I'm asking because , back when I was in middle school I got a MRSA on my arm. The doctors seemed quite panicked about it, and said if I had come in later I might have been dead. But at the same time its a very easy thing to catch. I'm sure tons of fighters got staph infections back then, just wondering if it was a death sentence or do they have ways of fighting them off ? Cause when I went to get my MRSA taken care of, they had to slice it open and drain it, while at the same time making me take strong antibiotics for almost a month. Vikings didn't have antibiotics lol.
A Leechbook is an early medieval English medical textbook. One of our most fascinating resources is Bald's Leechbook (so called because it belonged to a man named Bald) which is a fairly extensive medical textbook most likely produced during the 'Alfredian Renaissance' of the late Ninth Century. It contains a combination of 'classical' medicine taken from Greek and Roman works alongside more contemporary 'folk medicine' and even what we might call magic. The text is divided into internal and external ailments and is surprisingly extensive.
While some of its 'cures' seem pointless, ludicrous or even dangerous today - cure a sick horse by leaving an inscribed dagger out for the elves, for example - many of the treatments it lists have their bearings in genuine medical science. Like many medieval scientific texts, lessons were learned from what could be readily observed around you, even if the actual scientific basis wasn't fully known. Therefore, if the placebo power of prayer improved the survivability of some ailments, for example, then prayer would be included as part of the cure.
When it comes to cuts, wounds and infections, the Leechbook first suggests that the wound be washed with hot wine and treated with a poultice including honey - both substances known to have at least mild antibacterial properties. If a wound turns gangrenous or festers, the wound would be washed out, and maybe have maggots introduced to eat the dead flesh and prevent spreading. If they felt the whole limb was in danger, they may have had to amputate, with special instruction given to cut into the healthy flesh to make sure that the whole infection was removed.
If you had a fever, you might be treated with hot wine, or treated with a potion made of wormwood. Wormwood plants contain artemisinin, which is still used today to treat malarial fevers, as well as compounds used to treat parasitic worms. Wormwood is one of the most heavily prescribed herbal remedies in the whole Leechbook so must have been thought of as effective. The Leechbook contains one particular remedy which may have been very relevant: a paste for an eye infection including onion and garlic which was tested by the University of Nottingham quite recently and found to be effective in combatting MRSA.
So if you were injured in England and taken in by some very civic-minded English people, odds are you might be treated. It's not necessarily a death sentence anyway. Of course, as Germanic 'folk' remedies, it's entirely possible such remedies were also known to the Scandinavians.
On the topic of Valhalla: is that actually where our warrior would be headed after death? Would dying days or weeks later due to the infection of a tiny wound, if it were sustained in battle, qualify the deceased for entry to Valhalla?
How about urine. I know it was used in the Middle East for wounds. How about medieval Europe.