Dwellings in the Viking Age
After establishing title to a tract of land, the Northman built his home, giving it as desirable a location as possible, generally on high ground, in order to gain a…
From: 793 C.E. To: 1066 C.E.
Location: Scandinavian Pensinsula
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age by Mary Wilhelmine Williams, 1920.
After establishing title to a tract of land, the Northman built his home, giving it as desirable a location as possible, generally on high ground, in order to gain a good lookout for friend and foe, as well as for the sake of the drainage. When the situation permitted, the buildings were placed near a river, lake, or fiord.
After satisfactory sites had once been chosen, it is not likely that they were often abandoned. There is no doubt that in Scandinavia, in innumerable instances. Christian homes and Christian churches now stand upon the very ground where, thousands of years ago, pagan dwellings and pagan temples were first erected; and since the dawn of these early architectural beginnings there have been upon most of these choice sites continuous successions of buildings.
General Character of Buildings
Every Scandinavian homestead possessed a cluster of buildings, each structure forming, as a rule, but a single room. These buildings varied in shape, size, and number, according to the character of the country in which they stood, and to whether the owner was rich or poor. The cottager might have but two or three small huts upon his tiny plot of ground, while upon the estate of the rich farmer were often as many as thirty or forty separate houses, some in the group being of great size, and giving the place the appearance of a village.
Though the usual shape of all Northern buildings was quadrangular, oval or circular structures were not unknown. But the buildings following curved lines were limited to the humblest classes, and seem to have been used only in continental Scandinavia; for the remains of houses found in Iceland, Greenland, and the other western islands are invariably rectangular in ground plan. It has been suggested that these more primitive rounded structures originated with the brunette people who were conquered by the Teutonic invaders. Though this was probably true, it should be remembered that the huts of the modern Lapps are also circular in shape; and there is no good reason for supposing that the blonde Scandinavians never employed these early styles themselves.
Grouping of Buildings
The arrangement of the group of buildings varied, too, in different parts of Scandinavia, and also changed with the passage of time. The few primitive houses upon the premises of the poor were perhaps always isolated, and were generally grouped in a haphazard manner. And in the very earliest part of the viking period the structures of the more prosperous also—dwelling houses as well as other buildings—were probably as a rule separate, the dwelling rooms standing in a row not far removed from each other, while the other buildings were grouped, in some manner determined by convenience, in the rear. Later, the rows of isolated rooms were joined into single units by means of passageways running between; but these connecting parts were always roofed separately from the buildings which they united.
At this stage of development, the ''house" of the Northman was several times as long as it was wide. Somewhat subsequently, an additional room would now and then be attached at the side of the row to open into one of the narrow halls, thus giving the group a more broken appearance. The two groupings described were in use from Greenland to Sweden during the Viking Age; but in the last part of the period, in Iceland and Greenland—probably likewise in the remainder of the North—a more complex arrange- ment developed, which gave to the cluster of dwelling houses a more square appearance.
An almost identical grouping is still employed in Iceland; but in Norway and Sweden, perhaps as a precaution against fires, the houses have become largely detached; and in Denmark the more convenient quadrangle, built about an open court, has come into use.
Building Materials
Many different kinds of materials were employed by the Scandinavian builders, the location determining which should predominate. Since the arts of brick- and artificial stone-making were unknown in the heathen days, the raw materials found near at hand were simply shaped for use.
Throughout the North the better dwellings were probably made of timber formed into boards; but many of the humbler homes were doubtless of squared or unhewn logs. The supply of wood from Iceland's meager forests was eked out by timber imported from Norway, and by drift-wood—mostly from northern Siberia—which was strewn in abundance upon the north and west coasts; and there is no reason for doubting the saga statement that timber was imported to the Greenland settlements directly from Vinland upon the present North American coast.
For the primitive rounded dwellings found upon the continent, the woven branches or twigs of trees in most cases formed the framework, which was plastered inside and out with clay or mud, or was covered with cloth or skins. But there were some conical or ''beehive" houses of sod or turf in which the roofs were a continuation of the walls and were formed by placing each tier of the material used a little nearer the center than the preceding.
Stone was used to considerable extent in the northern part of the continent, to a greater degree in Iceland, and still more in Greenland; but it was unhewn, and was frequently employed in combination with turf or mud. In the parts where lumber was scarce the builders resorted to using the bones of whales, which did service as rafters, and at times also took the place of wood in other parts of the buildings.
