Viking Healers

By Christopher Bjørnsen

An old medieval remedy recipe, found in Bald's Leechbook, a 1,000 year old medieval text, turned out to be effective against the otherwise Methicillin/Antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA.

Christina Lee, Viking Studies Professor at the University of Nottingham's Institute for Medieval Research, translated the recipe, and then enlisted chemists at the university's Center for Biomolecular Sciences to recreate the medieval eye salve. 

Subsequent tests of the ancient salve were so conclusive that the experiment gave rise to a new program called AncientBiotics at Nottingham. 

Using the services of a Grædari (Norse Healer), may not sound that crazy anymore.