Al Darlington launches his book

Viking Clothing, by Thor Ewing -  We all think we know what the Vikings were like — they were warriors who wore metal helmets with horns coming out from the side, and pillaged and raped across England. But according to a new book by Shropshire author Thor Ewing, much of our image of the Vikings is pure fantasy and, indeed, they gained success with women by using a novel technique — they washed.

Mr Ewing, from Bedstone, says a mythical picture has built up about the Vikings.

“I think it satisfies what people want to imagine the Vikings as being like. When people think of the Vikings they’re really not thinking of a society, and how this worked as a complete society, but are just thinking of them as pirates and, in a sense, fantasising about what they want the Vikings to have been.

“That’s fine in a way, but it’s not history.

“They washed once a week and were actually seen as quite clean by the English at the time, who complained that the Vikings were getting all the girls because they washed so regularly.

“Even worse, some English people were starting to copy them and washing and having their hair cut in the fashionable Danish style which was not long but which was short at the back and long at the front. ‘Bare neck and blinded eye’ was the phrase used.”

In his book “Viking Clothing”, Mr Ewing seeks to explode the myths about the way the Vikings dressed, and more general myths about Viking society as a whole.

Despite his name, and what has been described as a Celtic twinge in his accent, 38-year-old Thor is British, having been born in England.

There is a strange story which explains why his parents named him after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

“Before I was born my father dreamt that he had met the god Thor and they talked about this and that. At the end of the dream Thor said: ‘You are going to have a son. I want you to call that son after me.’

“He then said: ‘In case when you wake up you think this is a silly dream I will send you a sign in the morning.’

“My dad woke and told my mum about it. I think this was July or something like that, a sunny day. And there was a single clap of thunder. They decided it was probably wisest to do as the gods said, rather than ignoring the dream. That’s why I’m called Thor.”

Thor said his father had recently finished a degree in English, of which Old Norse formed a part, and also Thor Heyerdahl had been in the news with his Kontiki expedition around the time.

“But they don’t explain the clap of thunder.”

Thor’s book is claimed to be the first which tackles the question of what the Vikings wore, drawing from art and archaeology, literature and linguistics to arrive at a fresh understanding of the nature of Viking clothing, covering rich and poor, men and women, across Scandinavia.

His interest extends far beyond simply writing about the Vikings. He also goes into schools telling Viking stories, and is a “historical arts” performer, musician, and storyteller with his own website (www.historicalarts.co.uk). He has also reconstructed items of Viking clothing, often in an experimental way.

“They did not wear horned helmets and weren’t shaggy, rough-looking types. Typically they might have been dressed in a linen shirt with quite a tight neck hole, so it came quite tight around the neck, and underneath would have worn linen breeches which would probably come below the knee, and long linen socks which would have been wrapped round with woollen bands to hold them in place,” he said.

Viking Clothing is published by Tempus and costs £17.99. It is 172 pages, softback, ISBN 07524 3587 6.