I'm 6'4''. If I lived in the Middle Ages and was this height, what would have been said about me?

by TheRedReverend

Would I have been an outcast, highly sought after, or had some folk wisdom attached to my height? Would there be a moral meaning to my height? I.E., would it have been said that my mother had loose morals or my father was a drinker? How did people interpret height and what it meant in society? Mainly looking for Christian Europe, but other answers also welcome from Norse or Islamic cultures.

WalterSkinnerFBI

I can't speak to the common jobs for those of height, but as a tall person I've looked at this before and done some research at my leisure since I have access to some journal databases.

In general, there was not so much a significant height difference as we might believe today, so while someone 6'4" would indeed be above average as they are now, it wouldn't be markedly so. The study that I cite below also notes that average height was at its low points during the 17th and 18th century. During the Middle Ages, you actually wouldn't seen as particularly out of place. During the American Revolution, you may have stuck out a bit more.

If you have access to a database and can pull up this journal article, "New Light on the "Dark Ages": The Remarkably Tall Stature of Northern European Men during the Medieval Era" by Richard Steckle; you might find the full text interesting.

Else, there are some articles out there that describe it a bit like this one.

(Also, since Basketball hadn't yet been invented, no one would be asking you if you play).

kratistos

As /u/400-rabits put it so eloquently a year ago:

ancient peoples were not gawking idiots, the concept of "tall" was not a mind-boggling concept then or now.

At 6'4'' you wouldn't be freakishly tall either. Charlemagne is estimated to have been 6 feet (German source) and while he was certainly tall the Vita Karoli Magni, written by his friend and adviser Einhard does not make him out to be some kind of giant but a "great and strong" person.

You'd just be some pretty tall dude, not that different to a person who's 2m tall today. Your height might have helped you in a career as a soldier, but more likely you'd have been a farmer with back pain.

TheRedReverend

In addition, would I have been preferred in a certain profession due to my height? Besides perhaps soldiering, would there have been an idea of "a tall guy makes a great [insert profession here]"?

empocariam

A somewhat relevant thread regarding being 6 ft. in ancient Rome: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2x4opw/im_about_6_tall_if_i_would_have_lived_in_rome/