Pastimes of the Viking & Anglo-

Saxon Age
Despite the full agricultural year that most
people faced, there was always time for folk
to partake in games, challenges, tests of
skill and general larking about. These sorts
of things are often festival based, but not
exclusively. Gatherings at cattle markets,
large social events such as weddings, were
also an excuse for the competitive and
those of the gambling persuasion to
exercise their skills. If there were those who
were prepared to take part, then there were
always those who were prepared to bet on
the outcome.

Sports
Swimming was a popular sport, both to compete in and to watch, and it seems
according to texts that it was considered quite fair to try and drown your
opponent. Some of the heroes in the sagas are even said to have competed in
swimming competitions whilst wearing their armour. (This is possible. We have
tried it with the tunic, trousers and shoes, as well as wearing a mail shirt. The
effect is to place your body in a more legs down position in the water. This
makes for tiresome swimming, and we found that the Breast stroke was the only
really viable way to swim.) Competitions of underwater endurance were also
held - perhaps these were all the more dramatic for wearing a mail shirt?

Running, often carrying a load (particularly arms and armour), jumping, skiing,
skating and horse racing were also popular sports. Tests of physical strength
such as weight lifting (using boulders as the weights) were enjoyed. There are
boulders in Iceland that have historical significance as having been the stones
mentioned in the sagas. Rock climbing and other tests of agility and endurance
were also popular (it was said that Olaf Tryggvasson's could walk from one end
of his warship outboard by stepping from oar to oar as the ship was rowed.).
This particular feat was re-enacted by Kirk Douglas in the film 'The Vikings',
where he is seen from a distance walking the oars as they are held parallel to
the water by the rowers. This he does with verve, and according to cinematic
legend, he did the stun himself. However, I cannot vouch for Tony Curtis having
done the same. Another sport was 'skin-pulling', a form of tug-of-war, using an
animal skin instead of a rope. To make it more interesting the pull often took
place over a fire, which would of course add a certain frisson to the event.

Wrestling was widely participated in. The simplest form of this sport was for the
wrestlers to take hold of each other's arms or waists as best they could, and
using the strength of their arms to throw each other off their feet and onto their
backs. The wrestlers often took off their tunics in order to be more free and
agile, and to avoid getting their entire wardrobe ruined. Sometimes wrestling
took place as a team event, with one member of each team fighting one
member of the other team in turn. A more difficult form of wrestling was that of
grappling, and attacking each other (sometimes fastened together by a belt at
the waist) according to particular rules, and by systematic turnings and gripping
movements, seeking to bring each other to the ground. These wrestling
matches occasionally ended in fatalities and on lesser occasions, just the odd
broken or dislocated limb.

Free-men, particularly warriors, would find training with weapons essential.

Fighting with swords and shields, throwing spears and stones and shooting with
bows and arrows were all popular (the Norwegians organised archery
competitions with prizes). All these events helped to hone the skills of all who
were expected to fight for their King or Chief, and if he was present, would
encourage favour with their leader. Hunting, falconry, fishing, rowing and sailing
were all considered suitable pastimes for a freeman or noble, which left the
more ignoble sports of grappling with others to the lower classes. The subject of
hunting with hounds, hawks and spears is a common one, largely because it
was the wealthy who were most likely to see themselves depicted in fabulous
books.

Hunting with hounds from the Tiberius Calendar for October

Another image of men hunting can be found on the web page for the local wood
'Swinwudu'. In this image for the month of September, you can see an
organised hunt for Wild Boar, a sport that was not purely for the pot and
feasting, although the result never went to waste. Bear-bating, bull-baiting and
horse-fighting were also widespread pastimes for those that could afford to
indulge in such things. Horse-fighting was particularly popular with the Vikings
and there was undoubtedly wagering on the results. Stallions were picked as
likely fighters and bred up accordingly, and were probably urged on by the
presence of a Mare in heat. These horse fights often, according to the Saga
texts developed into fights between the horses' owners, no doubt over disputed
results and lost bets.

