Food
The word Viking literally means raider. A theory as to why the Vikings began raiding and pillaging small villages and ports is because they needed food. Scandinavia can not provide enough food for the Vikings because of their harsh climate; despite this thought hey enjoyed many different foods and drinks. Because there was not a lot of available food the Vikings were very careful as to how much they ate. An example of this is fish, if any fish was not eaten immediately it was preserved.
Because the Vikings lived on the coast freshwater fish was the main source of their protein. To prove this cod, herring and haddock bones have been found. Fish was either preserved by drying it in the wind or smoking it or they would pickle it in salt water. While this job was important to their survival it was considered boring and so they ordered the slaves to do it.
A Viking woman spent most of her time cooking. In the middle of their longhouses was a stove and even though there were holes in the roof the longhouses were always smoky. The stove was made from metal but the dishes were made of wood, usually from beech trees. Jars that food was stored in were made out of ceramics.
For a Viking, their meals usually had a lot of different foods. Because they lived off the sea fish was an important part of their diet. They also used many other things from the sea for their meals. These things include seaweed, shellfish, seals and whales. Sometimes Vikings ate a sandwich type meal with bread, butter and meat from the wild boar, red deer, elk or maybe even bear. A common sweetener in their food was honey, because the Vikings tended to like sweet things. They would also add garlic to their soups for some extra flavour.
To go with the meal they would drink skim milk, buttermilk, whey, beer or mead out of a drinking horn. Drinking horns were constructed from many different materials such as real horn that had been hollowed out and polished, wood, metal or even from precious metals. To support these special horns they had stands for them. Because the poor could not afford to buy a drinking horn they would just drink out of wooden mugs. Eyewitness accounts from the time say that Vikings consumed a lot of alcohol and it wasn’t uncommon to see drunks in the street. Sometimes they would even drink too much and then die from alcohol poisoning.
The Vikings were excellent hunters and fishermen and they hunted in both summer and winter. They would track their game using their tracks and on occasion Vikings would use skis to keep up with their prey. Animals frequently hunted for their meat included boar, seabird moose, polar bear or hares. Vikings loved eating meat and ate plenty of it. In most of their daily cooking they used domestic animals and they went hunting only for variation.
Farming in Scandinavia was very difficult and there was a shortage of fertile, farmable land. The lack of access to food crops could be a factor in the decision for them to attack neighbouring tribes. If a Viking owned a farm it would be small with bad soil that needed constant attention and care. The main crops the Vikings grew were onions, leeks, peas and cabbages and they started as soon as they could in spring, once all the snow was gone. The hard job of farming in Scandinavia was breaking up the soil and often oxen and ploughs were used for this, slaves would also have to help. To plant their crops they had to do so by hand and the crops and hayfields were better and bigger if they spread manure on them which was also a job to be done by hand. Scythes were used to cut the grass.
