met Gunnar in chapter 33 of Brennu-Njáls saga, she is said to have thick, fair hair that came down to her breasts. In addition, the medieval lawbook Grágás (K254) prohibited women from wearing their hair short, one of several masculine traits that was specifically forbidden by the laws.

We know little about the details of face and body features, but it is safe to say that Scandinavians in the Viking age had features that closely resembled modern Scandinavians today.

The average height of men in Norway in the Viking era, based on skeletal measurements, was 176cm (5ft 9in), with a range from 170-181cm (5ft 7in to 5ft 11in), which was taller than other Europeans during this time. The average height of women was 160cm (5ft 3in), with a range from 149-164cm (4ft 11in to 5ft 5in).

Ibn Fadlan, an Arab who met Viking traders in Russia in the year 921, commented that the men were tall like palm trees.

It is likely that all men had facial hair. The stories say that men who were unable to grow a beard were mocked. For example, Brennu-Njáls saga tells the story of Njáll Þorgeirsson, who was beardless. Chapter 20 says that he was married, with six children, and that he was wealthy and handsome, but that he had a peculiarity: he could not grow a beard. In chapter 44, Hallgerðr asked some gossiping beggarwomen what was going on at Njál's farm at Bergþórshváll. The women said that Njál's sons were preparing for battle, and his farmhands were spreading manure on the hayfield to fertilize it. Hallgerðr wondered why they didn't spread it on Njál's chin, so his beard would grow. She gave Njáll the name "Old Beardless", and his sons "Little-Dungbeards". Sigmundr composed scandalous poetry using the new names.

Njál's son, Skarpheðinn, repaid Sigmundr for the verses by driving his axe through Sigmund's shoulder, forcing him to his knees, and then by splitting Sigmund's head with his next blow.

Hair washing and cutting was a function performed by women for men and seems to have usually been performed outdoors. In chapter 18 of Víglundar saga, Víglundur asked Ketilríður to cut and wash his hair before he left for Norway. After the job was done, he promised her to permit no one else to cut and wash his hair as long as she was alive.

In chapter 21 of Heiðarvíga saga, Barði stopped to collect Odd to ride to the heath where the revenge killings were to take place. Barði found that Odd's wife was washing his hair. Odd's horse was saddled, and his weapons were prepared. But the final preparation for the trip was a cleansing. Barði asked Odd's wife to finish the job properly before their departure.

The medieval Icelandic lawbook Grágás (St 361) calls for the most severe penalties for a man who makes someone dirty in order to disgrace him. Similarly, pushing a man into water or urine or food or dirt resulted in the same penalties, whatever the reason.

A variety of grooming aids are common archaeological finds in virtually every occupied site. They're so common that one has to conclude that they were in wide use, and they are found in both male and female graves.

Shown to the left are modern reproductions of a comb (top), and from left to right below, an ear wax scraper, a toothpick, and a pair of tweezers. These reproduction items are made from bone or antler, although some luxury items from the Norse era were made from ivory. In addition, a variety of wash basins have been found at archaeological sites.

A historical comb from the 9^th century is shown in a sketch to the right. Like most of the archaeological finds, it has much finer teeth than the reproduction shown to the left. It has been suggested that comb-making was a specialized activity in the Viking age performed by skilled craftsmen, rather than at home by individual farmers.

Grooming. Evidence from both literary sources and archaeological sources shows that cleanliness, good hygiene, and regular grooming were a part of Norse life. The Norse poetic literature emphasizes the need for cleanliness and regular grooming. Here are two examples:

From Reginsmál (25):

Kemðr ok þveginn     skal kœnna hverr    | Combed and washed every thoughtful man should be
     ok at morni mettr;                  | and fed in the morning;
þvíat ósýnt er,     hvarat apni kømr;    | for one cannot foresee where one will be by evening;
     illt er fyr heill at hrapa.         | it is bad to rush headlong before one's fate.

