Children

Viking Children
 

This article is from Jim Cornish's Website: http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/v_drakkar.htm

Children Without Childhoods
When we think of childhood today, we think going to school, engaging in afternoon activities, spending weekends with family and friends and going on summer vacation and sporting tournaments. Pastimes include reading a book, listening to music, talking to friends on the phone, playing video games and surfing the Net. It is a time of doing some chores to help mom and dad around the house. But it is mostly a time of enjoying a young life!

What was it like being a child during the Viking Age, a thousand years ago? Well, it certainly wasn't like being a child today. For one thing, there weren't any books, television, video games or computers! And because most children of the Viking Age had to work along with their parents, they had very little childhood at all.

A Short Life in Viking Times
Life during the Viking Age wasn't easy for anyone. For children, surviving birth was the first challenge. In Viking society infants born sickly or with a physical disability were taken from the mother and left to outside away from the home to die. Certainly cruel by today's standards, it was commonly practiced in most societies of medieval Europe.

Children embraced by the father were named in a special ceremony. The names selected were of deceased elders, famous Vikings or Viking gods and goddesses. Boys were given a first name. The last name identified them as son's of their father. Hence the name of the famous Viking Lief Eriksson meant Lief, the son of Erik. Girls often used the name of their mother or grandmother or one of the female Viking goddesses.

Even after being selected to live, Viking children still suffered greatly. Diseases for which there were no treatments or cures killed many children. It has been estimated that about one in five children died before their fifth birthday. Nearly as many did not reach age twenty. Few Vikings lived beyond their fiftieth birthday. In industrialized countries of the world today where food and medical care are plentiful, life expectancy has almost doubled from Viking times. Most of the increase has come in just the past one hundred years.

Learning Life's Skills at An Early Age
At ten years of age, Viking children were considered to be adults. During their childhood, they didn't attend school. There just weren't any schools in Viking times. The printing press had not yet been invented and books, other than religious ones found only in churches and monasteries, did not exist for ordinary people to read. Educating children the way we do today wasn't possible. And, it really wasn't necessary. At a time when providing the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter took most of every waking hour, there would not have been time for school anyway.

Just because there weren't any schools doesn't mean that children weren't educated. By the age of five, Viking children were expected to work to support the homestead. Children were required to learn the jobs of the adults. Since most Vikings were farmers, both boys and girls were expected to keep the family farm going.

Survival during the Viking Age depended on learning these skills early and learning them well. The skills learned by Viking children depended on their gender. Girls were taught jobs related to running a household. Boys were expected to learn how to manage the farm and how to make the items required for everyday life. Until they were fifteen years old, boys and girls lived very different lives.

Viking Boys
Until they were five years old, most Viking boys were raised and cared for by their parents and grandparents in the Viking extended family. At the age of five, many boys were sent to the home of an uncle or a respected member of the community who could teach them all the skills required of a Viking man.

For the next five or so years, these boys learned all the skills they needed to be successful farmers and warriors. By working side-by-side with adults, the boys learned how plant and care for crops, raise livestock like cattle, sheep and goats and trade goods produced by the family.

Boys were taught to be skilled warriors in the use of a sword, spear and battle-axe. They learned how to make their Viking weapons and how to fight hand-to-hand, the Viking's favourite way to fight. Viking boys were also taught how to navigate ships using the stars and coastal landmarks. Because they would spend sometime away from home when they became men, boys were expected to recognize important lifesaving plants.

Vikings were master shipbuilders. Because most communities owned a knarr and drakkar, all Viking boys were required to learn how to construct and repair these ships. Most homes also had a small smithy, the Viking name for a blacksmith building. Boys were taught how to fashion tools for making and repairing household furniture, storage barrels and chests. Some of them would become skilled artisans and make the jewelry the Vikings delighted in wearing.

Some Viking boys even learned how to read and write the rune characters of the Viking alphabet. Those that mastered this task carved the runes into weapons, memorial stones and personal belongings. Vikings who could write and read runes were believed to have magical powers and were well respected in Viking society.

Viking Girls
Viking girls remained at home with their mothers and grandmothers. Running a Viking household was a big job. It was considered very important work and girls learned the required skills from an early age.

Girls were taught how to prepare meals for the entire family. It was often inside work, done in a unhealthy darkened and smoky house. They were expected to make yarn from wool and flax, to weave wool and linen to create fabric, and use that fabric to make clothing. Since managing the farm became a woman's responsibility while her husband was away trading or on a raid, girls were taught how to tend animals. Many of these animals lived near the house. Some of the animals shared the same living space as the Viking family members. If a girl was strong enough and wanted to, she would be taught how to handle a sword and fight like a warrior. There are many stories of female Viking warriors in the Norse sagas. One of the most famous is Freydis, the sister-in-law of Lief Eriksson, who also traveled to Vinland.

Viking Children's Clothing

Vikings weren't too interested in clothing fashions unless they were wealthy and could afford the silks and fine fabrics from the East. For most ordinary Vikings, clothing was simple in design. Boys worn smaller versions of clothes worn by the father; mainly a tunic, pants and goatskin boots. Girls wore smaller versions of clothes worn by the mother; a full length tunic covered by an apron. There were no buttons or zippers in Viking times. Clothes were fastened using pins and brooches.

Sometime to Play

Although most children in Viking Scandinavia spent much of their time working with their parents, they did find sometime to play. Boys and girls both enjoyed the same board and dice games played by the adults. These games were similar to backgammon and chess. They also participated in popular sports such as wrestling and physical games like mock battles. In the winter children attached bone to their boots for skating on frozen ponds.
Children may have also learned to play simple musical instruments such as bone or reed whistles or wooden pan-pipes and no doubt enjoyed singing and dancing as much as kids do today. Children also had their own toys. Carved wooden animals, usually about 10 - 15cm ( 4-6" ) long have been found on many Viking archaeological sites. Wooden horses were by far the most common animal toy. Wooden swords, usually very accurate copies of the real thing, have also be found. Toy wooden ships, small replicas of the knarr and drakkar, have also been discovered. Small cast heads and limbs have been found on some sites suggesting that the Viking children also played with figurines.

Married Young

When Viking children became teenagers, their adult life really began. By the age of fifteen, both boys are girls were likely to be married. A husband was chosen for the girl and was usually part of an agreement of peace and support between two families. The girl brought with her bedclothes made of wool and linen, a loom and a bed as her contribution to the marriage agreement. Girls from richer families could also bring jewelry of silver and gold, domestic animals and sometimes even a farm or a part of a farm. All the goods the woman brought with her into the marriage continued to be her personal belongings. It was inherited by her children's after her death. Because of the harsh conditions life expectancy was low. If they were not killed in a raid, most ordinary Vikings lived only to age forty-five.
The nature of a Viking house was also an indication of what life was like for Viking children. The house usually had one room. All family members, including the grandparents lived under the same roof. All activities took place there. There were no bedrooms. Beds were simple benches that were place along the outside wall. Children had no privacy as many children do today.