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| Photo courtesy Visit York |
- Mead (imbibed generously by Viking warriors after a hard day’s raiding)
- Blood and gore (spilled on the battlefields as the marauding Vikings conquered all in their path)
- Smoke (from the settlements razed by Vikings during raids)
- Seawater (From the journey by longship to British shores)
- Mud (Vikings often travelled by foot over the sodden terrain)
- Human sweat (which would have been deep soaked into a warrior’s clothes after a hard day’s raiding)
- Animal meat, fruits and nuts (the essential ingredients of a hearty Viking feast)
- Fresh pine (from traversing the many forests of Britain in search of places to conquer)
Michelle Brown, Marketing Manager of Visit York, explains, "Historical research indicates that the Vikings were quite particular about personal hygiene, especially when compared to the Anglo Saxons. But even so, this only meant washing once a week, which by today’s standards isn’t exactly the height of cleanliness! And for a Viking raider, who’d travelled hundreds of miles over land and sea, and spent their days fighting bloody skirmishes, it’s fair to say they wouldn’t always have carried the most alluring aromas around with them.
"With Norse Power we wanted to try and capture the sort of smells that would have been part and parcel of the lives of Viking warriors around the time that York was the Norse capital of England. But more than that, with all of the bath products, deodorants, perfumes and aftershaves available today, we wanted to give male visitors to York the unique chance to cast aside their allegiance to modern aromas and instead embrace the smells from an era of true warriors!"
There might be a few bottles of Norse Power still left at the Visit York Visitor Centre - go to http://www.visityork.org/ for more information.