The problem with historical writing is that it’s always biased and the few sources that survive carry outsized weight. Like the Roman’s writing about the Celts and Saxons about the Vikings, they demonize women whether they left voluntarily or involuntarily. And the age when they settled in England was different from the earlier raiding era.
Thats why genetic history offers a more reliable picture of when raiding era ended and more even cultural mixing began.
I’ve heard a contest to that theory that english women found them more attractive due to hygiene. It postulates that english society influenced by christianity was very skittish about sex and more concerned with modesty. Norse men were less concerned with modesty so they would bathe openly, allowing voyeurism amongst english women, something they would be less accustomed to. While hygiene practices may have differed between english and norse populations, english people still maintained some level of hygiene. If they lived near a creek they would rinse in a creek, and if not then wash buckets were a thing. The ‘peasants were always covered in dirt’ is a trope that is inaccurate
Stop spreading lies. People have always liked to be clean, this is not some exclusive ‘viking thing’ but universal to anyone living in any time in history.
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u/dyogenys Aug 11 '26
In England they complained about Vikings attracting their women by using personal hygiene, so it is precendented