A Toast from the High Seat; the Feast in the Viking Age
Firelight dances among raucous figures, casting long twisting shadows into the smoky heights of the hall. The din of laughter echoes out into the night, resounding beneath the high-gabled roof. Warriors line the benches, finely bestowed with golden rings glinting. They hail their chieftain, sitting proud in his high-seat, giver of rings and glory. The noble war leader is poured mead by his gracious and wise queen, and standing from his seat raises a golden horn glimmering with jewels. He praises his mighty host, calling upon the gods to grant them glory, and downing the horn to great cheers signals for the food to be served. This image is inseparable from conceptions of the Viking Age, and simultaneously represents an ideal. Then, as now, ideals do not always reflect reality.
Viking
Age Scandinavian society was a feasting society. The feast in this period
served a number of purposes, including reinforcing hierarchies and ratifying
laws, as well as providing a religious function that lasted well into the era
of Christianity.[1]
This is well known enough, but the details of feasting and the place the event
held in Viking Age society have been largely neglected by research on the
period.
Feasting was the
most important event in Viking Age society, occasioned by the full range of
life’s events from marriage to death and everything between. Scholarship on the
period is yet to recognize this, and it shows in the treatment given to sources
(mainly, the Sagas) that mention feasting. Taken largely for granted, few have
stopped to consider what the holding of feasts in this period meant to those
who attended them, and why this event, before any number of others, was pursued
with such vigor by Viking Age people. Likewise, the presentation of feasts
offered by the Sagas is not scrutinized as heavily as other areas of the texts,
necessitating a reexamination that considers all the available evidence,
historical, archaeological, and otherwise. To fully appreciate the Saga’s depiction
of feasting requires a picture of the feast provided by sources from as close
to the period as possible, primarily archaeological evidence. This picture from
archaeological and historical sources of the period, together with the
re-examined Sagas, provides a compelling understanding of the Viking Age feast
both in practice and representation.
Feasting is not
unique to Viking Age culture. There is written evidence of feasting in
Mesopotamia,[2]
and it is not unreasonable to assume that some form of feasting existed
throughout all of human existence.[3] The act of feasting can be
defined as, “any sharing of special food (in quality, preparation,
or quantity) by two or more people for a special (not every day) event,”[4] but this is a broad
definition. Feasting, as it was known to Viking Age people, involved much more
than sharing food for a special occasion, and in this paper “the feast” or
“feasting” refer to a number of expressions of one event that could have been
known by several names and was, itself, a powerful cultural institution. Thus,
it is important to recognize the drawbacks of using this modern English word to
describe a Viking Age event, but for the sake of clarity it will remain.
The unique structure of the Viking Age feast seems to owe
in large part to the warband or comitatus structure of earlier Germanic
peoples from whom this feasting tradition was inherited. The comitatus
were select warriors chosen by the ruler or chief of a tribe to be his personal
retinue and bodyguard, whom he would equip, shelter, and feed in his own hall
in exchange for their service as fighters.[5] We know this was the case
at least as early as the Roman historian Tacitus who, writing in the 2nd
century AD, recorded in his Germania, “And not only in his own tribe but
also in the neighboring states it is the renown and glory of a chief to be
distinguished for the number and valor of his followers.”[6] It is
from Tacitus that we get the Latin word comitatus used to describe this
institution.
Comitatus, like the word
feast itself, offers a number of problems for those trying to understand the
Viking Age feast on its own terms. Yet it bears consideration, as the words
used to describe this institution in the past can tell us a great deal about it
and the culture surrounding it. In his book on the language surrounding the
institution of the comitatus, John Lindow answers definitively whether
Tacitus chose the word comitatus based on its relation to a Germanic
word of similar meaning, and the answer is he most certainly did not.[7] Tacitus’s
word choice could not have been arbitrary, however, and an examination of the
Latin definition of comitatus is enlightening: “In partic., in the time
of the empire [the era of Tacitus’ writing], an imperial escort, retinue,
court, suite.”[8]
This implies certain aristocratic associations, which may not have been
appropriate for the Germanic context in which it was applied. What about the
warriors (Latin comes) themselves? They have been referred to as, “The
attendants of distinguished private individuals.”[9] This
brings us closer to our understanding of the Germanic institution known
variously in North Germanic as druhtiz or drótt and in Old Norse
as the hirð or hired, giving credence to comitatus as a
term describing “A distinguished individual and his attendants”, and one which
will be used in this paper out of convenience and convention.
