How Did The Old Norse Trim Their Nails
Although the Vikings are routinely depicted as rough, grimy, and violent, they were actually quite refined, took personal hygiene seriously, and wore fine clothes ornamented by jewelry. Some Christian chroniclers who condemned the Vikings as well note their fine clothing and attending to personal appearance.
Norse Clothing as Depicted in the Vikings
Viking clothing was made of wool, linen, and animal hides, and for the wealthy, silk. Combs – which it seemed most every Viking carried – were carved from antler, bone, ivory, and wood and often kept in their ain cases. Jewelry of the upper course was fashioned from silver, golden, gemstones, and polished drinking glass, only the lower class adorned themselves within their limits besides, using tin, lead, iron, and possibly copper. Shoes and boots were made of animal hibernate and without heels. Except for slaves, more often than not speaking, Scandinavians were well-dressed and took not bad pride in their personal appearance. They began each morning with a personal hygiene regimen, and Saturday was prepare bated for bathing and washing dress; a practice the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers plant both foreign and objectionable.
The Viking reputation for being well-clean-cut comes from Christian accounts condemning such beliefs as vain posturing.
Vikings were Scandinavians (though not all Scandinavians were Vikings), and their emphasis on being well-groomed and dressed reflected the value of the larger culture. Information technology has been suggested that the concept of Fate played a function in this as one never knew the day of ane's death and so should always look ane's best for the inevitable arrival in the afterlife. Norse poesy, notably the Hávamál and Reginsmál, emphasize the importance of beginning the day "combed and washed" as there was no telling where 1 might be by evening or fifty-fifty if one would however be amid the living.
The soul of the departed was thought to arrive at one of the various afterlife destinations looking equally one had in life. The heroes of Valhalla, for example, have their aforementioned armor and weaponry as when they died. Dressing and grooming oneself daily ensured ane would not have to exist ashamed in the presence of the gods and souls that had gone before and also had cosmic significance in maintaining social club and staving off the cataclysm of Ragnarök that would end the world.
Sources on Viking Apparel, Hygiene, & Jewelry
Data on Viking clothes comes from archaeological prove, creative representations, and works written by their enemies. Scholar Kirsten Wolf comments:
Two kinds of testify may be distinguished [in determining what Viking Historic period Scandinavians wore]. 1 comprises scraps of cloth that have been preserved through contact with brooches, and these fragments provide information about the types of fabric used. Moreover, the placement of the brooches, which were used primarily as clothes fasteners, on a fully clothed corpse offer hints almost the designs and cuts of the dress. The other consists of contemporary figurative art, such as the Gotlandic picture show stones erected between the fifth and the eleventh century, figure pendants, and the tapestry found in the Oseberg transport-burial. (100-101)
Grave goods take provided some of the most interesting evidence of Viking mode in that women were cached with a significant corporeality of jewelry which included brooches that held their cloak or tunic in place. Since textiles can be preserved through contact with metals, pieces of cloth have been found that propose the kind of vesture worn and even how it was worn. Female person mode is amend attested than that of males in grave goods equally many men were cremated. Some of the Gotland picture stones also provide insight into Norse fashion such as the i depicting Odin arriving in the afterlife which shows female person and male attire.
Odin on Sleipnir (Tjängvide image stone)
The Viking reputation for beingness well-groomed comes from Christian accounts condemning such behavior as vain posturing which seduced Christians into emulating pagan ways so angering God. After the Viking sack of the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793, the scholar Alcuin (d. c. 804) wrote a number of letters to English language kings denouncing those Christians who had begun dressing and caring for themselves equally the pagan Vikings did since this had obviously incurred God'south wrath. The Viking raids in Uk, he claimed, were a penalization from God for the people's sin of self-intendance apparent in their emulation of the Vikings:
Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people. Look at your trimming of the beard and hair, in which you lot take wished to resemble the pagans. Are you not menaced past terror of them whose manner you lot wished to follow? (Somerville & McDonald, 187)
Christian writings routinely demonize the Vikings only periodically allow slip the Christian resentment for the better-groomed – and sweeter-smelling – Scandinavian invaders. Scholar Magnus Magnusson cites the 13th-century English chronicler John of Wallingford'southward famous passage in which he justifies the massacre of the Danes in 1002:
The Danes made themselves too acceptable to English women by their elegant manners and their intendance of their person. They combed their hair every solar day, bathed every Sat, and fifty-fifty changed their garments oft. They set off their persons past many such frivolous devices. In this manner, they laid siege to the virtue of the married women and persuaded the daughters, fifty-fifty of the nobles, to be their concubines. (135)
The English resentment of the newcomers certainly was non solely due to the Vikings' better grooming and hygienic habits, only these added to the tensions in Britain since, equally Magnusson observes, the Viking custom of "taking baths and changing their underwear gave them an unfair advantage over their Anglo-Saxon rivals for the angel of the local maidens" (135). Viking hygiene was only one aspect of their allure, however, as they besides paid careful attention to their clothing and accessories.
