Although by this point you probably know that the Vikings didn’t actually wear horned helmets, there are a lot of things you may not have realized about these Scandinavian raiders. These are 25 crazy things that the world forgot about the Vikings.

25
You may know this by now, but the Vikings didn't actually wear horned helmets
24
In spite of their raiding, Vikings were a clean people. Archeological sites have revealed tweezers, razors, and combs
23
They also bathed once a week, which is much more than any of their European counterparts at the time
22
Vikings collected a fungus known as touchwood from tree bark and boiled it in urine for several days. They then smoothed it out into felt and used it to create fire.
21
The reason for this is that the sodium nitrate in the urine would cause the felt to smolder rather than burn
20
This ingenious method allowed them to take fire with them on their journeys
19
The greatest honor for a Viking was to be buried on board a boat
18
They believed that the boat would take them to the afterlife and so they were usually buried like the pharaohs - surrounded with weapons and valuable goods
17
Sometimes prominent Vikings would be buried with sacrificed slaves
16
Enslaving people was a big thing for them. They would quite often capture as many slaves as they could while they were pillaging Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Slavic villages
15
The slaves were known as thralls and were sold in markets across Europe and Asia
14
Viking girls got married as young as 12
13
They typically would watch the household as their husbands were off raiding
12
They had a lot of freedom for that time period though. As long as they weren't thralls, they could own property, divorce, and reclaim dowry
11
In spite of their raiding reputation, most Viking men were farmers and not warriors
10
They skied. That's right, nearly 6,000 years ago the Scandinavians developed primitive skis.
9
Skiing was actually seen as an efficient method of transportation
8
Vikings preferred to be blond. Men with darker hair would use strong soap with a high level of lye to bleach their hair
7
Some Vikings would bleach their beards as well
6
Vikings were never part of a unified group, as in they didn't see themselves as being one nation of Vikings
5
The term Viking only refers to Scandinavians who took part in overseas expeditions
4
During the Viking Age, present day Denmark, Sweden, and Norway simply consisted of a number of tribes who were constantly at war with one another when they weren't off raiding
3
The average Viking lived to be around 40 years old
2
Long before they reached that age, their teeth would have been worn down by the grit in their bread
1
A Viking's most treasured possession was his sword. It was often handed down from generation to generation.
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