The origins of this warband structure are foggy.[10] It is clear, however,
that the Celts had comitati as part of their society and mutual cultural
influence with the Germans, which could have included these warbands and feasts.[11] It is also plausible that
they both adopted this very ancient hierarchy from a similar origin in early
Indo-European tribes. The obvious cross-cultural influence on feasting between
Celts and Germans is evidenced largely by similarities in the drinking
practices from the Bronze/Iron-Age, as seen in burials from the period.[12]
It is well established that the comitati were hierarchical from the beginning. As Tacitus recounts
in Germania,
Even in [a chief’s] escort there are gradations of rank, dependent
on the choice of the man to whom they are attached. These followers vie keenly
with each other as to who shall rank first with his chief, the chiefs as to who
shall have the most numerous and the bravest followers.[13]
Hierarchy provided the
foundation on which the feasting culture was built, with feasts serving the
warband in a number of ways. First, the feast was a means for the chieftain to
distribute wealth among the warband, to secure the loyalty of his followers. Generosity
was a trait of a good chieftain. Several written sources, from Tacitus to
Beowulf, testify that this generosity was more than just an ideal quality, it
was an obligation to the warband which kept him in power.[14] When this relationship
became ritualized in the feast is hazy (like the origins of the warband
itself), although evidence of burial rites involving containers of alcohol in
Scandinavia trace back to Period II of the Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1300
B.C.).[15] Alcohol in this period,
being expensive to produce, was an indicator of power and wealth that would
have been possessed by only a few individuals who likely held the kind of
feasts we know from later sources. Regardless, the importance of this ritual of
generosity is clearly attested in the material record, particularly the
consistent appearance of fine drinkware assemblages among Iron-Age Celtic and
Germanic burials,[16] which were considered
vital to maintaining one’s status in the afterlife.[17] These burials usually
contained a set of serving dishes and plates, large cauldrons for serving
alcohol, and drinking vessels of assorted varieties, often including drinking
horns.[18] It is interesting to note
the consistency in form of feasting equipment through to Viking Age Scandinavia.
Large barrels and cauldrons, presumably for alcohol, and dining/drinking sets,
including horns, have been recovered from a number of burials, perhaps most
notably the Oseberg Ship in Oslo. These
assemblages were tools of the chieftain, used to secure the bonds between
himself and his men and to rank the members of the band via relative status.[19]
This practice has recently been disputed concerning the Celts.
However, Loughton makes the case that many of the accounts of ritualistic
gift-giving in Celtic society are based on classical sources focused on a
particular place and time, and cannot speak for the entirety of the Celtic
world. (This argument could easily be extrapolated onto classical sources of
Germanic history as well.) Loughton likewise posits that consumption of alcohol
was more widespread among varying social classes and not just the exclusive
purview of the elite.[20] A similar point will be
made later about the Viking Age. This still does not preclude the fact that
there are multiple sources accounting for hierarchical societal organizations
among Celtic and Germanic cultures and the possibility that it was not alcohol
consumption itself, but rather, the quality and quantity combined that
distinguished the alcohol supplied by the chief. That this was a hierarchical
relationship is further attested by the arrangement of burials from the Iron
Age Celts up through the Viking Age,[21] being tombs for a single
individual with great amounts of wealth, who through their position of power
within the hierarchy could arrange for such lavish burials.