Men's Clothing
The Vikings wore their apparel in layers showtime 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 in that location is no actual evidence for undergarments. The next layer was a knee joint-length tunic and trousers. There seem to have been ii types of these, a loose-plumbing fixtures and a more than class-fitting top and lesser. A chugalug was worn around the waist from which a pocketknife and purse were sometimes suspended as well as other personal items, such as charms. The tunic was bloused above the belt and fell to mid-thigh.
Scandinavian lodge was divided into iii classes:
- Jarls – elite
- Karls – the lower class
- Thralls – slaves
The outfit described above would take been the basic daily vesture of a jarl or karl. A jarl would so accessorize with a cloak, sometimes fur-lined or bordered with silk. Coats, jackets, and cloaks were sometimes embroidered with gold or argent thread. A karl might wear a woolen jacket over the outer shirt and both classes would have worn some form of jewelry, most often necklaces and armbands, and headpieces, which served to keep their hair in place. Thralls wore simply a woolen knee-length tunic clasped at the waist by a chugalug or rope.
Viking Historic period Clothing
There were two types of shoes – soled and hide – the soled were made by stitching ane kind of animal hide to a rougher sole, while the hide shoe was a single piece stitched to itself. The hibernate shoe was more like a very thick sock i slipped on and tied above the ankle with lacing. Boots were usually soled shoes and were made from cowhide and deerskin.
Women'due south Clothing
Women's clothing was less varied than men'south simply also consisted of layers first with an undergarment of wool or linen. Upper-class women would have worn a linen chemise, either sleeved or sleeveless, with a apparel over it suspended by straps over the shoulders. Dresses were worn loose or more form-plumbing fixtures depending on how they were arranged on a woman and how tightly clasped. The wearing apparel was wrapped around the woman and held in identify by a brooch or brooches which dictated how it draped the figure. Wolf comments:
From 1 of these brooches, commonly the correct, textile implements like pair of scissors, tweezers, an awl, or a needle case might hang on straps, and between the brooches festoons of chaplet might be suspended sometimes with the improver of bister or silver pendants. Around the waist a belt was worn with knife and purse and, if the woman was a housekeeper, keys to the meal or treasury breast. Married women might besides vesture a tall headdress or a scarf around their hair. (104)
Both men and women favored headwear of three basic types: a peaked hat, a close-fitting wool cap, and a fillet (headband) of metal. Hooded cloaks were likewise popular with the upper class as were sleeved cloaks and shawls held in place past an ornate brooch. Women's headgear seems to have been more than elaborate only, again, this is difficult to substantiate since, every bit noted, more female jewelry equally grave goods have been preserved and so there is less male person headgear to compare it with. The most famous piece of Viking headgear – the horned helmet – was either used only in ceremonies or was a construct of Christian chroniclers. Viking helmets had no horns and no wings as such ornamentation would have been impractical in battle.
Viking Age Oval Brooches from Hedeby
Women, similar men, wore both soled and hide footwear, sometimes decorated, and also favored neckwear more elaborate than those worn past men. Women'due south necklaces were often made of polished beads or gemstones but could also be of silvery or gold. Men's neckwear was oft simpler, sometimes glass beads surrounding an amulet of Thor's hammer or some other talisman.
Jewelry
Norse jewelry was varied and worn by both sexes. Amid the items favored were neck rings, necklaces, bracelets, finger and toe rings, armrings, earrings, amulets and pendants, armbands, chaplet, and brooches. Wolf comments on the popularity, and necessity, of the brooch:
Brooches were what one may call obligatory jewelry in that they had a function in the costumes as fasteners. Many brooches take been constitute ranging from individualized items of precious metals to mass produced items of base of operations and cheap materials. The latter were sometimes gilded to give them the appearance of gold and argent. The domed, oval brooches used by women to fasten their dresses are the nearly common. Worn in pairs, they are commonly 10-12 cm (3.9-4.7 in.) long with assuming relief ornament and sometimes ornamented with filigree. The ornament is typically a kind of "gripping animate being" decoration. (105)
Neck rings were typically worn by men and were fabricated by metal rods twisted together sometimes supporting a gem, amulet, or pendant while women's necklaces, equally noted, were more elaborate. Finger rings differed between the sexes merely in size as did armrings, although both armrings and armbands (thicker arm rings) too seem to have held ceremonial and social significance.
