The Viking Diet

The Viking Age had so many things to worry about from finding supplies and wars and where to expand to as well as always needing resources as such as food. As The National Museum of Denmark explains, "The Vikings needed all the energy that they could get in the form of fat – especially in winter. Meat, fish, vegetables, cereals and milk products were all an important part of their diet. Sweet food was consumed in the form of berries, fruit and honey. In England the Vikings were often described as gluttonous. They ate and drank too much according to the English." Maybe if they stayed away from drinking out of HUGE VIKING STYLED SKULL MUGS  they would have had less resource problems eh?

Still most Vikings ate cleaner even if they ate more and had ways to work the load off. Most Norsemen ate extremely similar diets and so it was easy to determine what was out of place or different between the ones that had stomach issues and the one that didn't. due to the fact that all statuses of Vikings ate meat commonly even though churches forbade some them. History.com dictates that, "A major benefit of the Viking diet was the fact that every level of society, from kings to common sailors, ate meat every day.  Often this would have been pork, as hogs were easy to raise and quick to mature, but Vikings also ate beef, mutton and goats. Horses were also raised for food, a practice that led to later clashes with Christian leaders, as horsemeat was a forbidden  food under church doctrine. Vikings were avid hunters, and would capture reindeer, elk and even bear to bring back to the hearth fires. And of course, since Vikings spent so much time on the water, fish formed a major part of their diet. Herrings were abundant, and prepared in a plethora of ways: dried, salted, smoked, pickled and even preserved in whey." Now imagine the Big Vikings like the Berserkers depicted in our BERZERKERS BEAR SKIN RING and try to imagine them getting to look like that on a Vegan diet alone without the aid of modern day protein powder. It just doesn't work in that time period so the ate away unsure if each meal would be their last.

Not all Vikings had it easy by way of food however, those who failed to complete tasks starved, some were later found by modern day scientists with worms and even undigested seeds from which cause them to become ill. Those that made it to these points could count their lucky Mead that they can still make it to learning Runes or "Secret knowledge" as it is called their language for communications or better yet known as Old Norse.

Works Cited

1. Butler, Stephanie. “The Surprisingly Sufficient Viking Diet.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Feb. 2014, https://www.history.com/news/the-surprisingly-sufficient-viking-diet.