Old Norse stories tell of a famous Viking named Egil, an actual person who lived around a.d. 900. His skull was greatly enlarged and misshapen, and the cranial bones were hardened and thickened (6 cm,...

Old Norse stories tell of a famous Viking named Egil, an actual person who lived around a.d. 900. His skull was greatly enlarged and misshapen, and the cranial bones were hardened and thickened (6 cm, or several inches, thick). After he died, his skull was dug up, and it withstood the blow of an ax without damage. In life, he had headaches from the pressure exerted by enlarged vertebrae on his spinal cord. So much blood was diverted to his bones to support their extensive remodeling that his fingers and toes always felt cold, and his heart was damaged through overexertion. What bone disorder did Egil probably have?