The 13th Warrior ― the movie

[Kraxis]

The strong man Bjørn Riis (Dane) spoke Danish.

ASbjørn... AS+bjørn.

A former wrestler and professional strongman (you know those strongman contests). That was the guy I remembered when I thought of Danish in the movie, though I would have to say that he actually speaks a lespering Jutish, which is quite different in grammar (only spoken though) and pronouncation. It is interesting to think that it can be so different within such a small country as Denmark (and there are far stranger dialects than what he speaks).

My opinon of the movie... a real SUNDAY movie. A movie that comes on when you are hungover, tired or just lazy. You need those almost-there-but-somehow-not movies, and sunday is their niche.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

That movie was great for the first 15-20 minutes. It made me feel like I was about to embark on a great pseudo-historical adventure flick in the mold of films like 'The Man Who Would be King'.

Yup. The best part was when they woke up and all started to wash using the same bowl. Man that was disgusting . But it did seem believable. It was an alright flick. I enjoyed it.

[Sigurd]

ASbjørn... AS+bjørn.

It is you who called him an AS* not me...

Yup. The best part was when they woke up and all started to wash using the same bowl. Man that was disgusting . But it did seem believable. It was an alright flick. I enjoyed it.

from tsyed's link:
Ibn Fadlan's main source of disgust with the Rus bathing customs have to do with his Islamic faith, which requires a pious Mohammedan to wash only in running water or water poured from a container so that the rinsings do not again touch the bather. The sagas often describe a woman washing a man's hair for him, often as a gesture of affection. It would be likely that the basin was actually emptied between each bath: Ibn Fadlan would still have felt the basin contaminated by previous use. It does seem here that Ibn Fadlan may be exaggerating a bit for effect.

The vikings were a cleanly bunch with well groomed hair and beard. I doubt they would have used the same bathing water full of snot and spittings. If you got that in your beard it would freeze solid outside and you could cut yourself on it.

[Spino]

Aryan Piglets or Blond Locked Titans of Cleanliness? Wiki Speaks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking

Uncleanliness

Inscenated fight during a Viking festivalThe image of wild-haired, dirty savages, sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture, has hardly any base in reality. The Vikings used a variety of tools for personal grooming such as combs, tweezers, razors or specialised "ear spoons". In particular, combs are among the most frequent artifacts from Viking Age graves, and one can conclude that a comb was the personal equipment of every man and woman. The Vikings also used soap, long before it was reintroduced to Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

The Vikings in England even had a particular reputation of excessive cleanliness, due to their custom of bathing once a week, on Saturdays (as opposed to the local Anglo-Saxons). As for the Rus', Ibn Rustah explicitly notes their cleanliness, while Ibn Fadlan is disgusted by the women sharing the same vessel as the men to wash their faces in the morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is thus probably motivated by ideas of personal hygiene particular to the Muslim world (for instance, Muslims are required to wash only with running water), while the very example intended to convey the disgusting customs of the Rus' at the same time records that they did in fact wash every morning.

So the Anglo-Saxons were the piglets of Northern Europe. Now it all makes sense...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it's wiki but I'm too lazy to do the proper research on the topic. To confirm Sigurd's statements it seems the act of both sexes washing with 'still' water was the greatest offense commited in Ibn Fadlan's eyes.

[The Wizard]

The practice of keeping so fresh so clean was Germanic -- combs etc. as described in the wiki article have been found in many graves from the Great Migrations period. It was the dirty Romans that turned clean Germanics into dirty feudal peasants

[ajaxfetish]

Those dirty Romans with their heated public baths and running water. Filth is all their fault!

Ajax

[The Wizard]

Drat. Forgot that. But that was the city. We're talking the peasants here... and the soldiers weren't that clean... at least the Germanics liked to look their part prior to joining battle... and the Turks at least had mobile bath houses.

Maybe it was the Jews. Crazy Christian sectists closed down the bath houses in Constantinople and turned them into prisons, after all

[Red Peasant]

Drat. Forgot that. But that was the city. We're talking the peasants here... and the soldiers weren't that clean... at least the Germanics liked to look their part prior to joining battle... and the Turks at least had mobile bath houses.

Maybe it was the Jews. Crazy Christian sectists closed down the bath houses in Constantinople and turned them into prisons, after all

Hence, the legionary bath-houses on Hadrian's Wall, and at many other legionary sites?