This was a society in which the
individual was first and foremost a product of their obligations, where it was
not who you were but rather who you associated with that people first used to
determine your character. It is clear that this was the case at least in Anglo
Saxon society (bearing in mind the issues of comparison to later Viking Age
customs), evident from the way Beowulf first introduces himself in the poem when
accosted by the guard on the shore, “We belong by birth to the
Geat people And owe allegiance to Lord Hygelac. In my day, my father was a
famous man, A noble warrior named Ecgtheow.”[22] Beowulf does not mention
his own name for over another fifty lines when he meets Hrothgar. It is also
notable that Beowulf and Hrothgar officiate their agreement over the slaying of
Grendel with a feast, the understood location for sealing pacts. Reliance on
renown as a social currency made feasting exceptionally important as a place to
ritually assign followers position within a chieftain’s band, and engage in
bragging and gift giving to reciprocate the relationship.[23] The warriors bragging bringing
the chief renown for his brave followers, the gifts of the chieftain (both
physical and honorary), is a key aspect of spreading his own renown and
increasing that of his followers.
According to
Arnold, even to attain the status of chieftain required a successful
inauguration feast, illustrating a clear connection between the right to host a
feast and the right to rule.[24] The warband-chieftain
relationship predicated the social necessity of feasts as an occasion to bond
and seal oaths and relationships, in which the consumption of alcohol played a
major ritual role as the means by which mortal rulers received divine, as well
as community, sanction.[25] This is the feasting
tradition inherited by the Germans in the first century B.C., which Enright
notes as “that period that establishes the true foundation for the subsequent
political development of Germanic culture.”[26] This is the Germanic
culture which would evolve into the culture of Viking age Scandinavia.
While not itself a martial act, the social and cultural
effects of the feast were vital in regulating the relationships between members
of the comitatus. Feasting is then first and foremost a military
activity for the early Celts and Germans, something which can be seen in its
later association with Odin, the lord of hosts.[27] In Comitatus,
Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary, Lindow
emphasizes the comitatus’ status as an institution while downplaying its
military nature, saying that it is a mistake to overemphasize the physical
military aspects of the relationship (such as the taking of booty in battle to
reward followers), and that instead it is the reciprocal giving of glory via
deeds of valor that counted most for members of these groups.[28] That being the case, the
feast becomes even more important than a way to dole out spoils, but as a place
to distribute the most valuable capital in Germanic society: renown. From Hávamál
77,[29]
Cattle
die, and kinsmen die,
And
so one dies one‘s self;
But
a noble name will never die,
If good renown one gets.[30]
The several centuries separating the formation of warband
relationships and the Viking Age witnessed a huge amount of cultural evolution
and change, yet there remained a strong continuity in the relationships of the
warband and feasting practices. This indicates the vital role played by
feasting in these societies, withstanding the alterations of time due to its
association with important institutions and rituals.
For a chieftain or
goði, the hosting of feasts was a vital function of his station.[31] This is seen in feasts
held to inaugurate a new leader, which by the Viking Age seems to have taken on
a slightly different form in that it encompassed the funeral feast of the
previous leader.[32]
The relevant aspect of this practice is that the lord set to inherit the
chiefdom could not claim his full inheritance nor sit in the high seat until he
had sworn an oath on the largest toast, thus consecrating his ascendance to the
position of feast-lord.[33] This ritually recognized
the chieftain’s position as the giver of feasts, the lord of the warband, who
through his generosity earned their service.
But men were not the only participants
in the feast, as projects of the whole community women and children certainly
had their own roles to play in the preparation and rituals of the feast. Likewise,
the feast had more purposes for the community than cementing the central
institution of the comitatus. The roles of women in this context are the
easiest to conceive of, the first and most obvious of these being the “Cup
Bearing Queen” motif discussed especially by Enright in Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European
Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age[34],
as exemplified by Wealhtheow in Beowulf, mediating the relationships of the comitatus.
