Ic secge eac \u00f0e, bro\u00f0or Eadweard\u2026\u00fe\u00e6t ge do\u00f0 unrihtlice \u00fe\u00e6t ge \u00f0a Engliscan \u00feeawas forl\u00e6t\u00f0 \u00fee eowre f\u00e6deras heoldon and h\u00e6\u00f0enra manna \u00feeawas lufia\u00f0\u2026and mid \u00f0am geswutelia\u00f0 \u00fe\u00e6t ge forseo\u00f0 eower cynn and eowre yldran mid \u00feam un\u00feeawum \u00feonne ge him on teonan tyslia\u00f0 eow on Denisc, ableredum hneccan and ablendum eagum<\/em>.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n I say likewise to you, brother Edward\u2026that you do unrightly when you forsake the English customs which our fathers held and hold dear the customs of heathen men\u2026and by that make manifest that you scorn our kind and our forefathers with that evil practice by which you, to their shame, dress yourself in Danish fashion, with bald neck and blinded eyes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The verb ablendan<\/em> means \u201cto blind,\u201d and the long bangs hanging onto the foreheads and perhaps impeding the vision of certain warriors on the eleventh-century Bayeux tapestry might explain these \u201cblinded eyes.\u201d Other options for this “blinding\u201d hinge on the description of the inhabitants of the city of Shalashw\u012bq (Hedeby) given\u00a0 in the later tenth century by Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Ya\u2019q\u016bb al-Isr\u0101\u2019\u012bl\u012b al-Turt\u016bsh\u012b, a native of the Cordoban city of Tortosa,[2]<\/a> who noted that \u201cboth men and women [there] use a kind of indelible cosmetic to enhance the beauty of their eyes.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Speculation based on this and similarly loose translations has suggested white lead or even eye drops containing the alkaloid atropine, a compound present in deadly nightshade and henbane, as the \u201cindelible cosmetic.\u201d Both Dionysian furies and the ladies of the medieval Spanish court knew the pupil-dilating effect of the first substance, its association with beauty suggested in the name belladonna<\/em>. Called hennebane, hennedwole, or hennebelle in Middle English herbals, black henbane was used in medieval England and Viking Scandinavia, and its seeds\u2014their psychoactive effects linked to berserker behavior\u2014have been found in some quantity in Viking graves.<\/p>\n Despite the attractions of these toxic European plants, a closer look at the original text gives a reading that points in another direction. Ibr\u0101h\u012bm writes:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u0648\u0628\u0647\u0627 \u0643\u062d\u0644 \u0645\u0635\u0646\u0648\u0639 \u0627\u0630\u0627 \u0627\u0643\u062a\u062d\u0644\u0648\u0627 \u0628\u0647 \u0644\u0627 \u064a\u0632\u0648\u0644 \u0627\u0628\u062f\u0627 \u0648\u064a\u0632\u064a\u062f \u0627\u0644\u062d\u0633\u0646 \u0641\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0631\u062c\u0627\u0644 \u0648\u0627\u0644\u0646\u0633\u0627\u0621[4]<\/a><\/p>\n “\u2026on them is fabricated kohl, if they color their eyes with it, which never vanishes and beauty increases among men and women.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ibr\u0101h\u012bm actually describes the Danes at Hedeby as lining their eyes with kohl (\u0643\u064f\u062d\u0652\u0644\u200e ku\u1e25l), a cosmetic widely used in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and north Africa and particularly recommended by the prophet Muhammad. Though we will likely never know how exactly the Danes \u201cblinded\u201d their eyes, Ibr\u0101h\u012bm\u2019s description points to fascinating global connections in the tenth century, from Scandinavian raiders in England to Cordoban Jews visiting northern Germany, suggesting a more inclusive picture of history than traditional narratives tend to imagine and reminding us that the middle ages really were the crossroads of everything.<\/p>\n Rebecca West, PhD Candidate [1]<\/a> Mary Clayton, \u201cAn Edition of \u00c6lfric\u2019s Letter to Brother Edward,\u201d in Early Medieval English Texts and Interpretations: Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg<\/em>, ed. Elaine M. Treharne, Susan Rosser, and D. G. Scragg (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002), 280, 282.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Schleswig, (Hedeby), now in northern Germany but even into the modern period intermittently under Danish control. The section discussed here is transmitted in the 1068 Kit\u0101b al-mas\u0101lik wa\u2019l-mam\u0101lik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms) of Hispano-Arabic geographer, botanist, and historian Ab\u016b \u2018Ubayd al-Bakr\u012b.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> \u00a0A\u1e25mad Ibn Fa\u1e0dl\u0101n, Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North<\/em>, trans. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone (London: Penguin, 2012), 163.<\/p>\n![\"Bayeux](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/files\/2019\/10\/Tapisserie_agriculture-e1571326809804-300x188.jpg\")
![\"Egyptian](\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/manuscript-studies\/files\/2019\/10\/Musicians_and_dancers_on_fresco_at_Tomb_of_Nebamun-e1571327034805-300x135.jpg\")
\nUniversity of Notre Dame<\/p>\n