"We had to kill the Vikings, bc they bathed and brushed their hair and our wives couldn't resist such sophistication" is a HELL of a take by medieval English chroniclers. #MedievalTwitter

I too am a sucker for a man who sometimes changes his clothes.

Wow, this got popular. For those asking, this is the Chronicle of John of Wallingford (13th-century) writing about a 1002 massacre. The screenshot is from Roberta Frank's article "Terminally Hip and Incredibly Cool: Carol, Vikings, and Anglo-Scandinavian England."

As several people have noted, Abassid traveler Ahmad Ibn Fadlan's 921 account of the Vikings (who he called the Rus) and their cleanliness does NOT inspire confidence (see these two excerpts I've put together). They *are* washing themselves and combing, but....

Nonetheless, shortly before the massacre, English abbot Aelfric of Eynsham was complaining about English men "dressing in Danish manner, with bared neck and blinded eyes," i.e., with their neck-beards shaved and with bangs.

Unfortunately, Viking 'history' is now being used by white supremacists to build up ideas of white toxic masculinity, ignoring how the Vikings were multiracial, multicultural global traders who liked to look pretty. http://time.com/5569399/viking-history-white-nationalists/?fbclid=IwAR2UtNpQE8dz8mvYEv1GNWIg2zacmM_vZUVE6HNKORaP_fV_72p53RFUVZo