Furthermore, women played a major role in the serving and preparation of food,
especially of dairy (although to what degree they participated in brewing is
unclear), as well as the making (and assisting in the putting on) of fine
garments worn to these events and the hangings which decorated the walls of the
longhouse.[35]
Along with this, women managed the general daily maintenance and cleaning of
the longhouse, which considering the likely size of wealthier households was no
minor task.[36]
The roles of children (and the very elderly) are more difficult to pin down, as
they are almost never mentioned in any of the original sources. This omission
may be itself noteworthy, however, representing that either children were not
particularly important in preparations for a feast, or shared in the menial
labor involved in preparation (this, as with most things, likely varied with
the family’s social standing). Children are however always important
symbolically, their presence representing the security of wealth and family for
future generations, and thus certainly attended the feasts in some capacity.
The feast had more functions in society than solidifying
the warband relationship, the clearest of these being as a sort of
demonstration for the organizational and leadership ability required by
chieftains in this society. Koch identifies three major functions for early
Germanic chieftains which carry over well to the Viking Age: the collection and
redistribution of economic surplus; handling diplomatic connections with
neighboring chiefdoms; and reducing and managing strife among the people under
his domain.[37]
These fit with the scheme laid out by Smith in her article “Feasts and their Failures" in
which she identifies feasts as scenarios in which there is a high possibility
of something going wrong, and through this provide opportunities for both hosts
and guests to demonstrate their abilities of leadership and general management.[38] In addition, feasts served
the functions typically associated with any large social gathering, namely facilitating
meeting others in the community, and (with no small help from fermented
beverages) lubricating social interactions. Socializing between men and women in
particular was an important aspect of feasts, with feasts being the place where
many couples likely first met.[39] These interactions
themselves had certain rules, as in many societies, wherein women were assigned
to share a horn with men by lot, so that no woman was without a drinking
partner, but some men having to drink alone.[40] These pairings offered
opportunities for flirting, perhaps displayed most vividly in Egil’s Saga
Skallagrímsonar, in which a girl is displeased with being paired with the
inexperienced Egil, but after he picks her up and places her next to himself,
begins to warm up to him.[41]
What actually occurred at these feasts may be
reconstructed via several sources, illuminating the practical realities and
social customs. Beginning with the practical, the archaeological record
contains a wealth of information on the tools and equipment associated with
feasting, the physical reality of the rituals. The foundation of the feast may
be found in the chieftain’s longhouse, itself the sun around which all the
activities of the feast orbit. The food for the feast is hunted, fished, or
grown within its domain, much of the alcohol is brewed nearby if not stored
inside, many of the utensils and serving dishes were no doubt manufactured by
craftsmen from the surrounding villages, in short, the longhouse was the center
of the local world to which everything and everyone contributed. Along with the
regional came the international, a unique feature of the Viking Age, brought
about via their extensive trading networks.[42][43] The extent of Viking
trade can be demonstrated by the fact that Sweden is a better source for
obtaining silver (but not gold) Samanid coins than Afghanistan, where the coins
originated.[44]
Thus it is not unreasonable to expect that silks and colorful fabrics or spices
rarer in mainland Europe would have been more common sights at Scandinavian
feasts, although obviously less so in Iceland and Greenland.
