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Domestic Animals Exhibit
PDF file of the Domestic Animals exhibit
The Viking Home Exhibit
PDF file of the exhibit page The Viking Home
A Viking Age Toy Boat from Dublin
A small boat of approximately 37cm in length has been interpreted as a child's toy. This one was found at Winetavern Street during excavations by the National Museum of Ireland.
Knattleikr, a Viking ball game
Knattleikr is a game known from the Icelandic sagas. It's rules are not known, but it is known that it involved a bat and a ball, and that people could get injured playing it. This article discusses an attempt to recreate the game.
Sagas and Stories
The Icelandic Saga Database is a website dedicated to making the sagas of the Icelanders available online. The sagas are predominantly in modern Iceland, but some are provided in Old Norse, and translated versions of many are available in Danish,…
Interior of a Viking House
The photograph shows part of the interior of a Viking house. The man is sitting on one of the 'benches' that ran down either side of the house. In most houses these would have provided both seating and beds with the whole household sleeping within…
The Hall at Borg, Lofoten, Norway
The reconstruction of the hall at Borg shows how large the greatest Viking halls could be. Originally built in the 500s to a length of 67m, it was rebuilt and extended so that it was 83m long by the beginning of the Viking Age. This is the longest…
Hnefatafl
Hnefatafl was a board game played by Vikings. Although no Viking Age rules are known, it is thought to have been similar to Tablut, a game recorded by Linnaeus in Lachesis Lapponica (1732). This record has been the basis of a number of reconstructed…
Dublinia - Experience Viking and Medieval Dublin
Dublinia is a not-for-profit heritage centre based at the crossroads of the medieval city at Christchurch, Dublin. It promotes learning about Viking and medieval Dublin both through the exhibitions in the centre itself and as part of an online…
Dogs
Dogs are known from the Mesolithic period onwards in Scandinavia. They would have been used by the Vikings as guards, hunting animals, and even as pets. Dogs similar to the Norwegian Elkhound are known from the Mesolithic period, and remains of…
Pigs
The goddess Freyja rode a wild boar called Hildisvíni and the god Freyr owned one called Gullinbursti. This is a nineteenth-century imaginative recreation of what Freyja might have looked like riding her boar.
Pigs were a source of meat in the…
Pigs were a source of meat in the…
Cattle
An image of Auðumla the legendary cow that licked Odin's grandfather Buri from the ice and from whose udders milk flowed in streams. This milk nourished the giant Ymir, the first creature to be created in Norse mythology.
Sheep
Sheep were an important source of milk, meat and wool. The cloth made from wool was even a form of currency in Iceland during the Viking Age. Wool was gathered by plucking the sheep or by collecting it after it had been shed naturally. They did not…
Icelandic Horse
The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse from Iceland that developed from horses taken to Iceland by the original Viking settlers. It is small, often pony-sized, but very hardy.
Pagan Scandinavians ate horse meat as part of their religious…
Pagan Scandinavians ate horse meat as part of their religious…
Reflections on Our Fascination with Vikings and What It Tells Us about How We Engage with the Past
An essay on how a group of students responded to a class on the history of the Vikings and how it affected their perception of the Vikings.
A Reconstructed Viking House in Iceland
A photograph of a turf-built house in Iceland of a style that would have been common in the Viking Age
Houses and domestic life in the Viking Age and medieval period: material perspectives from sagas and archaeology
This PhD thesis examines how houses were used in the Viking Age and medieval period, and compares archaeological evidence with the medieval Icelandic sagas.
Roskilde Viking Ship Museum
The Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde, Denmark, houses a collection of Viking Age ships as well as offering the opportunity to see and sail reconstructions.
The Viking Ship Museum, Oslo
The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo presents an exhibition of the Gokstad, Oseberg and Tune Viking ships, and of finds related to them.
Torslunda helmet plate
Die for making plates to decorate helmets found at Torslunda on Öland, Sweden. It features two warriors in decorated tunics, wearing boar-crested helmets, and carrying spears and swords. The leading figure has a ring-sword indicating that he is of…