There's a huge amount we don't know about much of the Scandanavian people's during this period due to absence of written sources and due to most later texts from the regions being written later, by Christians. There's apparently alot of debate among historians who work on the topic, especially given that even to the degree that we know something about Viking-Age Scandanavians, they are likely biased by reflecting the ideology of the ruling aristocracy rather than ordinary peasants, farmers, etc.
As far as I recall there are a variety of descriptions that describe their appearances in different ways.
The first-hand source that jumps immediately to mind and which goes into much detail is that of Ibn Fadlan, who describes the Viking Rus as essentially filthy, violent barbarians, although they were also mentioned as bathing. Although it might be unclear as to whether he's referring only to physical hygiene or also religious conceptions of cleanliness, given that they were also, as you've noted, at least among the aristocrats, for being a bit vain about their appearance (including hair). That they were hygenic in one way doesn't necessarily imply that we or others in the past would think they were hygenic in other ways.
Yh I mean personally I think they sound totally fucked. People (libs) can shout 'presentism bad' all they like but at the end of the day the people who's actual job was being a viking were fucking brutal and terrifying. Ibn Faldan's description would indicate that their society was extremely patriarchal and violent (Odin's feminine weirding ways through magic, and the similar trait being attributed to male shamans, notwithstanding). That's obviously not to say that other societies at the same time didn't practice similar or greater levels of violence, but when you read Faldan's description of a chieftan's funeral is does sound like violence (physical and otherwise) were incorporated into their social fabric in a very directly present way, both formally and informally.
There's a huge amount we don't know about much of the Scandanavian people's during this period due to absence of written sources and due to most later texts from the regions being written later, by Christians. There's apparently alot of debate among historians who work on the topic, especially given that even to the degree that we know something about Viking-Age Scandanavians, they are likely biased by reflecting the ideology of the ruling aristocracy rather than ordinary peasants, farmers, etc.
As far as I recall there are a variety of descriptions that describe their appearances in different ways.
The first-hand source that jumps immediately to mind and which goes into much detail is that of Ibn Fadlan, who describes the Viking Rus as essentially filthy, violent barbarians, although they were also mentioned as bathing. Although it might be unclear as to whether he's referring only to physical hygiene or also religious conceptions of cleanliness, given that they were also, as you've noted, at least among the aristocrats, for being a bit vain about their appearance (including hair). That they were hygenic in one way doesn't necessarily imply that we or others in the past would think they were hygenic in other ways.
i mean if that whole human sacrifice bit isn't totally embellished i'd be pretty freaked by those guys too
Yh I mean personally I think they sound totally fucked. People (libs) can shout 'presentism bad' all they like but at the end of the day the people who's actual job was being a viking were fucking brutal and terrifying. Ibn Faldan's description would indicate that their society was extremely patriarchal and violent (Odin's feminine weirding ways through magic, and the similar trait being attributed to male shamans, notwithstanding). That's obviously not to say that other societies at the same time didn't practice similar or greater levels of violence, but when you read Faldan's description of a chieftan's funeral is does sound like violence (physical and otherwise) were incorporated into their social fabric in a very directly present way, both formally and informally.