In terms of what was actually consumed, there is greater
and greater evidence stemming from recent developments in archaeological
technique and methodology, particularly in the fields of Archeobotany and
Zooarchaeology. Excitingly, knowledge of what was consumed at these feasts in
terms of alcohol has also become clearer in recent years, thanks to analysis of
pollen samples and residue left in buried vessels.[45] There are various sources
which have come forth recently discussing the everyday foods and typical meals
of the Viking Age, but feasting represents often a special occasion, and thus
special and rarer foods. This likely entailed beef and red meat more generally,
as well as bread of higher quality then that usually consumed.[46] In fact, it has been
conjectured that, at least as far as Iceland is concerned, the production of
barley itself (whether for bread or brewing) was a sign of status.[47] The drinks were likely
stronger and more flavorful than what was normally consumed, mead itself being
reserved for special occasions well into the Middle Ages.[48] These drinks likely took
the form of some kind of braggot (unhopped beer sometimes mixed with mead or
other herbs for flavor) or ale, along with mead, often mixed together in a sort
of beer-fruit wine and honey cocktail.[49] This was sometimes
augmented with grape wine imported from further south in Europe, something
reserved for the elite in this region since antiquity.[50]
A typical feast would have been a well-equipped project
of the whole community, with no shortage of fine alcohol. Less easy to discern (due,
in part, to the lack of physical artifacts) are the events—besides eating and
drinking—which took place at feasts; however, some references do exist. Drinking
contests are an obvious guess, and several sources indicate that this was the
case. For instance, in chapter 27 of Örvar-Odds
saga, Sigurd and Sjolf make a bet that they together could outdrink
Arrow-Odd.[51]
Interestingly, the contest involves more than just guzzling liquor, as, between
horns, the opposing parties compose insulting poetry which grows in intensity
as the contest continues.[52] This suggests that poetry
contests could also have been a part of the feast (although it is unclear if
this ever occurred sober) and the practice of flyting, i.e., ritualized
exchanges of insults in verse, is well documented.[53] A wide variety of games
are known to have occurred, including board games[54]. Wrestling and tests of strength among men were equally
popular, and meeting solely for the purpose of engaging in games was not
unheard of.[55] Of course, one must be
careful with saga evidence, so the exact nature of these games cannot be
assured, but the fact that the Vikings did play games and engage in sports of
some kind is indisputable.
The final aspect of the feast needed to complete
this reconstruction is its function both in bonding men and stratifying them.
The organization of seating in the Viking Age hall was based on one´s position
in the dominance hierarchy, where a seat closer to the chieftain was more
respectable.[56] It is not difficult to
see how this situation could become dangerous, especially in the context of
hyper-competitive warriors constantly competing for status within the warband.
The mediation of this tension is the purpose of
the lady of the hall, who partly through her reassurances to less successful
warriors prevents violence within her husband´s retinue.[57] She
also plays a part in the establishment of the hierarchies, in that she serves
the mead in order of importance out from the high seat.[58] Through the playing of games and the mediation
of the lady, the feast serves always to enforce the hierarchies of the
community and to discourage violence and internal upheaval. The feast
reconstructed here was the center of the community in regards to resources,
social activities, and entertainment. It entailed drinking, ritualized
fighting, eating, and the spreading of wealth.
Feasting was not only a mortal activity for the
people of Viking Age Scandinavia. Its relevance and rituals are seen in many of
the surviving religious tales, as collected in the Eddas. A survey of every
instance of feasting in Norse Myth is too great a task for the current scope of
this project, however there are a few important tales worth noting. The first
of these is found in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál. The poem
itself describes Valhalla, the resting place for warriors chosen by Odin, whose
afterlife is an ever-recurring feast punctuated with battles to help them
prepare for the doomsday Ragnarok.[59]
Stanzas 25-26 describe the goat Heiðrún, from whose udders pour out the mead
consumed in Odin‘s hall, which surpasses all others.[60]
Likewise, in the Prose Edda story of Gylfaginning, Valhalla is described, and Sæhrímnir
the boar is mentioned, being cooked and consumed and reborn every day to feed
the warriors.[61] These spiritual
associations with feasting offer insight into the way people of the
pre-Christian era of the Viking Age viewed feasts as sacred rites, not mere
earthly political undertakings. That feasts are associated with Odin in
particular is noteworthy, Odin himself being considered a god important for men
of higher status and military occupation. This helps solidify feastings
position of importance in Norse society, as well as its importance to
individuals of prestige in terms of how people of the age framed it in within
their beliefs. While it was not only men of immense wealth who hosted feasts,
this likely represented an aspiration for landowners of lesser status, the
ideal host to which one may look to for guidelines of hospitality. Feasting was the prime
entertainment event in the Viking Age, and, as discussed earlier, was the
bonding agent which held together chieftain-warband relationships. The feast
was more than an enjoyable way to earn loyalty, however, as it was the defining
cultural event of the age both religiously and secularly.
It is clear that the people of the Viking Age made little
distinction between religious and secular functions in many aspects of their
society. The goðar in particular would seem to have drawn no lines
between their role as sacrificial and legal leaders, each naturally supporting
the other.[62]
To get a better picture of how feasts functioned in this society, it is
necessary to first analyze the varieties laid out in later sources.
