Medicine

The early medicine was made of oil, wine and herbs.The Vikings could not always rely on the medicine to cure cuts or injuries. The doctors would make potions for certain herbs to cure sick people. For certain herbs the doctors would have to boil them with a mixture. The mixture would sometimes be called herbal. After the doctors put on the medicine they would chant a magic spell over the injuries.
It is known that there were female healers and that, like all the peoples that lived in direct contact with nature, they believed that there were certain forces and spirits that helped them recover from an illness or keep in good health. There was a special group of women, called The Raven's Daughters, that used to live alone in the woods, dedicated to curing people from the surrounding lands with herbs collected by themselves, such as artemisia, angelica, valerian or feverfew. These women were under the protection of Eir, goddess of medicine. With the arrival of Christianism, just like in other places with similar women, they were taken for witches and burnt in bonfires.
Apart from herbs, thay also used shamanistic elements. There are several references in Sagas about the magical healing properties of runes. In the places where they produced resin to caulk ships, they used it to avoid infections and to cure ceratin illnesses.