Norse Mythology & Life 3 Old Norse Mytholog
Daily Life In Viking Age Scandinavia
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Daily Life In Viking Age ScandinaviaViking foods and cooking. What did the Vikings eat?A  s you would expect, the Vikings ate a wide variety of foods. While Scandinavia is cold, many foods are available there, and what was not obtainable via agriculture and husbandry was available by trade with more temperate countries.
Unfortunately, the Vikings did not write cookbooks. The earliest cookbooks from Scandinavia come from the Scandinavian Middle Ages, ca. 1300 and 1350: Kristensen, M. Harpestrang, Gamle danske Urtebøger, Stenbøger, og Kogebøger (Old Danish Urte-books, Stone-books, and Cookbooks). Copenhagen: Thiele. 1908-1920. Also see: Rudolf Grewe. "An Early XIII Century Northern-European Cookbook," in Proceedings of A Conference on Current Research in Culinary History: Sources, Topics, and Methods. Published by the Culinary Historians of Boston. 1986. These books are based solidly in Continental culinary tradition, sharing a common French origin. They contain recipes for sauces, milk and egg dishes, and chicken. The recipes almost always utilize and extremely elaborate preparation,with ingredients being processed to the point where they could not readily be recognized by being cut up small, ground, or hidden inside pastry. Another post-Viking Age Scandinavian source would be a list of meals served during the course of a year to the Swedish bishop Hans Brask around 1520: Hildebrand, H., ed. "Matordningen i Biskop Hans Brask Hus." Kongl. Vitterhets och Antiqvitets Akademiens Månadsblad January. February-March 1885. pp. 1-21, 141-142. More information may be determined through archaeological investigation. Pollen analyses from bogs and lake bottoms gives us data as to what types of plants were growing in Viking Age Scandinavia. Midden archaeology, the investigation of kitchen refuse and garbage piles from the Viking Age, provides even more specific clues. Some data may even be gleaned from the Eddas and sagas, although this information is scarce and only occurs in passing, as for example in this passage from Egils saga Skallagrimssonar: Skallagrim was also a great shipwright. There was plenty of driftwood to be had west of Myrar, so he built and ran another farm at Alftaness and from there his men went out fishing and seal-hunting, and collecting the eggs of wild fowl, for there was plenty of everything. They also fetched in his driftwood. Whales often got stranded, and you could shoot anything you wanted, for none of the wildlife was used to man and just stood around quietly. His third farm he built by the sea in the west part of Myrar. From there it was even easier to get the driftwood. He started sowing there and called the place Akrar (cornfields). There are some islands lying offshore where a whale had been washed up, so they called them the Hvals Isles (whale islands). Skallagrim also had his men go up the rivers looking for salmon, and settled Odd the Lone-dweller at the Gljufur River to look after the salmon-fishing. (Egils saga Skallagrimssonar, Chapter 29) While these sources may tell us what foods were eaten, they do not tell us how they were prepared.
General Information Daily Meals The Vikings customarily ate two meals each day. The first, dagmál or "day-meal" was eaten in the morning, approximately two hours after the day's work was started (7 AM to 8 AM or so), while the second, náttmál or "night meal" was consumed at the end of the day's labor (7 PM to 8 PM or so). These times would vary seasonally, depending on the hours of daylight. Types of Food The foods listed here were known to the Vikings, as evidenced by mention in the literary sources, or documented by archaeological finds (i.e., grave sites, etc.). Additional foods were probably consumed as well, including but not limited to wild herbs and fruits known to grow in Scandinavia, additional game animals not listed below, and any foodstuffs that may have been imported from other countries. 
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