In later sources there emerges a picture of several
distinct types of feast for different purposes and occasions: the blót, sumbl,
and erfi. Blót means “sacrifice” and is used to describe the three
yearly ritual feasts of the pagan era, occasionally called sumbl.[63] These feasts were the
major yearly religious events in the Viking Age, to which all men were expected
to contribute or else pay a fine to cover his share.[64] Snorri mentions in Hiemskringla
that the three feasts were supposed to be held “towards winter for a good
season, one in the middle of winter for the crops, and a third in summer; that
was the sacrifice for victory.”[65] At these feasts, the
chieftain would satisfy his duty as cult-leader, making sacrifices and toasting
til árs ok froðar or “to good harvests and peace.”[66] Sumbl, however, is
a broad term, and is used to describe more than just religious gatherings.[67] The term is often used as
a general word for feasting, and may be a combination of the word sum
(coming together) and ǫl (ale) to become “a coming together of ale.”[68] Along with the blót and
sumbl,there is the erfi, or funeral feast, described earlier when
discussing the inheritance of chieftains. It is clear from the sources that the
hosting of an erfi was required for an heir to claim his inheritance,
and that he had to swear an oath on the great-toast or bragafull after
all the lesser memorial toasts or minni and drink it before the incoming
chieftain could ascend into the high seat.[69] By doing this, he
symbolically and ritualistically assumes the position of toast-leader and feast-giver
held by the previous chieftain.
This delineation of feasts into separate and distinct categories
is a later convention, evidenced by the sources from which this misconception
originates. Several sources which discuss the erfi disagree on its exact practice. These include Fagrskinna and Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar, which contradict each other on the order
of speeches, with Ólaf placing the bragafull before the minni.[70] This contradiction serves
to remind that many of the sources from which we draw information about feasts
are usually written much later (two to three centuries) than the time they
depict and are often geographically removed as well, as in the case of Hiemskringla, a history of Norwegian
kings written by an Icelander[71] (bearing in mind the
frequent service done for Norwegian kings by Icelanders). Hiemskringla presents further issues in its discussion of pagan
rituals from a thoroughly Christian perspective, yet we have little reason outside
this to doubt what is said in the description of the yule-feast along with its
account of the requirements for each man to either contribute grain to the
communal fund for alcohol or pay an equivalent tax to exempt himself.[72]
While these sources should not be completely disregarded,
particularly in light of how few sources are present, the lack of alternative
sources does not justify an uncritical approach, which I believe many scholars
have allowed consciously or unconsciously. Many seem to accept the schema laid
out by Snorri without considering the potential changes that may have occurred
after several centuries of transmission, the possibility that the delineations
were used by later authors for ease of reference, and likewise the mutation of
word meanings and usages which naturally occur over centuries. As discussed
earlier, the feast was an event with many uses, and generally symbolized the
sacrifice of individual members of the group for the sake of cohesion. The
uncritical approach adopted by many scholars may stem partially from the
conflation of feasting with events of ritual alcohol consumption. While such
events were an important part of the feast, they made up only a fraction of all
the events and purposes of feasting. Yet, drinking rituals are the focus of the
literature. This may be because they were the most significant and unique events
and those which were associated with bonds and contracts, the writer thinking
it unnecessary to include the other more mundane aspects of the feast, about
which people were already familiar.
Feasts seem to have been understood as platforms to which
multiple purposes could be added, from a funeral feast that included an
inheritance toast, to feasts for the rewarding of warriors or as a sacrifice to
the gods. What is unique about the feast is not the feast itself, but the
variations of it. From the feast, a variety of other events were associated.
The feast was the cultural highlight of the Viking Age, serving not in specific
itinerated rituals, but as a loose form to which could be adapted as needed to
the specific event.
