The Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson tells the story of a
tenth-century Viking warrior who took part in raids in Europe and often
fought with his own neighbours in Iceland. When his life’s story was
written in the thirteenth-century, was the author using him as an
example of the type of man that society had to worry about?
Tarrin Wills, a researcher from the University of Aberdeen, believes
that Viking societies themselves were deeply concerned about these
violent and unpredictable individuals – so much so that they took on the
role of early criminal profilers – drafting descriptions of the most
likely trouble-makers.
Wills presented his research yesterday to the British Science
Festival, one of Europe’s largest science festivals. It is being held
this year in Aberdeen and is expecting to attract over 50,000 people for
its talks, discussions and workshops.
After examining the Icelandic sagas, Wills believes that its authors
pinpointed physical characteristics of high testosterone levels – known
to cause violent behaviour – creating some of the earliest ‘criminal
mugshots’.
