Normans rocking a bare-neck-haircut on the Bayeux Tapestry.
Aside from their stereotypical burning, pillaging and raping, Vikings also seem to have introduced a new hairstyle to early medieval England. But as the trend grew, some Anglo-Saxon priests started to express concern over this blending of cultures…
In the aftermath of the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793, the Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar Alcuin wrote an admonishing letter to King Æthelred of Northumbria (d. 796). Alcuin had noted how the king and his nobles had not been at their best behaviour, not-so-subtly implying that if the Northumbrians would only live modestly and humbly that such horrible events as the raid of Lindisfarne would never happen again.
Interestingly, Alcuin reminded Æthelred of the fact that he and his nobles had copied the hairstyle and dress of the Scandinavians that were now causing so much havoc:
Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people. Look at your trimming of beard and hair, in which you have wished to resemble the pagans. Are you not menaced by terror of them whose fashion you wished to follow? (trans. Whitelock, source)
Excerpt from Alcuin’s letter to Æthelred of Northumbria. The Annotation may be by the hand of Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d. 1023) who owned this particular manuscript. © The British Library, Cotton Vespasian A.xiv, fol. 117r
Whereas Alcuin did not go into any detail as to what the Viking hairstyle may have looked like, these details are provided two centuries later by another Anglo-Saxon religious writer, Ælfric of Eynsham (d. c. 1010).
In a letter addressed to a ‘brother Edward’, Ælfric complained of various malpractices he had heard of. These malpractices included the eating of blood and the consumption of drink and food on the toilet (something Ælfric attributed to ‘uplandish women’). Ælfric also complained about Anglo-Saxon monks dressing up ‘in Danish fashion’:
Ic secge eac ðe, broðor Eadweard, … þæt ge doð unrihtlive þæt ge ða Engliscan þeawas forlætað þe eowre fæderas heoldon, and hæðenra manna þeawas lufiað … mid ðam ġeswuteliað þæt ge forseoð eower cynn and eowre yldran … þonne ge … tysliað eow on Denisc, ableredum hneccan and ablendum eagum. (ed. Clayton, source)
[I also tell you, brother Edward, that you act wrongly when you abandon the English customs which your fathers observed and love the customs of heathens, wit them you show that you despise you kin and your elders, when you adorn yourself in Danish fashion, with bared neck and blinded eyes.]
While no depictions of Vikings (or Anglo-Saxons) with bared necks and blinded eyes have survived, it has been suggested that the Normans on the Bayeux Tapestry are typically depicted without hair in their necks.
Now why would Anglo-Saxon men want to mimic the hairstyle of the Vikings? The answer, it seems, was for the ladies. A thirteenth-century chronicle ascribed to John of Wallingford (d. 1258) describes how Danes living in England were able to seduce various Anglo-Saxon women, due to their fashionable hair and beards:
They were wont, after the fashion of their country, to comb their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday, to change their garments often, and set off their persons by many such frivolous devices. In this manner they laid siege to the virtue of the married women, and persuaded the daughters even of the nobles to be their concubines. (trans. Stevenson, source)
The best way to win an Anglo-Saxon woman’s heart? Viking haircuts and weekly baths!
This article was originally published on dutchanglosaxonist.com.
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Written by Thijs Porck
Thijs teaches Old English, Middle English, Tolkien and Medieval Studies at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is particularly interested in the conceptualisation of old age in Anglo-Saxon England, and likes to visit medieval and Anglo-Saxon places of interest with his pug dog.
Comments (2)
Hi Thijs. Interesting article. I wonder if you would be like to take a look at this: http://www.saxonhouse.co.uk
I’m not certain that Wallingford’s words there are a particularly reliable source; he refers to the St Brice’s Day massacre, which had other, actual documented reasons for happening, and had very little to do with fighting over women. That he was writing 200 years after the fact from a position of admiration of ascetisim doesn’t help much either, because in that period overbathing was seen as particularly prideful and sinful, so why not apply it to the Vikings? As you know, Anglo-Saxon grooming has not differed from Viking grooming all that much, and finding grooming implements, combs, tweezers etc is common in the graves of both people.
I take that one with a pinch of salt is what I am saying!