There were also ball games played, such as 'knatteleik', a game played like a
violent version of 'kingy-bats', 'sköfuleik' (a rough game played with a 'scraper,'
perhaps some form of hockey or hurling), or a game whose rules are unclear
called 'soppleik'. The balls for these games were usually of wood, although
there are also finds of simple leather balls, which should not be a surprise for
anyone from England who has had the unfortunate luck to be struck by a
Cricket ball. The rules for these types of games are somewhat vague, but were
in the general take the form of a man defending himself with a wooden bat of
some description, from the thrown ball. One description elaborates upon this
with the 'batter' trying to bat the ball at his opponents. We do not know for
certain whether he could be caught out, or any other rules that we recognise
today.

Games
There were many different board games
played, some of which are still played today
in one form or another such as 'nine man's
morris', 'backgammon' and 'fox and geese'.
Other board games, called 'Hnaftafl' and the
like, which are less well known today were
also played. More details about 'Hnaftafl',
dice and riddling can be found on or web
page 'games'. Apart from the huge variety of
dice games, there were many games of
dextrous skill such as knucklebones. These
Knucklebones were used we think in the same fashion as 'Jacks' are today. The
rules are fairly simple. One knuckle is balanced on the back of your wrist. This
is then flung up in the air, another is snatched off the floor, and with the same
hand , the two are caught in the palm. Then two knuckles are placed on the
back of the wrist and so on. The knuckles are in fact astragalus's from a pig,
stripped of all the meat and fat.

One other game that was always thought to have arrived post the Anglo-Saxon
and Viking period is Chess. The famous Isle of Lewis Chess set, which is in fact
several incomplete chess sets made from Walrus Ivory, is dated to the 12th
century AD due to the art style on some of the pieces. This not necessarily in
dispute. However, chessmen and sets are now coming to light from Eastern
Europe, that are firmly dated to the 10th century AD, that are made from similar
materials. With the vast amount of trade and political movement, such as
Edward the Confessors banishment to Hungary during the later medieval
period, it would seem likely that the game was known in this country. It has yet
to be proved in any way with finds though.

Other Pastimes
Pastimes such as whittling wood, carving and decorating bone and antler, etc.
would probably have been practiced by many people as an activity to pass the
time, even if it was not their profession. it would be interesting to see if there
was such a thing as a hobby even then. Perhaps people didn't have spare time
as we envisage it, therefore the concept of a hobby would have never entered
their minds.
Many of the wealthier women undertook embroidery in their spare time,
particularly for embroidered wall hangings. They also embroidered 'orphreys'
(clerical vestments), for the 'good of their souls'. See our web page on
'embroidery' for further details. Anglo-Saxon needlework was famed throughout
Europe, and many embroideries were richly embellished with gold and silver
thread, which were then given as ambassadorial gifts for visiting dignitaries. The
Bayeux Tapestry was embroidered by English needlewomen, although it is
generally thought to be a rather inferior example of Anglo-Saxon needlework
despite it's huge size.

Juggling was a popular pastime as well as entertainment. Many warriors

practiced juggling with sharp knives if the Sagas are to be believed. One Anglo-
Saxon manuscript shows just such an event. Another entertainment was to
exercise dogs by jumping them over poles as this extract from 'Sverri's Saga'
shows:

'Two players were in the stofa, who made small dogs jump over high poles in
front of high born men, and the more high born they were the higher they
jumped'. This is ambiguous, but we are fairly sure that it was the dogs that did
all of the jumping.'

Music and Verse

Other favourite pastimes included music and
storytelling. There were many stories of ancient
heroes such as the tale of 'Beowulf' or the Norse
Sagas. Few of these survive today as they were
generally passed on by word of mouth and were
very rarely written down. Most of those which were
recorded are in the form of an epic poem. Often
these poems were composed to record a particular
event such as 'The Battle of Maldon'. There were
professional storytellers, called 'scops', (see also
our web page 'Thorvald the scop' for more details
on storytelling), who would travel from village to
village telling tales in return for food, lodging and
money. Storytelling was not restricted to the professionals, as everybody told
stories and the ability to 'spin a good yarn' was highly valued in any person, be
he slave or eorl.

