Fair hair and complexions were common, but not ubiquitous. Dark hair was common, and red hair had a higher prevalence in Norwegian Vikings compared to the general population of Europe. For all seafaring Vikings, physical size and strength was typically beyond that of other cultures.
Based on their portrayals in popular media, Vikings, largely Viking men, are assumed to have had harsh, sharp features, with long scraggly beards, and faces covered in battle scars.
The faces of men and women in the Viking Age were more alike than they are today. The women's faces were more masculine than women's today, with prominent brow ridges. On the other hand, the Viking man's appearance was more feminine than that of men today, with a less prominent jaw and brow ridges.
Through DNA testing, it is possible to effectively trace your potential inner Viking and discover whether it forms part of your genetic makeup or not. However, it's not 100% definitive. There's no exact Nordic or Viking gene that is passed down through the generations.
In the academic world, “Viking” is used for people of Scandinavian origin or with Scandinavian connections who were active in trading and settlement as well as piracy and raiding, both within and outside Scandinavia in the period 750-1100.
Viking DNA study finds they were more genetically diverse than modern Scandinavians. The Viking Age brought surprising genetic diversity to northern Europe, but it didn't last.
“A lot of the Vikings are mixed individuals” with ancestry from both Southern Europe and Scandinavia, for example, or even a mix of Sami (Indigenous Scandinavian) and European ancestry.
It turns out most Vikings weren't as fair-haired and blue-eyed as legend and pop culture have led people to believe. According to a new study on the DNA of over 400 Viking remains, most Vikings had dark hair and dark eyes.
The Viking invaders may have also had a relatively high percentage of B gene, since many of the towns of Britain and western Europe that are linked to the coast by internal lines of communication such as large rivers, have a disproportional amount of blood group B when compared to the surrounding territory.
The DNA test shows that there is a strong Viking heritage on few countries in Europe from England, Ireland, and Iceland to Greenland. Samples of the DNA suggest links to Viking heritage. In Finland and Estonia, there are links for Swedish Viking heritage.
What skin color were Vikings? While most Vikings are believed to have had fair, peach-toned skin and light hair, there may also have been Vikings with darker skin. It's important to understand that when Vikings traveled to distant lands, they often brought back people from those cultures.
The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with six per cent of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10 per cent in Sweden. Professor Willeslev concluded: "The results change the perception of who a Viking actually was. The history books will need to be updated."
Danish Vikings were redheads
The skin on the skeletons has looked much like it does on most of today's Danes. Genetic studies have shown that even back then there was a healthy mix of blonds, redheads and dark-haired people, just like today.
"The examination of skeletons from different localities in Scandinavia reveals that the average height of the Vikings was a little less than that of today: men were about 5 ft 7-3/4 in. tall and women 5 ft 2-1/2 in.
- Viking identity was not limited to people with Scandinavian genetic ancestry. The study shows the genetic history of Scandinavia was influenced by foreign genes from Asia and Southern Europe before the Viking Age. - Early Viking Age raiding parties were an activity for locals and included close family members.
Results: The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations had significantly different ABO and RhD distributions (P < 0.001). For Aboriginal individuals, 955/1686 (56.6%) were group O and 669/1686 (39.7%) were group A. In non-Aboriginal individuals, 1201/2657 (45.2%) were group O and 986/2657 (37.1%) were group A.
What's the rarest blood type? AB negative is the rarest of the eight main blood types - just 1% of our donors have it. Despite being rare, demand for AB negative blood is low and we don't struggle to find donors with AB negative blood.
The Vikings maybe brought a few red-hair genetic variants over with them, but the majority of redheads were already here.” Previously it has been argued that Scotland's poor climate was responsible for the high frequency of the ginger mutation.
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
However, experts believe Vikings were quite large, muscular people, capable of striking fear into the hearts of their enemies as a result of their strength and size. The physical build of the Vikings was likely to be somewhat similar to our own, but with significantly more mass and muscle.
The Vikings were more robust and muscular than the average person, and that was for both women and men. One of the reasons for this is, of course, the hard physical work, that was needed to survive in a landscape like Scandinavia in the Viking age.
The Vikings were an ancient warrior tribe who were natives of Scandinavia from basically threes countries- Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The group is still listed among the most furious fighters in history and are known for having conducted raids in several parts of eastern and western Europe.
Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 7th to the 15th centuries.
'Viking' was a culture, not an ethnicity
The skeletons in Scotland were found buried in the Viking tradition along with Viking artifacts, yet the DNA analysis revealed no connection to any group in Scandinavia. This suggests that being a Viking was more of an occupation than an ethnicity.