DK Eyewitness Books - Viking

32

At home

HȰȮȦȭȪȧȦȳȦȷȰȭȷȦȥ around a central hall

or living room. The layout was much the

same all over the Viking world. A long,

open hearth (fireplace) burned in the center,

with a smoke hole in the ceiling above.

The floor was stamped earth. The people sat

and slept on raised platforms along the

curved walls. Pillows and cushions stuffed

with duck down or chicken feathers made

this more comfortable. Wealthy homes

might have a few pieces of wooden

furniture and a locked chest for precious

belongings. Houses often had smaller rooms

for cooking or spinning on either side of the

main hall. Small buildings with low floors

dug out of the ground were used as houses,

workshops, weaving sheds, or animal barns.

A chieftain’s hall could be lined with wall

hangings or carved or painted wooden

panels. In around 1000, an Icelandic poet

described panels decorated with scenes of

gods and legends in the hall of a great

chieftain. The poem was called Húsdrápa,

which means “poem in

praise of the house.”

TRONDHEIM HOUSE

This is a model of a house built in Trondheim, Norway, in

1003. Its walls are horizontal logs notched and fitted together at
      the corners. A layer of birchbark was laid on the pointed roof and
      covered with turf. The bark kept the water out, while the earth
      and grass acted as insulation. Houses were built in various other
      ways, depending on local traditions and the materials on hand.
      Wooden walls were often made of upright posts or staves
      (planks), as in the Danish forts (pp. 22–23). Others had walls of
      wattle (interwoven branches) smeared with daub (clay or dung)
      to make them waterproof. Roofs could be covered in shingles
      (wooden tiles), thatch, turf, or matted reeds.

Turf roof was green wit h

grass in summer and

covered wit h snow

in winter

Side view of

the Trondheim

house

End view of the Trondheim house

Small window, a hole

wit h no glass t hat

may have had

shutters

HOUSES, ICELANDIC STYLE

Good lumber was scarce in Iceland and other

North Atlantic islands (pp. 20–21). So houses

usually had stone foundations and walls and

roofs made of turf. Some houses were dug

into the ground, which kept them warm in

winter and cool in summer. The walls were

lined with wooden paneling to keep out

the cold and damp.

SWEET DREAMS

Only the rich had chairs or beds.

Ordinary Vikings sat on benches or stools, or just squatted or sat

cross-legged on the floor. At night, they stretched out on rugs on

raised platforms. The wealthy woman in the Oseberg ship (pp. 54–57)

was buried with not one but three beds. This is a replica of the finest

one. It is made of beech wood. The head-planks are carved in the

form of animal heads with arching necks. The woman probably slept

on a feather mattress and was kept warm by an eiderdown,

a quilt filled with down or feathers.

Head planks carved

wit h beautiful

animal heads

Slats morticed

into sideboards