Viking Health and Medicine

             A study of a Danish cemetery from the Viking era shows that people generally enjoyed good health. The majority of the skeletons were from people who had reached the age group maturus (35-55 years old). 

            Good health was seen primarily as an extension of good luck. So preventative medicine consisted primarily of chants and charms that would maintain one’s good fortune. The eddaic poetry is full of charms for the maintenance of health in daily life, such as those in Hávamál.

             Runic inscriptions were used as magic to maintain health. Chapters 73 and 77 of Egils saga Skalla-grímssonar tell how a young woman's health was first ruined through the use of improper runes, and then restored by correct runes. The runes were carved on a whalebone placed under the woman's bed.

In addition to magical arts, the medical arts were also practiced in the Norse era. Classical herbal remedies appear to have been known, along with local herbs specific to the Norse region. Medical treatments consisted of: lancing; cleaning wounds; anointing; bandaging; setting broken bones; the preparation of herbal remedies; and midwifery. Archaeological evidence from grave sites shows that surgery was performed from time to time, some of which was successful (i.e., the patient lived for some time after the procedure).

             In the early part of the Norse era, most of the population had to rely on themselves or on local people with special abilities. Educated medical specialists were rare. Eiríks saga rauða tells of an protracted period of disease at Lysufjorður in Greenland. The sick lay in bed in the hall, while the healthy helped them prepare for death. 

            Later in the Norse era, it appears that certain men chose the practice of medicine as their livelihood. In Magnúss saga góða, King Magnús the Good chose twelve men to bandage men’s wounds after the battle on Lyrskov Moor in 1043. These men subsequently acquired reputations as medical men. From these men, several notable families of physicians descended. Perhaps the most notable was the Icelander Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson (died 1213), who was regarded as a famous surgeon. 

            In dense, urban areas, such as trading towns, epidemics must have been occasional occurrences. Smallpox, dysentery, and leprosy are recorded in the literature. The Norse must have faced these with resignation, since little could be done to control them.

             An example of battlefield medicine is described in chapter 233 of Óláfs saga Helga. Þormóðr was wounded by an arrow in his side. He broke off the shaft and supported his companions as best he could. As the battle had been lost, he left the field and entered the building where the healer women were tending the wounded. One of the women inspected the wound and could see the iron arrow head, but could not determine its path to determine what internal organs it had struck. She gave Þormóðr a hot broth, containing leeks and onions and other herbs. If, after eating it, she could smell the broth from his wound, she would know that vital parts had been injured, and that the wound was fatal.

Þormóðr refused the broth. Instead, he directed the woman to cut into the wound to expose the iron arrow head. He grabbed hold of the arrow head with pincers and pulled it out. Seeing fatty fibers on the arrow head, Þormóðr said, "See how well the king keeps his men. There is fat by my heart," and he died.