"my mother bought us, ice cream in cones ..."

 

"... ladies beware
the stickies in our hair."

As I recently went out for buffalo wings, only to wayyyyy later look in the mirror to notice tiger splotches of orange and some blue cheese dressing in my goatee, I thought of this behind-the-scenes photo of Harald & Halfdan unable to eat ice cream without their beards catching an unfair share of it by unavoidable default.

The English would complain about the fastidious Vikings' dress horse & silver-clad ways out-gaming them with their own ladies, characterized by this quote credited to the Abbot of St. Albans:

"[...] thanks to their habit of combing their hair every day, of bathing every Saturday and regularly changing their clothes, were able to undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses."

And yet the above photo's some proof of looking less than A-game when feasting despite how careful groomed a Freyrsman you are. (This also might've meant the English were far more slovenly eaters at the end of the day ... ?) This also could explain the proliferation of Viking combs as finds, so one could just post-meal groom the food & mead out right after.

In modern times, the besmirched beard photo also supports the stereotypical Scandinavian love of ice cream, which so oddly flies in the face of their colder weather.

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.