Sweat, mead and mud; the great smell of Viking

The new fragrance for men, Norse Power, has been produced by tourism agency Visit York to give an olfactory insight into the types of aromas a Viking raider would have been exposed to.

The tourism agency was aided by York’s Viking experts at Jorvik whose research helped provide an accurate insight into smells from the period.

Branded as a “men’s deodorant like no other” it contains a fearsome combination that potentially could cause bystanders to break into a run for fresh air.

Ingredients include:

• Mead (imbibed generously by Viking warriors after a hard day’s raiding)

• Battle gore (spilled on the battlefields)

• 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 (deep soaked into a warrior’s clothes after a hard day’s raiding)

• Animal meat, fruits and nuts (essential ingredients of a hearty Viking feast)

• Fresh pine (from traversing the many forests of Britain in search of places to conquer)

The scent was commissioned by Visit York to mark the 30th anniversary year of York’s JORVIK Viking Centre, to give the groomed 21st century male an understanding of the aromas that abounded in the days of longships, long swords and even longer beards.

Michelle Brown, marketing manager of Visit York, said compared to the Anglo Saxons, Vikings were quite particular about personal hygiene, but this still only extended to washing once a week.

“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,” she said.

“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!’

Those interested in smelling Norse Power will need to head to the Visit York Visitor Centre, at 1 Museum Street on Saturday (May 17) or Sunday (May 18).