The first words that come to mind when you think of Vikings are "raid", "bombardment", "barbarian" or something similar. Literally, the word Viking means raider. One theory why the Vikings started to attack and gain their notoriety was food. Scandinavia clearly could not provide enough food for the Vikings. However, he focus of this page is not to show the evil Vikings, but rather to talk about what their food was like.
The Vikings had many different foods and drinks, despite the harsh climate in their home in northern Europe. The Vikings were very picky about saving food since there was not much available. For example, any fish that was not eaten was immediately preserved.
Fish was an important part of the diet. For the Vikings who lived on the coast, freshwater fish was the main food. Cod, herring, and haddock bones have been found. Fish could be preserved by drying it in the wind or smoking it. Salt water was another way of pickling (and thus preserving) the fish. This job, however important, was boring and was given to slaves.
Much of a Viking woman's time was spent cooking. A stove was placed in the middle of the one-room house. Although they had a hole on top of the roof, Viking houses were always smoky. The actual stove was made out of metal. Dishes were made out of wood, mainly beech wood. Finally, storage jars were made out of ceramics. Viking children would be kept occupied by doing work around the farmyard. Such work included feeding the livestock, weeding the garden, and chasing pesky birds away from the crops. After a meal, Viking women would sew.
The typical meal for a Viking contained any variety of foods. Living off the sea, of course fish were an essential part of the Viking diet. Not only did Vikings eat fish, but they also consumed other products from the sea: seaweed, shellfish, seals, and whales. Otherwise, Vikings would eat somewhat of a sandwich: thick slices of bread with toppings such as butter, meat of the Wild Boar, red deer, elk, or possibly bear. Honey was often used as sweetening to many of these foods; they loved sweeteners. In soups, they might add garlic.
With the meal, the Vikings would drink skim milk, buttermilk, whey, beer, and mead (a strong drink made from honey) out of a drinking horn. The drinking horns were made up of many different natural materials. For example, some horns were made up of real horns hollowed and polished, others were made from wood, and others were made from different metals. Many drinking horns had precious metals on them. Special stands were made for these horns. The poor drank from wood mugs. Eyewitnesses of the Viking era report that the Vikings loved to drink. It was not uncommon to see drunk Vikings on the streets- sometimes the Vikings even died from being too drunk.
The Vikings loved feasting. Tri-annually, the Vikings had big feasts or holidays. The first feast is called the Sigrblot. This feast took place in early summer. The second feast is called the Vetrarblot, which took place after the harvest. The third feast is called the Jolablot. This feast took place in midwinter. Each major feast was filled with two weeks of eating, drinking, singing, dancing, and storytelling. During a feast, Vikings would wear their best clothes. These clothes were bright and cheerful. The rich drank from a silver horn. During a feast, Vikings visited eachother's houses and sat by a fire at a long table.
The Vikings were excellent hunters and fishermen. They would hunt during the summer and winter, whenever possible. Vikings ate a lot of meat. Not all meats were hunted though. The Vikings used domestic food in most cooking. They used the hunted meat only as an alternative food source. Some animals that were hunted for meat include boar, seabirds, moose, polar bear, or hare. The Vikings learned to use animal tracks to find the prey, and sometimes used skis to hunt.
Farming, however, was a different story. There was a shortage of land to farm, and this might have been a problem that forced the Vikings to attack neighboring tribes for more land. Because of this shortage of land, Viking farms were small. Soil was poor, and needed a great deal of care. The Vikings main crop was onions, leeks, peas, and cabbage. The first farming season was a spring-type season. The Vikings, or possibly slaves, had to break up the soil. They used oxen with plows. They then sowed seeds into the soil by hand. Hayfields got manure spread on it. This was used to make grass grow. To cut the grass when it got too long, Vikings would use a scythe, which looked a lot like a small curved sword.
During summer, Vikings would take cattle and sheep up a mountain to graze. This would be the animal's new home until Harvest. The other animals stayed on the farmstead. Weak animals would be killed and eaten because there wouldn't be enough food to go around. By our standards today, Viking animals would be smaller and skinnier. The pigs looked more like boars. They were darker and hairier. Sheep (Manx Loghtan sheep) had two to six horns. They would also shed naturally. These sheep can live on scarce vegetation, so they were a popular livestock in the freezing areas of Scandinavia.
Vikings may have been a feared force in Medieval Europe, but the real cause of their berserk nature was food, just like it influenced countless other events in history.