From Hávamál (61):

Þveginn ok mettr     ríði maðr þingi at,           | Washed and fed, a man should ride to the Assembly
     þótt hann séð væddr til vel;                  | though he may not be very well dressed;
skúa ok bróka     skammiz engi maðr,               | of his shoes and breeches no man should be ashamed
     né hestz in heldr,     þótt hann hafit góðan. | nor of his horse, though he doesn't have a good one.

Besides the comments in the poems and stories, there is other evidence that the Norse were regular bathers. Hot spring baths built in the Norse era still exist in modern Iceland. The photo to the left shows the bath built by Snorri Sturluson at his farm at Reykholt, around the year 1210. It's fed by water piped from separate hot and cold water springs, so the temperature can be adjusted to suit. The door in the hillside behind the bath leads to a tunnel which probably led back to Snorri's farmhouse.

The sketch shows the appearance of Snorralaug (Snorri's bath) as it looked in the 19^th century. The farm of Reykholt is on the hill above the bath.

The bath is about 4 meters in diameter (13 feet), with stone steps leading down into the pool. There are bench seats around the periphery below the water for comfortable lounging.

Even in winter, the bath at Reykholt was probably very inviting, warm and relaxing. Snorri apparently spent many hours in the bath daily.

I would, too, with a view as splendid as this. Other than the modern buildings, the vista in Snorri's time was probably similar.

Not surprisingly, hot springs baths drew bathers from a wide area. Shelters built at the bath served not only bathers, but also women who were washing clothes in the hot water. Bathing in the hot springs was also a social activity. While Kjartan was wooing Guðrún, he timed his visits to the hot springs bath to coincide with hers, as described in chapter 39 of Laxdæla saga.

(Kjartan and Guðrún wouldn't recognize the bath at Laugar today; the hot water is collected and piped to the nearby school and community center.)

The reconstructed hot bath Grettislaug is shown to the left. After Grettir swam from his island hideaway Drangey across the cold waters of Skagafjörður, his first stop was at the hot bath to warm up, as described in chapter 75 of Grettis saga.

The bath is regularly used by Icelanders and visitors, even if they didn't just swim from Drangey. I can attest that it's a wonderful place to spend a blissful hour soaking in the hot water.

Not all baths were as nicely turned out as Grettislaug. The photo to the left shows the hot springs on the hillside at Laugarhús in Hrafnkelsdalur. When turf is added to the dam in the foreground, warm water collects in the muddy depression around the source of the hot spring in the background.

Today, the water is collected and used for drinking water for the sheep at Laugarhús.

Another form of Icelandic bathhouse is described in chapter 28 of Eyrbyggja saga. It was an outbuilding, dug into the ground. It had a window set above a stone oven so that water could be thrown onto the oven from the outside, making the bathhouse very hot.

Some longhouses had rooms which are thought to have been used as sweatrooms, an early precursor to the modern Swedish sauna.

The Anglo-Saxon defenders of England realized that the Norse invaders took regular baths, and were known to delay their attack until Norse bath time, when the Norseman had shed their clothes (and their weapons).

John of Wallingford, the abbot of St. Albans Abbey wrote in his chronicles that the Norse invaders in England were far more attractive to Anglo-Saxon women since, unlike Anglo-Saxon men, they combed their hair daily, took baths weekly, and changed their clothing regularly.

A treaty negotiated in the year 907 between the Byzantine Empire and the Rus (the Norse people from Sweden and the east Baltic area who traded with Byzantium) contained most of the usual provisions one might expect: the Byzantium empire was obliged to give the Rus traders food, drink, and supplies for their ships. However, an unusual condition in the treaty was that Byzantium was required to provide baths for the Rus "as often as they want them".

At Alþing, people bathed in the Öxará river, below the bridge. In the time of the sagas, the bridge was probably situated about where the modern church is located (the left-most building in the photo). The bathing area was probably to the right of the modern farm house, where the river widens as it approaches the adjacent lake.

In chapter 8 of Hrafnkels saga, Sámr and Þorbjörn bathed in the river early one morning. While washing, they saw Þorkell for the first time, who later agreed to help them in their dispute with Hrafnkell.

