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Norse Drinking Traditions Christie L Norse Drinking Traditions Christie L. Ward Alexandrian Company Symposium on Food and Festival in the Middle Ages of evidence in the archaeological record, there is far from a complete picture of Viking Age brewing, vintning, and drinking customs. In the course of this paper, evidence from several Germanic cultures will be presented to help fill out the evidence and provide a more complete view of this topic. Although the culture of other Germanic peoples was not exactly like that of the Norse, many similarities exist. In the case of drinking and rituals associated with drinking, the Old English materials seem to present the best detailed view of this activity, which further enlightens the materials surviving from Norse culture. Hávamál (Sayings of the High One) Many pieces of related evidence survive, even from 11. Byrþi betri / berrat maþr brautu at, the earliest records of the Germanic peoples. There an sé manvit mikit; are significant similarities that suggest the auþi betra / þykkir þat í ókunnun staþ, fundamental structure of drinking as a formal ritual slíkt es válaþs vera. activity was established in the early Germanic tribes before the Migration Age split the Germanic peoples [A better burden / no man can bear into their familiar nations of the modern day. on the way than his mother wit: and no worse provision / can he carry with him Drinking and drinking customs among the Germanic than too deep a draught of ale.] tribes were recorded by Romans such as P. Cornelius Tacitus in his Germania: 12. Esa svá gott, / sem gott kveþa, öl alda sunum, Lauti cibum capiunt: separatae singulis sedes et sua þvít fæ'ra veit, / es fleira drekkr, cuique mensa. Tum ad negotia nec minus saepe ad síns til geþs gumi. convivia procedunt armati. Diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum. Crebrae, ut inter [Less good than they say / for the sons of men vinolentos, rixae raro conviciis, saepius caede et is the drinking oft of ale: vulneribus transiguntur. Sed et de reconciliandis in for the more they drink, / the less they can think vicem inimicis et iungendis adfinitatibus et and keep a watch over their wits.] adsciscendis principibus, de pace denique ac bello plerumque in conviviis consultant, tamquam nullo 13. Óminnis hegri heitr / sás of ölþrum þrumir, magis tempore aut ad simplices cogitationes pateat hann stelr geþi guma; animus aut ad magnas incalescat. Gens non astuta þess fugls fjöþrum / ek fjötraþr vask nec callida aperit adhuc secreta pectoris licentia ioci; í garþi Gunnlaþar. ergo detecta et nuda omnium mens. Postera die retractatur, et salva utriusque temporis ratio est: [A bird of Unmindfullness / flutters over ale-feasts, deliberant, dum fingere nesciunt, constituunt, dum wiling away men’s wits; errare non possunt. with the feathers of that fowl / I was fettered once in the garths of Gunnlodr below.] Potui umor ex hordeo aut frumento, in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus: proximi ripae et vinum 14. Ölr ek varþ, / varþ ofrölvi mercantur. Cibi simplices, agrestia poma, recens fera at ens fróþa Fjalars; aut lac concretum: sine apparatu, sine blandimentis þvi's ölþr bazt, / at aptr of heimtir expellunt famem. Adversus sitim non eadem hverr sitt geþ gumi. temperantia. Si indulseris ebrietati suggerendo quantum concupiscunt, haud minus facile vitiis quam [Drunk was I then, / I was over-drunk, armis vincentur. in the fold of wise Fjalar; But best is an ale feast / when a man is able [To pass an entire day and night in drinking disgraces to call back his wits at once.] no one. Their quarrels, as might be expected with intoxicated people, are seldom fought out with mere These are the words of the great god Ódinn, abuse, but commonly with wounds and bloodshed. Yet cautioning against drunkenness and unrestrained it is at their feasts that they generally consult on the drinking. And yet the drinking of alcoholic beverages reconciliation of enemies, on the forming of was a prominent feature of Scandinavian life in the matrimonial alliances, on the choice of chiefs, finally Viking Age. even on peace and war, for they think that at no time is the mind more open to simplicity of purpose or more Unfortunately, while there are many passing warmed to noble aspirations. A race without either references in Old Norse literature and occasional bits Norse Drinking Traditions Page 2 natural or acquired cunning, they disclose their hidden years or so, philologists thought that beor and björr thoughts in the freedom of the festivity. Thus the were derived from the word for barley, and it is only sentiments of all having been discovered and laid recently that it was realized that the term almost bare, the discussion is renewed on the following day, certainly referred to cider (whether from