But I in no wise
                Boast, as I ween
                Strength that may strive
                With the stout ships' bane.

            Leach
                       A Pageant of Old Scandinavia 
 

In the year 793 AD, Norwegian Vikings sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne
                           on the eastern coast of England. This marks the beginning of an era of great
                           expansion for the Scandinavian peoples. Norway was at this time ruled by
                           several local kings and chieftains, each with sufficient power and resources to
                           lead large expeditions abroad. Originally, the purpose of these expeditions was
                           trade, but as the kings' power increased, trips gradually turned into brutal blundering
                           excursions. Even though Norway was sparsely populated and quite poor in
                           resources, a well developed military organisation and superior ships enabled the
                           Vikings to spread fear wherever they went.
 

Beginning with the British Isles,
                   they attacked coastal towns and sailed away with slaves
                   and treasure. The Vikings also sailed to the west and established colonies in
                   the Faeroe Islands and other North Atlantic islands. About 870, they
                   explored farther west and colonized Iceland. 

                   Eric the Red brought the first group of settlers to Greenland about 985.
                   About 1000, his son, Leif Ericson, led what is believed to have been the first
                   voyage of Europeans to the mainland of America. About 900, much of
                   present-day Norway was united under Norway's first king, Harold I (called
                   Fairhair), or Harald I. He defeated many local chieftains and kings, and
                   others recognized his leadership. King Olav I introduced Christianity in
                   Norway during the 990´s. In the early 1000´s, Olav II achieved full
                   Norwegian unity and firmly established Christianity. He became recognized
                   as Norway's patron saint soon after his death in 1030. 
 
 
 
 

The Scandinavians ~ not Berserkers
 

 The people we have come to know as Vikings were mostly farmers, who during the summer seasons left home to do piracy and trading. Agriculture at the time was certainly important to them,
but we don't really know much about it. The little we know is mostly from Denmark and southern Sweden, which reveals that the most common grain produced was barley, rye and oats. However, also peas, beans and cabbage seems to have been important cultivates at the time, besides the livestock of course, which mostly consisted of cattle, sheep and pigs. The livestock was probably more important the further north you come. People who lived along the coastal strip also did fishing of course, which may have been the most important food supply to many of them. Because of Norway's mountainous nature many had to rotate their livestock to feed them well enough and therefore brought it up in the mountains during the summer seasons. This custom is in fact still alive today.
 

 Their customs of building homes

 The Scandinavians constructed their homes mainly by the use of lumber, even though some used stones and turf as well. Such wooden buildings has not survived, so what we know is based on interpretation and reconstruction of the archaeological evidence found in our time. However, a few stave churches has survived since the 1200's, but those are built with a slightly different technique, called the sills technique, which preserved the construction better.

 The main form seems to have been rectangular constructed buildings, though some was even curved.
 The constructional technique in use is known as the stave technique, which mainly consisted by two rows of poles, which supported the lateral axis of the roof construction and were dug directly into the ground, inthe length direction of the building, which was separated in three sections which consisted of a central mid aisle and two narrow side wings (galleries). A mixture of straw, leaf, dung and mud was used to seal the roof and walls, which often were double in the way that the galleries were separated with walls from the mid section as well. The sills technique was not known at the time, though a foundation wall of stones was used to support the walls, so the poles rotted away of course. How long this took is not known for sure, but  probably 25-75 years or so, depending on the acidity of the soil at the site.

 Some of these farms consisted of only one big building, which served as both home, barn and shed for the livestock. A rather noisy from of central heating I believe. Others though, consisted of several small buildings which each served a certain purpose. The peoples living room may have had a wooden floor, supported by the prime lumber log on top of the stone foundation, to seal of the winter cold, but not necessarily. The living room also had a open fireplace in the central mid section of it, for cooking and heating. Since no chimney existed, a hole in the roof served the purpose and gave light during daylight. A single door made up the entrance, which was so small and high on the wall that everyone had to almost creep through it.This served both better insulation and protection to those inside. The entrance was further covered by blankets to stop the heat from leaking out. Inside all walls were covered by benches, usually a firm construction made up by a solid soil rampart, which served both as sitting places and beds. Not much else existed inside, but the loom and kitchen equipments of course
 
 

 Life at home 

 What we know about life at home mainly points to what has been found of movables and household effects in grave finds during the last 150 years or so. However, these items comes mainly from a wealthy grave find of someone rich and important, so perhaps not as representative. Most people had probably very little in their possessions, only what they needed to survive, and what they owned they had to make for themselves mostly. Only iron tools, cooking vessels, combs, buckles and jewelry was provide by traders and craftsmen who toured around in the country and made a living of their skills where ever people could afford them. Luxury goods like foreign seasoning, wine and silk was mostly items only the rich could afford.

 Women had a central role in the life of a Viking family. She was certainly head of home and, besides managing the kids, cooking and making cloths, she also had to meal the grain and milk the cattle. Men were in charge of the crop fields, hunting and fishing, but occasionally left home to go trading or even raiding in foreign countries, therefore women were often left in charge of everything for long periods at the time. Surely some had slaves to help them, but this was merely the rich.

 The children were highly regarded and had a great deal of freedom, but of course they had to help their parents too. They were often sent away to collect wild herbs, berries and mushrooms, which was an important part of the Scandinavian diet. They would also have to help bringing in the daily water supply and different other matters. In their spare time, however, they played pretty much like the modern kids we know do today. An important way of learning was to listen in to the elderly
 taking about the past. In fact some had even specialized in telling about these matters, so was even
 very popular amongst adults.

Scandinavians amused themselves whenever they had the time, both inside and outside, and it seems like men had the most time <g>. A bet game of dice was certainly not uncommon in Scandinavia those days. Also different kinds of board games are known to have existed, like position plays much alike Chess and Tic-tac-toe, and a play called «hnefatafl». But also chase plays like Ludo have been found. During festival events like Christmas, Easter and others, the rich could even invite to banquet-like celebrations which lasted for days and consisted of everything from sport activities
and dancing to feeding and drinking and professionally performed skaldic poems. We know nothing about the dance, but the music was provided by instruments like the lyre, harp, flute, pan-flute and a kind of prehistoric fiddle. Out door activities  took place in form of competitions in fencing, archery and throwing of javelin, which all increased their skills in these matters, but also ball plays are know to have been an important way of sport. On the darker side of their amusements it
seems they also arranged regular horse fights between stallions, a game which often led to fights between the men themselves according to Icelandic sources. A few
men could even amuse themselves by go hunting for the sport of it, and a few, the very rich perhaps, also hunted as falconers. From the sagas we know that swimming, skating and skiing also must have been a  part of their sport and training.