What Did the Vikings Really Look Like?

The Viking Age has grown increasingly popular and has had a huge impact on modern movie, television, and video game adaptations. However, when we strip away the makeup and the props, what did a Viking actually look at? What—if anything—does Hollywood get right?

Generally, the Viking Age is understood to have lasted between the 8th and the 11th centuries. “Viking” was the name given to the raiders from Scandinavia who plagued the nations around the North Sea and beyond. Technically, the term “Viking” refers to an occupation, rather than a culture: those going “Viking” were simply going raiding. However, the term has expanded to encapsulate not just the cultures around Scandinavia but also their colonies and raiding grounds in Britain, Ireland, the North Sea, and continental Europe.

The most notable raid on English soil was in 793 CE when a warband assaulted the monastery on Lindisfarne (“Holy Island”). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports the atrocities they committed as they stole the valuables from the church complex and took the monks as slaves. This proved to be a recurring theme: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounts numerous raids on the English coast, culminating in the full-scale invasion of the Great Heathen Army in 865.

The Vikings also conquered land in Normandy, Ireland, and Scotland, and they traded and raided into Russia, the Byzantine Empire, and further into Asia. The central pillar of the Vikings’ success was their longboats. These clever crafts featured a sharp bow, with a wide, shallow midsection, allowing the sailors to traverse rivers and the bitter storms of the North Sea alike.

What we think of as the “Vikings” incorporated a diverse group of peasant farmers, fishermen, traders, warriors, and kings — much the same as other cultures in the Early Medieval Period. Thankfully, we have moved beyond the Victorian notion of barbaric, horn-wearing berserkers, but there was still much more to Viking life beyond the swashbuckling warriors of popular culture.

Cloth was expensive and time-intensive to produce in the Early Middle Ages, and, as such, most people would not have more than one or two sets of clothes. The choice of material of most individuals in Scandinavia and across Europe was wool and linen; generally, linen would be worn as an undergarment and wool on top for added warmth.

Archaeology and depictions from this period show that all classes of people loved to wear brightly colored clothing adorned with embroidered patterns and braids — bright blues, shades of green and yellow, and deep reds were all achievable with natural dyes like woad, nettle, and madder.

The staple of Viking male clothing was the tunic. This was a loose-fitting garment that reached down to the knees and was secured at the waist with a belt and at the neck with a brooch. Artwork seems to show all classes and roles in society tended to wear this basic garment and wool was the perfect fabric of choice for the chilly, North Sea climate.

It seems likely that there was very little variation in this style across Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages — it may have been difficult to spot a Viking by his tunic alone! One of the few examples we have of a male Viking tunic is the shirt from Viborg, dated to the 11th century.

In contrast, Viking women’s costumes seem to have been more distinctive. In contrast to the ankle-length tunics of Anglo-Saxon women, Scandinavian women tended to wear “apron dresses.” These consisted of fabric wrapped around the torso with shoulder straps, secured with two brooches on the chest.

The Oseberg ship burial is one of the finest Viking burials ever found and was for a high-ranking woman — probably a queen or a priestess. Despite many grave goods being looted in antiquity, the body of the woman was wrapped in a fine red wool dress, adorned with silk decorative strips.

One thing Hollywood gets right about the Vikings is their love of jewelry! In this period, jewelry served multiple purposes, illustrating status, religion, and wealth. Viking burials from Scandinavia and England have been found containing elaborate jewelry, which survives far more often than delicate leather and fabrics. Jewelry choices for men and women were different, but both sexes appeared to enjoy adorning their clothing and costumes with precious metals.

The infamous Thor’s hammer (Mjolnir) pendant appears across the Viking world and would have fulfilled a similar purpose as the Christian crucifix: for divine protection and cultural affiliation. These were spread across the Viking world and some were very impressive indeed, such as a notable silver and gold inlaid find from Norfolk.

For men, jewelry could also be a method of portable wealth. As they raided across different kingdoms with different coinage systems and monetary standards, it was often far more practical to melt down silver and gold goods into ingots. These could be smithed into finger or arm rings for convenience, offering easy payment when needed. We have finds of jewelry cut in half or hacked apart — probably a result of some price haggling at the market!

Jewelry was also a big part of women’s daily costume. Brooches were used to fasten the female apron dress, and many brooches have been found with suspension loops to hang things between them. This could take the form of beads or pendants but it was also practical; archaeology suggests this was also the place to hang keys and personal hygiene items like tweezers and ear spoons.