Health. Studies of burial remains from the Viking age suggest that good health and long life were possible for at least some of the population. For example, a recent study of 11^th and 12^th century skeletal remains from Skeljastaðir in Iceland showed that the population was generally healthy. But that is not to say that life was free of disease and pestilence.

In trading towns, where dense population made adequate sanitation difficult, many people probably suffered routinely from ill-health. The sediment off-shore from the trading town at Birka contains eggs of human parasites, which would have caused nausea, diarrhea, and other illnesses among the residents of the town.

Good health was seen as an extension of good luck. So preventative medicine consisted primarily of chants and charms that would maintain one’s good fortune. The eddaic poetry is full of charms for the maintenance of health in daily life, such as those in Hávamál.

Runic inscriptions were used as magic to maintain health. Chapters 73 and 77 of Egils saga Skalla-grímssonar tell how a young woman's health was first ruined through the use of improper runes, and then restored by correct runes. The runes were carved on a whalebone placed under the woman's bed.

Medicine. In addition to magical arts, the medical arts were also practiced in the Norse era. Classical herbal remedies appear to have been known, along with local herbs specific to the Norse region. Medical treatments consisted of: lancing; cleaning wounds; anointing; bandaging; setting broken bones; the preparation of herbal remedies; and midwifery. The 13^th century Icelandic law book Grágás says that one must hold harmless a person who bleeds or cauterizes someone for the good of their health [St364], suggesting those techniques were known and used.

Studies of skeletal remains from the Viking age show evidence of fractures that have healed in ribs, and bones of the arms and legs. The stories also provide evidence of broken limbs that were manipulated to allow the bones to knit more satisfactorily. In chapter 10 of Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, Gunnlaug's ankle was twisted out of joint in a wrestling match. Later, his foot was bandaged and the joint re-set. (Þá var vafiður fóturinn og í liðinn færður.) In Íslendinga saga (which takes place after the Viking age, in 12^th century Iceland), it is said that Loptr broke his leg one summer (chapter 40). When it was set, Loptr thought it too weak to stand on. He had the leg broken a second time and instructed how it should be set. When the leg knit a second time, Loptr was not very lame. In chapter 45 of Eyrbyggja saga, Þóroddr was wounded in the neck. As the wound healed, his head drooped to one side. He asked Snorri goði to reopen the wound and reset his head straighter.

In the early part of the Norse era, most of the population had to rely on themselves or on local people with special abilities. Educated medical specialists were rare. Chapter 6 of Eiríks saga rauða tells of an protracted period of disease at Lysufjorður in Greenland. The sick lay in bed in the hall, while the healthy helped them prepare for death.

An inured person sought a healer (læknir) for medical assistance. In chapter 6 of Þórðar saga hreðu, Indriði suffered gaping wounds during a battle. When asked if he might pull through, he said, "I think there is some hope of it, if a healer sees me."

Later in the Norse era, it appears that certain men chose the practice of medicine as their livelihood. In chapter 28 of Magnúss saga ins góða, King Magnús the Good chose twelve men to bandage men’s wounds after the battle on Lyrskov Moor in 1043. These men subsequently acquired reputations as medical men. From these men, several notable families of physicians descended, including the Icelander Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, who was highly regarded for his healing skills. His grave is shown to the right.

Archaeological evidence from grave sites shows that surgery was performed from time to time, some of which was successful (i.e., the patient lived for a time after the procedure). In addition, some of the late literature (e.g., Biskupa sogur) suggests that surgery was occasionally performed.

In more densely settled areas, such as trading towns, epidemics must have been occasional occurrences. Smallpox, dysentery, and leprosy are recorded in the literature. The Norse must have faced these with resignation, since little could be done to control them.

A mass grave at the winter camp of the Viking Great Army in Repton (England) suggests that the people buried there succumbed to an epidemic of some sort. Of the several hundred individuals buried there, most were adult males with no indications that they died of battle injuries. The Viking invaders wintered over in this camp during the winter of 873-874.

