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[bunnyjadwiga]

Reproduced from Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia fo Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs and Customs Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, and John Lindow, eds. (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2000), p. 869-871.

This is from the Russian Primary Chronicle (c. 1040-1118), on Novgorod saunas:

I noticed their wooden bathhouses (bani dreveni). They warm themselves to extreme heat, then undress, and after anointing themselves with tallow, take young reeds and lash their bodies. They actually lash themselves so violently that they barely escape alive. Then they drench themselves with cold water, and thus are revived. They think nothing of doing this every day, and actualy inflict such voluntary torture upon themselves. They make the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment.

On Scandanavian saunas (this from the article author, Thomas A. DuBois)

Sauna was customary on Saturdays (the day of washing) and in connection with both holidays and markets. Descriptions such as that of Eyrbyggja Saga (ch. 28) describe the Scandanavian sauna as a small room, partly dug in the ground for insulation and often equipped with an antechamber. Water could be poured in from the outside. Saga accounts also mention special clothing worn during bathing, such as hats and robes, items absent from the Slavic and Balto-Finnic traditions. Saga details closely match archaeological evidence from Iceland and Greenland, where medieval saunas have been excavated. By the fourteenth century, however, the decimation of the Icelandic birch forests had led to the decline of the custom on the island, where plentiful hot springs, warmed by volcanic heat, replaced the wood-burning sauna. Archaeological evidence indicates the marginal development of a sauna tradition in northern Ireland, possibly introduced or influence by Viking settlers. The steam baths constructed there were conical stone structures in which slightly different means of heating and producing steam were used.

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Unfortunately, as vesilehti's friends found out the hard way, escaping summer weather is not so easy.