One example of a “set” of Viking female jewelry is a find from Frafjord, southwest Norway. This example includes oval, or tortoise, silver-plated brooches, two bracelets of bronze, an “equal-armed” brooch used to fasten the tunic, and a large, beaded necklace. This was clearly a rich burial, but the basic assemblage seems to be common across different social statuses.

The Vikings cared a lot about their hair. Combs are regularly found across Viking settlements, and they are often finely made of bone and antler and feature ornate decoration. In this way, grooming may have fulfilled a ritualistic purpose in Viking culture, rather than being just for hygiene. This occurs in some cultures to this day, with Sikhs maintaining long, uncut hair and beards (kesh), and carrying a kangha (comb) as part of the religious equipment as commanded by Guru Gobind Singh.

Stone carvings and metalwork offer rare glimpses into Viking hairstyles beyond grooming equipment. For women, this often involves braided hair or tied up into a bun, however, it is incredibly hard to discern with any real detail the hairstyles of men beyond short-to-mid-length hair and the existence of mustaches and goatees.

Christian sources generally portray long hair as a “pagan” characteristic; Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon monk, chastised King Æthelred of Northumbria for wearing his hair and beard in a way that “resembled the pagans.” The association was probably less religion-based and more to do with the growing popularity of Viking fashion in England.

Interestingly, various hair-coverings of fine materials like silk have been found in Viking settlements including York, Lincoln, and Dublin. This may suggest Viking women covered their hair, though this may also be a sign of their adoption of Christianity once they began living among the Christian Irish and Anglo-Saxons.

Popular media loves to depict Vikings as eyeshadow-wearing goths covered in tattoos, but how true is this? Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a Jewish traveler to Hedeby (modern-day northern Germany and southern Denmark) from Islamic Spain notes how both men and women wore kohl—a cosmetic made of ground stibnite—to color their eyes.

This cosmetic was widely worn in the Islamic world by men and women, and it may well have been traded in Scandinavia. Unfortunately, the original source is lost, and only later copies remain, so we cannot say for sure how reliable this comment is. Similarly, we have no sources at all for either warpaint or tattoos; the technology was there but it is probably safer to say it was an individualistic fashion choice rather than a cultural norm.

Today, the Vikings are notorious for their raiding and warring. In turn, the long-shafted broad axe has become associated with their weapon of choice. Though finds from across the Viking world have shown they made use of and valued these intimidating weapons, there were far more options in their arsenal.

The first Viking raiders were opportunists, everyday people, who turned to theft and looting — possibly due to climate change in Scandinavia making farming less effective. These individuals would have used wood axes, knives, and hunting spears: anything they may have to hand. When attacking unarmed monks, simple tools were enough!

However, in the years that followed when the warbands began to form larger armies in an attempt to conquer lands, they began to use more professional equipment. For the rich Viking warrior, the sword would have been the preferred weapon, and there are some remarkable finds from across Britain and Scandinavia of beautifully crafted blades with inlaid gold and silver. These were weapons of the elite, and only accessible to the richest of Viking warriors.

The heavily armored, professional Viking soldier would likely have worn a chainmail coat and a nasal helm. This was the de facto military uniform of most soldiers in Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages, and we see a similar outfit still in use by the Normans and Anglo-Saxons in the Bayeux Tapestry, created at the end of the Viking Age.

To onlookers, both opposing armies would have been dressed and equipped very similarly, and it was only their opposing formations and the raising of banners that allowed soldiers to tell friend from foe. Rather than imagining “Viking” weapons and armor, it is better to consider the general equipment of the period.

Whilst Hollywood has largely moved beyond portraying the Vikings as horned-helmeted barbarians, the popular concept of fur and leather-wearing, angry men in eyeshadow remains to this day. Instead, the costume of Scandinavian Vikings should be considered in the wider context of European fashion.

This is not to say Vikings were not identifiable. Their hairstyles and jewelry and some items of clothing, like the apron dresses, did set them apart from the surrounding Franks and Anglo-Saxons. Interestingly, it may have been far easier to identify a Scandinavian woman than a man, which may hint at women’s roles as carriers of cultural identity and heritage rather than men — quite a way away from the masculine and patriarchal imaginings of Vikings in pop culture!

The early Middle Ages were not a time of muddy, dirty peasants dressed in raggedy clothes, instead clothes were colorful and decorated, with individuals going great lengths to express themselves. In this sense, Vikings and the people of Scandinavia were like anyone in medieval Europe: they wore practical clothing, enjoyed jewelry and colorful clothes, but as with all cultural groups, had distinctive styles and cultural costume.

There was as much difference between a Dane and a Swede as there was between a Scandinavian and an Anglo-Saxon — perhaps it is time to move away from tropes about what a Viking looked like, and remember fashion was just as applicable then as it is now.