The Norse armring was essentially a wallet. It was designed to exist easily bent & a piece broken off to be offered in trade for appurtenances & services.
The Norse armring was essentially a wallet. It was designed to be hands bent and a piece cleaved off to be offered in trade for goods and services. The arm ring also served to mark the transition of a boy to a man or as a gift from someone of college social status to a subordinate. An case of this is the figure of King Hrothgar in Beowulf who is known as a "ring-giver" – a generous lord who bestows gifts freely on those who please him.
One of the most popular pieces of jewelry, besides the brooch, was the pendant which took many forms. Pendants usually honored the gods and so could take the form of a throne, of a horse in honor of Odin's steed Sleipnir, different weapons associated with deities, and the near popular of all, Thor'due south hammer Mjölnir. Thor's hammer as a pendant was understood not but as a protective amulet confronting threats only a source of personal force one could draw on in navigating ane'southward manner through life.
Thor'southward Hammer Amulet
Fate & Personal Appearance
In Norse conventionalities, i'due south fate was decided at nativity, but what ane did betwixt birth and death was entirely up to the individual. In the Völuspá from the Poetic Edda, the seeress describes the Norns (Fates) who live in the roots of the Earth Tree Yggdrasil by the Well of Urd and weave the destinies of all living things:
3 wise women
Live there,
By that well
Under that tree.
Urth is named 1,
Another is Verthandi,
The tertiary is named Skuld.
They carve men's fates,
They decide destiny's laws,
They choose the lifespan
Of every human child
And how each life will end.(Poesy xx, Crawford, vi)
The private had no fashion of knowing what the Fates had decided and so the best course was to live each mean solar day every bit if it were the last. Ane aspect of living well was attending to personal appearance, encouraged by passages in Norse poetry like the Hávamál and Reginsmál. Both works have verses specifically admonishing an audition to care for their appearance before leaving home in the morning:
Every human being should
Keep himself well-kempt and clean,
And eat upward in the morning.
You never know
Where you'll be in the evening,
Then it's bad to leave abode hungry.(Reginsmál, 25; Crawford 240)
You should always go out
With your hair combed
And a meal in your belly,
Even if y'all can't afford good clothes.
Y'all should not be aback
Of your shoes and pants
Nor of your equus caballus,
Even if information technology'south not a good one.(Hávamál, 61; Crawford 28)
The importance of one'southward appearance in daily life is emphasized in both verses, simply self-care in preparation also had cosmic significance in that one's private efforts helped maintain the collective order of the Nine Realms of Norse cosmology. Humans lived in just ane of these ix realms which would all be destroyed at Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods, when the forces of chaos would interruption their bonds and face the gods in a final battle.
Viking Age Comb
At the beginning of Ragnarök, the great wolf Fenrir howls outside the gates of Hel, and his sister provides him with an army of the dead to fight against the gods. This ground forces is brought to the battlefield past the ship Naglfar which is made of the fingernails (and perchance toenails) of the dead. The send cannot sail until it is consummate and cannot exist completed until it has plenty homo nails. Trimming one's nails was understood as contributing to universal order because, if one died with unkempt nails, one brought Naglfar one pace closer to completion.
Conclusion
Vikings, and Scandinavians in full general, understood they were living in the last days considering the first sign of the coming of Ragnarök – the death of the god Baldr – had already occurred. One'due south individual fate – likewise as the collective fate of the Nine Realms – had already been sealed by the Norns and so the all-time one could do was savour life as much as possible and this included appearing well-dressed. Although some manufactures of clothing were left with their natural pigmentation, many were dyed bright colors such equally blue (from woad), dark-green (from woad and a yellow substance), royal (from lichen and woad), blood-red (from madder), and xanthous (peradventure from onion skins) as well as other colors such as brown from mixing walnut shells with other elements.
Although Vikings are routinely imagined every bit bloodthirsty savages rampaging through terrified towns and cities (which they certainly did do), they were actually far more cultivated and cultured than the chroniclers responsible for that reputation. Bathing and personal hygiene was not a Christian value as information technology was associated with pagan practices. Alcuin's charge against those Christians emulating Viking way was not the but one as a number of Christian scribes, before and after the Viking Age, denounce personal hygiene as vanity.
To the Vikings, however, the Christians were the savages who conspicuously failed to grasp the importance of bathing, laundering wearable, and looking one's all-time. Reports on finds in Viking tombs frequently emphasize the weaponry, just it is far more common to observe implements in graves associated with grooming such as tweezers, combs, toothpicks, and washing bowls. The Vikings epitomized the concept of "dress for success" and wore it well fifty-fifty though this aspect of the culture has been largely ignored in modern-solar day representations.
This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication.
Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1840/viking-hygiene-clothing--jewelry/
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