Skeletal remains show that at least some people lived to old age in the Viking era, but they also show that degenerative joint disease was common in old age. The stories tell of other conditions due to old age, such as blindness and deafness. Egils saga (chapter 85) says that when Egill was an old man, he grew frail, with stiff legs, and that both his vision and hearing failed. His skill in composing poetry seems to have been unimpaired, based on the poetry he composed mocking his infirmities in old age. He was more than 80 years old then.

Battle Injuries and First Aid. Both the saga literature and forensic studies of skeletal remains suggest that battle injuries could be horrific. The skull shown to the left is from a man who died of battle injuries in the 11^th century. The top of the skull was removed by a blow from a sword. The terminus of the blow is indicated in the photo by the clear blade.

The femur (leg bone) shown to the right is from another man who died of battle injuries in the 11^th century. The bone shows clear marks of the impact of ring mail against the bone, suggesting his upper leg was hit with a sword blow so powerful as to force the rings of his mail shirt through the muscles of his leg into contact with the bone. Astonishingly, this injury was not the cause of his death. His skeletal remains show other serious injuries received in that battle. However, it was a cut that partially severed his spine at the neck that killed him.

The sagas tell of several types of first aid used during a fight. Shields were thrown over fallen men to protect them from further injury (Brennu-Njáls saga chapter 150). During Gísli's last battle (Gísla saga Súrssonar chapter 36), Eyjólf's men thrust at Gísli with spears until his guts fell out. Gísli bound his guts up in his shirt with a cord and continued fighting. When fights continued for a long time (for example Heiðarvíga saga chapter 31), a pause was called in the fighting to allow men to bind up their wounds.

An example of battlefield medicine is described in chapter 234 of Óláfs saga helga. Þormóðr was wounded by an arrow in his side. He broke off the shaft and supported his companions in the fight as best he could. After the battle had been lost, he left the field and entered the hut where the healer women were tending the wounded. One of the women inspected the wound and could see the iron arrow head, but could not determine its path to determine what internal organs it had struck. She gave Þormóðr a hot broth, containing leeks and onions and other herbs. If, after eating it, she could smell the broth from his wound, she would know that vital parts had been injured, and that the wound was fatal.

Þormóðr refused the broth. Instead, he directed the woman to cut into the wound to expose the iron arrow head. He grabbed hold of the arrow head with pincers and pulled it out. Seeing fatty fibers on the arrow head, Þormóðr said, "See how well the king keeps his men. There is fat by my heart," and he died.

Blood from a wound could be examined to determine the extent of the injuries. In chapter 45 of Eyrbyggja saga, Snorri goði examined the snow where Bergþór had lain after being injured in battle. Snorri picked up the bloody snow, squeezed it, and put it in his mouth. Realizing that it was blood from an internal wound, Snorri said that Bergþór was a dead man and there was no need to chase after him.

Saga evidence suggests that some men who suffered serious wounds continued to fight and were praised for their courage. In chapter 30 of Heiðarvíga saga, Þóroddur cut off Þorbjörn's foot at the ankle. Þorbjörn continued to fight, killing Þóroddur, then turning to fight Barði.

Both the saga literature and forensic studies of skeletal remains show that people survived serious battle injuries and lived to fight again after their wounds healed. In chapter 23 of Víga-Glúms saga, Þórarinn was struck by a blow that cut through his shoulder such that his lungs fell out. He was bound up, and Halldóra watched over him until the battle was over. Þórarinn was carried home where his wounds were treated, and over the summer, he recovered. Some skeletal remains show both unhealed battle injuries and healed battle injuries in the same skeleton, suggestion that the man suffered a wound, recovered, and then fought again later in his life.

Magic was used to heal the injuries received in a duel, as described in chapter 22 of Kormáks saga. Þórdís advised Þorvarðr to speed his recovery by reddening a nearby hill with the blood of the sacrificial bull killed by Kormákr after the duel, and by making a feast out of the meat from the bull for the elves living in the hill.

Magic was used to prevent a wound from healing, as well. In chapter 57 of Laxdæla saga, Eiður says that a wound inflicted by his sword Sköfnung would not heal unless rubbed with the sword's healing stone (lyfsteinn).

Back