Vikings or winos?

The lurid libations of the Norsemen, or:
a viking-shaped Trojan horse with 3000 years of drinking culture crammed inside of it.

  • Eirik Storesund
    From: Karmøy, Rogaland, Norway
    Fun fact: Descendant of Iowans who swiftly returned

    Educational background:

    • BA Nordic Language and Literature, The University of Bergen

    • MA Old Norse Philology

      Also studied archaeology, museum studies, religious studies.

    I run a decently influential blog and podcast on Scandinavian antiquity and cultural heritage called Brute Norse. Listener feedback: “Not the most famous, but definitely the weirdest” podcast on the topic.

    I also make zines and books. I used to be a mead-bootlegger.

  • Textual sources:

    • Norse Sagas (chronicles about famed inidividuals and families)

    • Legendary and mythological poetry

    • Foreign testimonies about Norse peoples

    • Legal documents and letters

    • Later Scandinavian traditions

    Archaeological sources:

    • Artifacts associated with alcohol consumption (e.g. drinkware, brewing equipment)

    • Chemical and pollen analysis of beverage residues, plant matter

  • Beverages are social mediums. All societies drink something, Norsemen just happened to be boozers.

    • Modern "festive drinking" in Scandinavia: a product of industrialization, religious revivals and modern medicine

    • Historically, drinking was for ALL serious occasions, not just parties

Beer

The star of the show!

  • "Not all ales are alike," claims a 12th century treatise on Norse grammar.

    Old Norse has many words for beer! These inlcude: Afr, bjórr, brugg (literally “brew”), mungát, líð, öl (variants: al/ál, öldr) +++

    • Not always clear what separates "styles", but we can tell some were high status, others not.

    • Beer was "sacred": The law mandated that all free households brewed beer for certain holidays and milestones

    • Profoundly important in Norse hospitality, and political and religious ceremony

    • To this day the Norwegian word for maternity (barsel) derives from the brewing and communal consumption of "children's beer"

    • Most beer was produced at home, "farmhouse style", later also imported

    • Hopped beer may have arrived as an import

    • Ask me about what Pope Gregory IX had to say about Norwegian baptisms

Mead

Did they really drink that stuff?

  • Both Viking and Medieval Norsemen had a huge fascination with mead (but many probably never even tasted it).

    Complicating factors:

    • Occurs mostly in poetic sources (where beer and mead can be used as synonyms on the basis of vibe, or to describe legendary, fantastical situations).

    • No evidence for domestic beekeeping (exception: Medieval Sweden). Honey always described as an imported good.

    • Early apiaries innefficient: produced 1/4 as much honey as modern equivalents = scarce and expensive honey.

    • But we know for a fact mead was produced ("blended"), served, and later sold.

    • Archaeological evidence (pollen deposited in some Viking Era latrines) hints at significant mead consumption among the upper crust.

Wine

Wine-swilling vikings? More likely than you think!

  • Many sources place wine at the top of the Norse hierarchy of drinks.

    • Evidence of imported grape wine as early as the 1st millennium BC (Late Bronze Age)

    • Strictly elite before the Middle Ages

    • "Odin only drinks wine" claims one mythological text

    • In the Middle Ages, sometimes cheaper than beer

    • A menace to Norse society

    • Scant evidence for wine made from foraged berries

Misc.

Where it gets weird

    • Fermented milk (e.g. skýr) and whey (sýra) were staple beverages

    • A very sorry substitute for beer at banquets

  • Hardly any evidence. No infrastructure or culture for fruit orchards in the Viking Era, no mention in Norse sources.

    Isolated references in late Medieval medieval sources, then nothing until modernity.

  • Were unknown in the relevant period. Earliest Scandinavian reference to distilled alcohol is in reference to gunpowder production in the 15th century.

  • Surely not! What? How? Why?

  • There is lots of evidence for mixed beverages in Scandinavian prehistory! These beverages seem to be a mix of beer, imported wine, mead, berries, various botanicals.

    Patrick McGovern calls these beverages “Nordic Grog”. Found in the wild, they can either be:

    • Traces of beverages that have left residues/pile-up in unwashed containers

    • Different liquids/ingredients mixed together like a punch or cocktail

    • Fermented beverages using a combination of ingredients and sources of fermentable sugar

    • Chemical signatures can also derive from sealing/repairing vessels (e.g. tar, resin), and may or may not reflect deliberate ingredients

    What is most likely? All of the above! Out of several samples McGovern has analyzed, only ONE did not contain traces of "mixing".

    • Norse word: milska: "mixed beverage" e.g. beer + mead, or wine + honey (Latin mulsum)