apples or and from each occasion its own peculiar advantage is pears) during the Viking Age (Hagen pp. 205-206; derived. They deliberate when they have no power to Roesdahl, p. 120). English translations of the sagas dissemble; they resolve when error is impossible. will translate both öl and björr interchangeably as beer or ale, and so are not a good guide to the actual A liquor for drinking is made of barley or other grain, terminology being used in the original Old Norse text. and fermented into a certain resemblance to wine. The To sow further confusion, in the Eddaic poem dwellers on the river-bank also buy wine. Their food is Alvíssmál verses 34 and 35, a variety of Old Norse of a simple kind, consisting of wild fruit, fresh game, terms related to fermented beverages appear and and curdled milk. They satisfy their hunger without are implied to be synonyms: elaborate preparation and without delicacies. In quenching their thirst they are equally moderate. If you Þórr kvað: indulge their love of drinking by supplying them with as Segðu mér þat Alvíss, - öll of rök fira much as they desire, they will be overcome by their vörumk, dvergr, at vitir, own vices as easily as by the arms of an enemy.] hvé þat öl heitir, er drekka alda synir, heimi hverjum í?" The staple grain cultivated during the Viking Age and medieval period in Scandinavia was barley, and it Alvíss kvað: may have been the only grain grown in Iceland up Öl heitir með mönnum, en með ásum bjórr, through the point at which the mini-Ice Age of the 14th kalla veig vanir, century made it impossible to grow grain in Iceland at hreinalög jötnar, en í helju mjöð, all. Most of the barley was used to brew ale, which kalla sumbl Suttungs synir. was the staple beverage of all classes. Even children drank ale daily, especially in urban areas. [Thórr said: (Skaarup, p. 134). The Old English didactic work Tell me, Alvís-- for all wights' fate Ælfric's Colloquy shows just how ale was regarded in I deem that, dwarf, thou knowest-- early Northern Europe: when the novice is asked how the ale is hight, which is brewed by men, what he drinks, he replies, "Ealu gif ic hæbbe, oþþe in all the worlds so wide? wæter gif ic næbbe ealu" (Ale if I have it, water if I have no ale). Alvíss said: 'Tis hight öl (ale) among men; among Aesir bjórr (cider); the Vanir call it veig (strong drink), hreinalög (clear-brew), the Etins; mjöð (mead), the Hel-Wights; the sons of Suttung call it sumbel (ale-gathering).] The exact recipes and methods that Viking Age Scandinavians used to produce öl are unknown. However, some brewing experts think that certain surviving ale-brewing practices in rural western Norway may preserve Viking Age techniques: Silver cup from Jelling In the remote rural region of Voss most of the farmers Early Northern Europeans were quite familiar with make their own beer. When a new brew is underway, alcoholic beverages made from the fermentation of the smoke and rich odours tell everyone in the grain. In 77 A.D., the Roman encyclopaedist Gaius neighborhood that beer is being made and the go to Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder) recorded in his the farmhouse to help out and then sample the Historia Naturalis that beer was known to the various finished brew. Jackson went out with farmer Svein tribes of Northern Europe under many different Rivenes to collect juniper branches. Rivenes sawed names. sufficient branches to fill the 700-litre [about 185 gallons] bath-shaped tank in his cabin that acts as It should be noted that while the modern words both the hot liquor vessel and the brew kettle. He "beer" and "ale" are today almost interchangeable, feels, just as the medieval monks recorded by Urion there is good evidence that shows that the two drinks and Eyer felt about the hops in their bière, that the were very different in early Northern Europe. It is juniper branches, complete with berries, helped him clear from Old English and Old Norse sources that achieve a better extract from his malt as well as ale (Old English ealu, Old Norse öl) was produced warding off infections. from malted grain. However, literary analysis shows that Old English beor and Old Norse björr are terms His water source – a stream tumbling down the hillside used for sweet alcoholic beverages. Until the last ten outside his cabin – has a double use. It is his brewing Norse Drinking Traditions Page 3 liquor and he also immerses sacks of barley in the millefolium) and others (La Pensée, pp.128-144, stream where the grain starts to germinate. A Hagen, p. 212). neighbor has turned his garage into a kiln, powered by a domestic fan heater, and there barley is turned into malt. In the brewing process, when hot liquor has been added to the malt, the mash is filtered over more juniper branches to filter it.
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