The Viking Age feast was more than a religious or
ceremonial event. It not only connected men to the gods and the warband to the
chieftain, but the men of the warband to each other, lords to subjects, and
friends to strangers. The feast was, to alter the term of Michael Enright, “the
lady with the mead cup”, the wise queen mediating among the disparate and
sometimes opposed parties. It was the event which enforced hierarchies,
ratified laws, and added weight to oaths and vows. It was the axle, from which
all the spokes of Viking Age culture radiated, and the event everyone in the
community looked to for the whole range of life’s events. It remains the best perspective from which to
view the entire culture of the Viking Age as whole, involving in some way every
facet of that unique culture and society.
The benches filled
with famous men
Who fell to with
relish; round upon round
Of mead was
passed; those powerful kinsmen,
Hrothgar and
Hrothulf, were in high spirits
In the raftered
hall. Inside Heorot
There was nothing
but friendship. The Shielding nation
Was not yet
familiar with feud and betrayal.
Then Halfdane’s
son presented Beowulf
With gold
standards as a victory gift,
An embroidered
banner; also breast-mail
And a helmet; and
a sword carried high,
That was both
precious object and a token of honor.
So Beowulf drank
his drink, at ease;[73]
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[1] Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson, A
Piece of Horse Liver: Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources (Reykjávik:
Háskólaútgáfan, 1998), 68-69.
[2] Kaori O’Connor, Never-Ending Feast: The Anthropology and
Archeology of Feasting (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), 23.
[3] O’Connor, Never-Ending Feast, 7.
[4] Bryan Hayden and Suzanne Villeneuve,
“A Century of Feasting Studies,” Annual
Review of Anthropology 40, no. 29 (2011): 434.
[5] Michael J. Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and
Lordship in the European Warband from La Téne to the Viking Age (Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 2007), xiii.
[6] Tacitus, C. Germany and its
Tribes. Ch.13(A. J. Church, W. J. Brodribb, & L. Cerrato, Eds.). Random
House, New York. Retrieved March 31, 2019, from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D13. While a discussion of the
reliability of Tacitus is not possible here, those interested are encouraged to
read Marianina Demetri Olcott’s 1985 article Tacitus on the Ancient Amber Gatherers: A Re-Evaluation of Germania.
[7] John Lindow, “Comitatus,
Individual and Honor: Studies in North Germanic Institutional Vocabulary,” University of California Publications in
Linguistics 83 (1976): 12-17.
[8] Charleton T. Lewis and Charles
Short, “Comitatus” in Harper’s Latin
Dictionary: A New Latin Dictionary, ed. Ethan Allen Andrews (New York:
American Book Company, 1907): 2. B. Pg. 374
[9] Lewis and Short, “Comes” in Harper’s Latin Dictionary, II, C, pg. 374
[10] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 195.
[11] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 208-209.
[12] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 99.
[13] Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, ch. 13.
[14] Bettina Arnold, “‘Drinking the
Feast’: Alcohol and the Legitimation of Power in Celtic Europe,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9, no.
01 (1999): 78.
[15] McGovern et al. 2013
[16] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’”
81-92.
[17] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 97-98.
[18] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 76.
[19] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’” 79.
[20] Matthew E. Loughton, “Getting
Smashed: The Deposition of Amphorae and the Drinking of Wine in Gaul during the
Late Iron Age,” Oxford Journal of
Archeology 28, no. 01 (2009): 85-87.
[21] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 99.
[22] Seamus Heaney and Cynthia Krupat, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (New
York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999), 260-263.
[23] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 10-11.
[24] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’”
80.
[25] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’”
81.
[26] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 197.
[27] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 217.
[28] Lindow, “Comitatus, Individual and
Honor,” 11.
[29] Hávamál is a selection of sayings
associated with Odin which appears in the Poetic Edda. The only surviving
source for this section is the 13th century Codex Regius, although
it is presumed to date from much earlier (See Bellows 1936).
[30] Henry Adams Bellows, The Poetic Edda (American Scandinavian
Foundation: Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936), 44.
[31] Charles Riseley, “Ceremonial
Drinking in the Viking Age,” Master’s thesis, (University of Oslo, 2014), 8.
