Vikings were known for their excellent hygiene. Excavations of Viking sites have turned up tweezers, razors, combs and ear cleaners made from animal bones and antlers. Vikings also bathed at least once a week—much more frequently than other Europeans of their day—and enjoyed dips in natural hot springs.
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.
Vikings valued their appearance and cleanliness, they spent time, effort, and wealth on it, and they were about as clean as they practically could be during that time. Vikings equated daily combing, grooming and cleanliness with self-respect ...and personal presentation with honor and self-worth.
Researchers believe that Vikings bathed at least once a week, using hot springs, naturally flowing water, hygienic tools, and sweating techniques. The discovery of Norse grooming tools in Scandinavia, which were used for hygienic purposes, support these conclusions.
Technically, the answer is “no.” Vikings didn't have the implements we use today to actually “brush” their teeth with toothpaste and toothbrushes. However, they did clean their teeth regularly. From what we know about Viking history, these individuals were some of the cleanest groups across Europe.
The bras were often made of metal and until now scientists had thought they were used as collar-bone protection. But it is now clear these pads were worn much further down by female Vikings, according to the work in Birka, Sweden's oldest Viking centre.
A history long unrecorded
The Vikings were, of course, big talkers and long favoured oral traditions over the written word. Their culture, histories, tales and legends have been passed down through the centuries in skaldic poems. Skalds were official poets working in the service of a king, clan chief or jarl.
Vikings were known for their excellent hygiene.
Excavations of Viking sites have turned up tweezers, razors, combs and ear cleaners made from animal bones and antlers. Vikings also bathed at least once a week—much more frequently than other Europeans of their day—and enjoyed dips in natural hot springs.
Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they probably had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden. Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board and colleagues analysed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from 800 to 1050 AD.
For this point in history, however, Viking women enjoyed a high degree of social freedom. They could own property, ask for a divorce if not treated properly, and they shared responsibility for running farms and homesteads with their menfolk. They were also protected by law from a range of unwanted male attention.
Description: The waterlogged areas of the excavation at Whithorn uncovered preserved 'sheets' of moss, which had been discarded. Closer analysis revealed them to be studded with fragments of hazel nut shells, and blackberry pips.
For the most part, men, women and children brushed their teeth daily, either with a miswak, a cloth, their fingers or leaves. The Vikings had been the early advocates of personal hygiene, encouraging the use of combs and the act of washing.
Vikings had a varied and rich diet of wild and domestic meats, fruits, crops, poultry, fish, and other food they could grow, harvest, or hunt. Therefore, it is not surprising that their diet was much better and more varied than in other parts of medieval Europe.
The Vikings were more robust and muscular than the average person, and that was for both women and men. One of the reasons for this is, of course, the hard physical work, that was needed to survive in a landscape like Scandinavia in the Viking age.
As it turns out, their food was healthy, fresh, and even a poor Viking ate much better than an English peasant during the Middle Ages.
What time did Vikings go to bed? So in winter, they would have gone to sleep around 6pm, gone up to eat from midnight to 2am and then woken up around 8am. In summer you would have slept from midnight to 4am at most, if at all.
The Vikings typically lived to be around 40-50 years old. But there are also examples of upper class Vikings who lived longer – for instance Harald Fairhair, who was King of Norway for more than 60 years.
“We know from Norse sagas that hair had a great significance for Vikings as a mark of distinctiveness. They took a great deal of care with their grooming and often carried combs with their swords and knives on their belts. They frequently even took combs to the grave.”
Mead, gore, sweat, animal meat, seawater and smoke were the typical odours of a 10th century warrior.
They took cattle, money and food. It's likely they carried off women, too, he says. "They'd burn down settlements and leave a trail of destruction." It was unprovoked aggression. And unlike most armies, they came by sea, their narrow-bottomed longships allowing them to travel up rivers and take settlements by surprise.
Skeletons show that arthritis of the back, hands and knees plagued ordinary Viking farmers. Many Vikings also suffered from tooth problems. More than a quarter of the population had holes in their teeth. Finds of crania show that most Vikings had several teeth missing.
Disease-transmitting parasites such as lice, fleas and ticks are reservoirs of pathogens including plague, relapsing fever and epidemic typhus, all of which may have infected the Vikings (Fig. 3).
Beds were most likely lined with straw and animal skin. However, some historians believe that the Vikings actually slept sitting up with their backs against the wall given the limited and confined space that was available on the benches.
The Vikings wore their clothes in layers beginning with underwear of linen. Men (and women) are thought to have worn an undershirt and possibly under breeches, but this is more of an assumption as there is no actual evidence for undergarments.