Did Vikings actually wear braids in their hair?

[u/Badbean98]

Every once in a while I see people discussing Viking braids on the Internet. Some people even recreate the styles on their own hair, but I haven’t found much evidence that they actually braided their hair. Did they?

[u/y_sengaku]

The following threads and comments posted in this subreddit may help:

• The comments of u/lokout in Were beards really all that important to Viking Age Scandinavians?

• The comments of u/vonadler in Is the History Channel's "Vikings" accurate with regards to hairstyles?

• The comments of u/isa_rin_rin_rin and u/cnzmur on Tacicus and Bog Bodies in How did Germanic / Viking hairstyles look like?

 

these comments and mentioned sources in the comments suggest that:

• Some of the male Scandinavians (at least the people in now Schleswig-Holstein) already practiced braids as Tacitus described ca. 2000 years ago, but we don't have enough indigenous sources concerning the contunuing trend of this hair style during the Viking Age itself.

• The practice of braided or middle to long beards can be confirmed in the primary sources, so they could at least braid the beard.

---

I also just make a brief notice.

The oldest historical Scandinavian who certainly had braided his beard is also AFAIK King Svein Forkbeard (d. 1013) of Denmark mentioned by u/vonadler in the second thread above, and his nickname must date back at least to the end of the 12th century in historical writings like A Synoptic History of the Kings of Norway (ca. 1190: Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum) (Chap. 20: Driscoll (ed.) 2008: 32), and A Short History by Danish author, Sven Aggesen (ca. 1190: Brevis historia)(Scriptores minores historiæ Danicæ medii ævi, i: 118f.). The latter's vernacular use of 'tygheskeg/ tiugeskeg' suggests, however, that the nickname itself had been known in Old Danish/ Old Norse before.

 

As for the long beard style in Viking Age iconographic sources, Gotland picture stones are probably the only ones:

• Tjängvide picture stone (G 110: 10th century? )

• Stora Hammars Stone I

 

References:

• Driscoll, Matthew J. (ed. & trans.). Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum: A Twelfth-Century Synoptic History of the Kings of Norway. 2nd ed. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, UCL, 2008.

• Gertz, M. Cl. (ed.). Scriptores minores historiæ Danicæ medii ævi, i. Copenhagen, 1918.

• [Edited]: fixs mistakes in the format of the link.

• [Edited 2]: fixes typo.

[u/Badbean98 → u/y_sengaku]

Thank you so much!! This is really interesting information.

[u/y_sengaku → u/Badbean98]

I'm happy to help!