[32] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 15-16.
[33] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 16.
[34]
Enright, Lady With a Mead Cup, 4-15
[35] Jenny Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2015), 115-125.
[36] Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, 115-125.
[37] Eva Koch, “Mead, chiefs and feasts
in later prehistoric Europe,” in Food,
Culture and Identity in the Neotlithic and Early Bronze Age, ed. Mike
Parker Pearson (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Ltd, 2003), 125.
[38] Monica L. Smith, “Feasts and their
Failures,” Journal of Archaeological
Method and Theory 22, no. 4
(2014). Pgs. 1215-1237
[39] Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, 69.
[40] Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, 69.
[41] Leifur Eiriksson, Egil’s Saga (London: Penguin, 2004), 48.
[42] Arnold, “‘Drinking the Feast,’”
72.
[43] Vivian Etting, The Story of the Drinking Horn: Drinking
Culture in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages (Odense: University Press of
Southern Denmark, 2013), 20-21.
It
is interesting to note that the Celts had for a long time imported
Mediterranean wine and drinkware, and Roman glass drinking horns have been found
in Danish Iron-Age burials.
[44] Michael Mitchiner, “Evidence for
Viking-Islamic Trade Provided by Samanid Silver Coinage,” East and West 37, no. 1/4 (1987): 139.
[45] Patrick E. McGovern et al., “A
biomolecular archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog,’” Danish Journal of Archaeology 2, no. 2 (2013): 1
[46] Davide Zori et al., “Feasting in
Viking Age Iceland: sustaining a chiefly political economy in a marginal
environment,” Antiquity 87, no. 335
(203): Pgs. 150-165
[47] Scott Riddell et al., “Cereal
cultivation as a correlate of high social status in medieval Iceland,”
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 27, no. 5 (2017): Pgs. 679-696
[48] Koch, “Mead, chiefs and feasts in
later prehistoric Europe,” 135.
[49] Patrick E. McGovern et al., 12-15
[50] McGovern et al., “A biomolecular
archaeological approach to ‘Nordic grog,’” 1.
[51] Jónsson, Guðni, and Bjarni Vilhjálmsson. Örvar-Odds saga. Ch. 27, Reykjavík: Bókaútgáfan Forni, 1943. Retrieved
March 31, 2019, from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2003.02.0028%3Achapter%3D27
[52] Örvar-Odds saga, Ch. 27
[53] Carol J. Clover, “The Germanic
Context of the Unferþ Episode,” Speculum
55, no. 3 (1980): 445.
[54] Board games are referenced both in
Morkinskinna and Völuspá.
[55] Meetings for the playing of games are referenced in chapter 8 of Gisla saga Súrssonnar, and chapter 40 of Egil´s saga Skallagrímsonnar. Pgs. 98-99
The
Saga Of Gisli The Outlaw - Icelandic Saga Database. Ch. 8. Icelandic
Saga Database . Retrieved March 31, 2019, from
https://sagadb.org/gisla_saga_surssonar.en
[56] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 25.
[57] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 25.
[58] Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup, 6-7.
Interestingly one of the queen peices from the Lewis
Chessmen holds a drinking horn, in juxtaposition to the armed male figures.
[59] Bellows, The Poetic Edda, 88-93.
[60] Bellows, The Poetic Edda, 94.
[61] Sturluson and Faulkes, Edda, 32.
[62] Aðalsteinsson, A Piece of Horse Liver, 50.
[63] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 5.
[64] Sturluson et
al., Heimskringla (London: Viking Society for
Northern Research, University College London, 2011), 97-98.
[65] Sturluson et al., Heimskringla, 11.
[66] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 8.
[67] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 4.
[68] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 4.
[69] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 17.
[70] Riseley, “Ceremonial Drinking in
the Viking Age,” 17.
[71] Aðalsteinsson, A Piece of Horse Liver, 39.
[72] Sturluson and Faulkes, Edda, 106.
[73] Heaney and Krupat, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, lines
1012-1024.
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