How did Vikings survive in Scandinavia?

Scandinavia is a sub-region in northern Europe that includes the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, though some classifications also include Finland and even Iceland, but the most commonly accepted definition is the first three countries. This was the home of the Vikings and the hardest place in Europe to maintain a civilization due to its extremely cold weather and lack of decent farmland.

The Vikings became famous for raiding other countries and sometimes settling there, but they did this mostly out of necessity instead of simply wanting to fight. Their home countries were very cold and lacked many of the natural resources it was easier to mine elsewhere, so combat became a part of their culture because being good at fighting was the only way to acquire the things they couldn’t produce themselves, but who exactly were they and how did they survive in such harsh climates?

Who were the Vikings?

No one knows where the term Viking comes from, but one widely accepted theory is that it derived from the old Norse word víkingr, which meant pirate or sea raider. Where ever this word came from it quickly became associated with Scandinavians starting at the end of the 8th century when the first Viking raid hit England. After this, Vikings would raid anywhere they could sail to, including the entire British Isles, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and several other nearby countries connected to the sea.

(The Vikings were a misunderstood people, on one hand, they were brutal warriors, thieves, and raiders, but they also had a deep culture and some of the best women’s rights in all of Europe)

They were very similar to the nomadic tribes of Germany and shared the same types of homes and metalworking technology. Before they became known as raiders and warriors, they were simple farmers and herders, living similarly to everyone else in mainland Europe, just in a harsher climate with worse growing conditions. They had to rely heavily on the sea to provide food that the land couldn’t and their boat technologies reflected this.

What were Viking homes like?

The only real difference between Viking homes and the homes of the rest of mainland Europe was that the Vikings tended to favor the longhouse, a simple design that provided much more room than the typical Celtic-style roundhouse. People would rely heavily on their animals and a longhouse would often have a section to act as a barn, where the animals would sleep in the same room as the people, seperated by a small wall or fence.

This practice of sharing homes with farm animals was very common because a cow could often mean the difference between making it through the winter and starving to death. The design of the longhouse was more practical for keeping animals but also allowed a bigger communal and cooking space.

What did Vikings eat?

The only grains they mass-produced were wheat and Barley, though oats, rye, and millet were also grown on smaller scales. The problem they had with farming was the short growing season and mountainous terrain that limited the amount they could produce, because of this the biggest Viking settlements were always built next to the sea. Fish and marine mammals were a major part of their diet, with everything they could catch being on the menu. Whales, seals, sharks, and all manner of shellfish were regularly consumed, and fish was turned into something called stockfish which provided food for the winter months when the seas were too rough. Stockfish is a whole gutted fish that has been air-dried for up to several months in a cold climate, which removes almost all the moisture and keeps the fish edible for several years.

(Stockfish was mass-produced throughout Scandinavia because it could easily last throughout the winter months, but it did take a few hours of soaking before it could be eaten)

Preserved meat was also the main food on voyages to other countries, with salted pork and dried red meats like beef or elk being turned into something close to jerky. The Vikings also raised horses for meat and would rarely use them in battle, something that caused clashes between Viking and Christian nations as the consumption of horse meat was forbidden by the church. Vegetables were the one source of food they struggled for the most because farmland was limited and usually reserved for grain that could be dried and preserved for the winter.

How did the Vikings survive at sea?

Most Vikings that landed in Britain came from either Denmark or southern Norway, with journeys ranging between 350 and 400 miles. A journey of this length would normally take about a week, depending on the winds, but their boats weren’t designed for long journeys or rough seas, and it was dangerous to sail anywhere they couldn’t follow a coastline. Food for the journey would consist of dried and salted meats, stockfish, and dried grain that could be eaten as a filler. Small braziers would sometimes be put on the larger boats, but it was dangerous and awkward to cook for large amounts of people in this manner, so were usually just left out altogether.

(A Viking longboat project constructed in the same style used by the Vikings. They were very uncomfortable for long voyages and offered no protection from the weather, which often forced them to sail along coastlines instead of risking open seas.)

The boats themselves were known simply as longboats and had a shallow bottom that allowed them to sail up rivers, making them even more of a threat when raiding. The boats were often built without any nails and instead, pieces of dowl were hammered into drilled-out holes that fixed the planks together. The sails were made from wool and treated with something called slack-wax, a mixture of plant oil and beeswax that is melted together and spread onto the sail to stop it from rotting. Their boats didn’t have a deep keel which allowed them access up rivers but made the boats very unstable during bad weather. They also lacked any kind of inside space and people would often make do with a rope tied to the central mast and a large sheet fixed over the top.

Viking alcohol and food culture

The Vikings would make beer from grain in a similar way to the rest of Europe, but one thing they were especially fond of was mead, a strong wine made from fermenting honey. It was far too cold to grow grapes here but during the later centuries, grape wine was traded with France and became popular in the Scandinavian countries, though didn’t take over the popularity of mead.

Something that’s mentioned numerous times in old English texts is how glutenous the Vikings were. They loved to have feasts and enjoyed stuffing themselves with whatever was available, which led to many people considering them to be greedy. The Vikings would most often boil their meat instead of baking or roasting, and this led to the creation of a special type of soup. A large cooking pot would be filled with water and boiled, then people would cook their meat and vegetables in there before taking them out the eat. The next person would do the same and this could go on for a few days in the bigger longhouses, with the end product being a slow-cooked soup that’s had hundreds of pieces of meat and veg cooked in it.