How Tall Were the Vikings?
Books, TV shows, and even some notable museum displays paint a portrait of tall and powerful men with above average strength and skill at killing others. Are such portrayals accurate?
The general public has a peculiar perception that the Vikings stood taller than other Europeans of the Viking Age. Books, TV shows, and even some notable museum displays portray tall and powerful men with above-average strength and skill in killing others. Are such portrayals accurate? Luckily for historians, the Vikings buried many of their dead in a way that preserved their bones. Through various osteoarcheological studies, we can say with some degree of confidence how tall Viking Age Scandinavians may have been.
How to Answer the Question, How Tall Were the Vikings?
As with everything to do with the Viking Age, nothing is guaranteed, nor is it likely written in stone (both figuratively and literally). The evidence for how tall or short the Vikings may have been can only be inferred from the available pieces of evidence. Written sources on the subject are unreliable for two reasons: first, they were penned by the victims of Viking raids (clerics) who often embellished specific details; second, the most detailed of the written sources were composed long after the fact, and thus have little chance of being accurate. Therefore, archaeology stands as the only sound method for determining the average height of Viking Age Scandinavians.
The question of height has been explored by historians and archaeologists alike since the beginning of Viking studies. Part of the interest in the subject stemmed from testimony in the historical sources. One account from the annals of Fulda describes a failed raid near Aachen, after which the Carolingian fighters marveled at the large size of the bodies of the slain Northmen. Anskar's mission to Birka also fleetingly alluded to the Vikings' size, as does the testimony of Ibn Fadlan, who observed the Rus. As with every issue I attempt to tackle in my blog, the answer is not straightforward. We must first consider that the Viking Age is a broadly defined period that spans over 300 years. Also important to note in such an investigation is the fact that geographic distinctions, variations in weather and harvest, as well as plagues, warfare, and any number of other factors, can affect a population’s height in a particular location at a specific time.
With all these in mind, the following is some of the research that has been done on the subject.
The Vikings in Iceland Offer Us Some Clues.
In 1958, Jon Steffanson composed an essay titled “Stature as a Criterion of the Nutritional Level of Viking Age Icelanders,” in which he compiled known data about the heights of men and women found in Icelandic cemeteries that date to the Viking Age. Iceland is a fantastic place to conduct such research, as the people who settled the island broadly qualify as Vikings.
To summarise his findings, Steffanson looked at the bones of 86 individuals who lived and died in Iceland in the 10th century (except for a select few skeletons that predate the others). He found that the average man of the time stood between 171 and 175 cm tall, and the average woman stood between 157 and 161 cm tall. Interestingly, when Steffanson compared these figures to 20th-century Icelanders, he found that the average height of both men and women had remained relatively consistent. Icelanders began to grow taller, on average, starting in the 1950s, a trend also observed in other European nations.
Burials in Denmark and Sweden provide us with a few additional clues.
Viking Age Scandinavians in Sweden and Denmark do not appear to have been any taller or shorter on average than their Icelandic counterparts. In his new book, The Age of the Vikings, Anders Winroth explores the subject of heights not to answer the question of how tall the Vikings were, but how their heights fluctuated as a criterion for how healthy and well-fed these populations were (similar to what Jon Steffensen had done for Icelanders in 1958). To investigate the issue, he looked at the Fjälkinge gravesite in Sweden, and he writes of the Viking Age skeletons:
“In the Fjälkinge grave field, adult males were 160-185 centimeters tall while women measured 151-171 centimeters.” Anders Winroth, The Age of Vikings, pg. 163.
Regarding the averages, these heights are comparable to those of the Icelanders of the same period. What’s more interesting is that the Fjälkinge contains graves of generations who were buried before and after the Viking Age. These graves indicate a slight decline in the average heights of men and women during the Viking Age. From this gravesite (and this site alone), it appears that Scandinavians were shorter during the Viking Age than before and afterward. These findings suggest that Viking Age Scandinavians may have experienced a period of famine that stunted the growth of several generations.
“The average height of Viking Age skeletons in Denmark is 171 for men and 158 centimeters for women.”
How Did the Vikings Compare to Other Europeans of the Day?
Looking at data from archaeological findings, Richard Steckel of Ohio State University, in his essay Health and Nutrition in the Preindustrial Era: Insights from a Millennium of Average Heights in Northern Europe, found that Viking Age Scandinavians were no taller on average than people in other places at that time, including the British Isles and Mainland Europe. The data reveal a slight height advantage for Viking Age Scandinavians compared to the Anglo-Saxons, but the disparity between their average heights can be attributed to the sample sizes used, where the Anglo-Saxon sample was significantly larger than the Scandinavian one.
Things to Keep in Mind About the Vikings.
It is important to note that Viking Age Scandinavia was a stratified society. Historian Neil Price proposed in an article for National Geographic that Viking Age Scandinavian society was set up more like the plantation system in the Southern U.S. states before the American Civil War than anything else.
“This was a slave economy,” Price explains. “Slavery has received hardly any attention in the past 30 years, but now we have opportunities using archaeological tools to change this.”
Due to the inequalities of Viking Age Scandinavian societies, the more prosperous and healthier members of the community would have grown taller than their servants and slaves. Also worth noting is that the Vikings had to import slaves to meet the demands of their farming system, resulting in significant intermixing of populations that could have influenced heights.
Another point to note is defining what the word 'Viking' means, what it describes, and how that might affect our interpretation of the findings. If we use the word ‘Viking ’ to describe all Scandinavians of the Viking Age, then the sources and evidence discussed above make sense and satisfactorily answer our question. However, if we restrict our meaning of the word ‘Viking’ to only those who left and roved foreign lands, we will find the above discussion lacking in many respects.
The Takeaway.
We only have the evidence we have. Many factors can influence a population’s height, and considering the geographical dispersal of the people of Viking Age Scandinavia and the period separating the first Vikings from the last, it’s hard to say definitively what their average height was. What we can infer from archaeological evidence is that the Vikings were probably not taller or shorter than their southern neighbors. We can also say that, similar to other European countries, the men and women of Viking Age Scandinavia were shorter on average than the people who live there today.
Great article — thanks for sharing these insights on Viking height with clear sourcing and context. One thing I’d like to add is a distinction that often gets blurred in modern usage: the term "Viking" originally referred not to all Scandinavians, but specifically to those who went on raids — i.e., víkingr in Old Norse. So while your article understandably discusses general Scandinavian populations, it’s worth noting that those who actually "went viking" were likely not representative of the domestic population in physical stature or strength.
The raiders — the ones who left the strongest impression on the people they encountered — were probably the physically elite of Norse society. They would have been stronger, more muscular, and more combat-trained than the average farmer or artisan buried in places like Iceland or Denmark. Wielding heavy weapons like two-handed axes and rowing longships over open seas required significant strength and endurance. These men were likely selected for — or self-selected into — raiding because of their physical capabilities.
This might help explain the historical accounts and enduring cultural perception of Vikings as towering, fearsome warriors, even if average skeletal remains suggest otherwise. Those doing the raiding weren’t average — and the fear and awe they inspired shaped much of how they were remembered.
Again, great work — and thank you for sparking such an engaging conversation on this topic.