What did the Vikings look like?

The Vikings were "as tall as date palms." - Ibn Fadlan, Arab traveler. Actually, the Vikings averaged only 5' 8" (1.72 meters) in height. - Robert Wernick, from The Vikings. The Vikings had "coppery fair hair", or "red-blond" hair. - Rudolf Poertner, from The Vikings, The Rise and Fall of the Norse Sea Kings. "The name Russia itself comes from the word Rus, which is what the Slavs called the Vikings." Rus is the Slavic word for "red" and was used because so many Vikings had reddish hair. - Rebecca Stetoff, from The Viking Explorers. About a hundred years ago one researcher reported that nineteen per cent of the residents of Amlid, Norway had red hair.  Among the Scotch, notable for this rufous characteristic, the proportion is seldom above half of this!  Red melanin affects the hair color of Scandinavians in other ways, too. The presence of red melanin in blond hair changes it from ash-blond to a golden-blond color. When red melanin is mixed with plain brunet hair it changes it to chestnut-brown. Under certain lighting conditions, it can even be seen in jet-black hair. The Irish called the Norwegian Vikings "blond strangers" and the Danish Vikings "dark-haired strangers". - Margaret Mulvihill, from Viking Longboats. Actually, it was the Norwegian Vikings that were "of a dark or black complexion", and the Danes were more fair-haired. - Thomas William Shore, from Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race. But one scholar believes that the Irish chronicler was not referring to the hair color of the Norwegian and Danish Vikings, but rather to the color of their shields or clothing. For example, the very first Scandinavian tribe to invade Italy, the "Cimbers", were said to have painted their shields white, the Saxons red, and the Frisians brown. So, the Norwegian shields that the Irishmen saw may have been white and the Danish shields black. Even though the Irish monk may not have been referring to hair color or complexion, Thomas William Shore insisted that "Norwegians of a brunette appearance" may be another source of "brown-complexioned people" in England. He suspected that the reason for the Herfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire brunettes is partly due to the settlement of Norwegians "of the dark type." That dark-complected Vikings existed at all is illustrated by the Viking nicknames Svart, Suartin, Suardine, and Suartine, all meaning "dark-haired". Halfden the Black was a ninth-century Norwegian king. There are also many scholars that believe that dark Norwegians formed a very ancient settlement in Norway of the pre-historic race that survives in the highlands of central Europe and was referred to by Shore as the "brown Alpine race". But were brunette Scandinavians all that common? Let's look at census data for western Norway, the region that produced most of the Norwegian Vikings. Is the dominant hair color of western Norwegians "Ash-blond", "Golden-blond", or "Fair"? No. It is "Brown and rufous". Previous Page......Next Page