Singing and music were other prized skills and again there were professional
musicians, called 'gleemen', who like the scop, would travel from place to place
and play and sing in return for pay. Even the non professionals enjoyed singing
and making music, as is shown by the large number of bone whistles found on
archaeological digs. Few actual musical instruments have survived from the
period although there are quite a lot of manuscript illustrations showing them.
These include harps, lyres, whistles, horns, pan-pipes, bones, psalteries and
some form of drum.

What the music sounded like is more

difficult to work out as, on the few
occasions it was written down, the
system of musical notation called
'numes' was different from that used
today. Some tunes are known today
which were written down shortly after
the Norman conquest and are probably
very similar to those played before it.
However, asides from that very general
description, we are at a loss to say any
more due to the lack of any records.

Dancing
Dancing certainly existed, probably
generally performed to verse singing,
and is likely to have taken the form of
circle dances. Various kinds of 'hobby-
horse' games, with mummery and
miming, were known and many
probably had pagan ritual and seasonal
significance. However, it was seen as
an expression of near wickedness by the church to indulge too much in
dancing.

Several sources mention warriors performing acrobatic dances (often naked),

whilst wielding weapons, usually in connection with the cult of Odin. There are
also many Saxon and Viking pictorial representations of 'dancing warriors' from
the pagan period, usually armed with spears and often wearing animal skins
and masks or horned head-dresses. What exactly these scenes meant are
anyones guess today, as we are just too far removed from the period to really
understand the significance. Possibly some faint memory of these pagan
dances lingered in a display given by Scandinavian mercenaries for the

Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII as a Christmas entertainment: '...two

companies danced in a ring, striking their shields with sticks and shouting 'Yule,
Yule, Yule!', and in each company two men were dressed in furs and masks'.
Perhaps the Christian Emperor was actually impressed and intrigued by this
demonstration of pagan 'worship'...

Children's Games and Toys

Although most children in Anglo-Saxon England and Viking Scandinavia would
have spent much of their time working with their parents (and thus learning the
skills they would need in later life), they also found time to play. Many of the
board and dice games found from this period would have been equally popular
amongst children as adults. Adults enjoyed many games and pastimes as we
know from pictorial, literary and archaeological sources. Then, as now, children
were likely to have copied their elders and so probably participated in many of
the sports and physical games popular at this time. It should be remembered
that in early Anglo-Saxon England a child was answerable to the law, and thus
was considered an adult at the age of 10, which meant that they could become
involved in activities that we today would deem too risqué for our own children.
In later Saxon times the age was raised to 12. In the winter children would have
used bone skates just as the adults did as much for playing as for a means of
getting around.

Many children may have learned to play

simple musical instruments such as bone or
reed whistles or wooden pan-pipes, as well as
singing and dancing. Children also probably
took part in another popular pastime,
challenging each other with riddles.

All of the above activities would have also

been practised by adults, but children also had
their own toys. Carved wooden animals,
usually about 10 - 15cm (4-6") long have been
found on many sites. Horses were by far the
most common animal to be carved in wood,
although other animals are also sometimes
found. Carved wooden swords are well known, usually very accurate copies in
wood of real swords. These are often such good copies that they can be
classified according to Petersen's classification for real swords. Many toy
wooden ships, carved in various levels of detail have been found, often so
accurate different types can be distinguished. In addition to wooden replicas of
real items, there are finds of other types of toy. Wooden spinning tops made on
the pole-lathe are known from several sites. In at least one case the top had
been painted. An unusual item found at Winchester was a bone 'whirrer', and
this too may have been a child's toy. Small cast heads and limbs have been
found on some sites, but there is debate amongst the experts as to whether
these are votive offerings or parts of children's dolls which would have had a
textile body.