In Greenland and Iceland the houses were occasionally partly underground, and hence resembled modern detached cellars. The excavations were made for the purpose of securing warmth, or because of dearth of building materials in certain districts; but such structures were exceptional.
In this western part of Scandinavia the homes were as a rule placed upon the surface of the ground, and the walls were of stone—often lava—combined with earth or turf. In Iceland, walls of this sort were generally made of three thicknesses, one on either side, of turf, and in the middle a thin layer of unhewn stone, for the purpose of stiffening and giving ''body" to the whole. Occasionally, earth, kneaded hard, took the place of the middle layer of stone, while stone was employed for the inner one, and the outer was made of alternate horizontal courses of turf and stone. The interstices of the inside walls were calked with moss, turf, or clay; but the best houses in the North, regardless of the materials used for the walls, were lined with hand-wrought boards.
Generally, the gable-ends of the Icelandic houses were also of boards, but sometimes these were built up with stone or turf. Turf or sod roofs were also seen throughout the Scandinavian lands, though the most common roofing material was wood, worked into thin boards, which were sometimes arranged like the scales of a fish, but perhaps most frequently placed lengthwise, in batten style.
However, this roof might be completely covered with turf, as a special precaution against fires; for as a rule every freeman was responsible for the damage done by his own fire. Such roofs were often quite heavy, and partly on this account the larger buildings of the North had two rows of pillars running lengthwise down the sides of the room for the purpose of bearing some of the weight. Though straw and reeds were not unknown as roofing materials, they appear to have been but little used, perhaps because of danger from fire.
Building Tools
Doubtless, the best workmanship went into the wooden buildings, especially those found upon the continent, and for these the most tools were needed; but the carpenter of the time lacked but few of the implements accessible to his modern successor, though their quality was inferior. The tools were as a rule made of iron, and consisted of hammers, hatchets, and adzes, saws, chisels, planes, braces and bits, and a few others of a more special nature. Long nails and spikes were commonly used for fastening the boards; but pins and pegs of wood served for this purpose as well.
Finishings of Dwelling Houses
The roofs of the better houses were of what is sometimes called ''compass" style, with two V-shaped gable ends joined by a straight ridge pole; but the ''hip" roof was not unknown. The front gables were often decorated in various ways by means of carving.
A very common form of ornament was a carved figurehead—of a dragon or some other animal—painted or gilded, as for the decoration of a ship; and sometimes the discarded figurehead from a ship itself was employed; but the most usual decoration for this part of the house was perhaps ornamental edge-boards, called vindskeidar, the crossed ends of which were at the top often carved to represent twisted dragons' tails, while the lower ends projecting over the eaves were shaped like dragons' heads.
More simple designs, however, like those found upon the Northern houses at the present time were probably most frequently seen. The outsides of wooden houses were commonly left to be darkened by the weather, but both roofs and walls were sometimes covered with tar, for the protection of the lumber; and it is possible that paint, particularly of a dark red color, such as could be secured from copper and iron ore, was used also at an early period. The sod and stone buildings with turf-covered roofs could not be thus artificially decorated, except at the gable ends, but the moist Northern climate soon produced a natural green covering of moss and grass which supplied the need; and many a humble sod roof bore a luxuriant growth of brightly colored wild flowers, which gave these homes a charming picturesqueness and a resemblance to a modern arbor, or garden house.
There were no ceilings, and in the roofs of the rooms in which fires were built were openings for the exit of smoke, close beside the ridge-pole. Most of the better rooms also contained window-openings, for the entrance of light and air. These were perhaps at times placed on the roofs also, but more often they were made in the walls, especially in the gable-ends.
Glass did not come into use in the North until Christian times; but other transparencies were employed for covering the window-openings, such as oiled cloth or the thin membrane surrounding new-born calves. This material was stretched over a frame which fitted into the aperture and could be opened and closed. In many cases, however, the windows were merely covered with wooden shutters.
In front of the reception room there was frequently a small porch, supported by pillars often decorated with carving. And in some places every outside door (utidyrr) of the dwelling was thus protected from the weather; for the porches appear to have been usually of the nature of storm-porches, or vestibules, and supplied with doors. Such doors were locked on the inside
by means of bars; and, evidently as further insurance against being taken unawares by an enemy, in the upper part of the door was often placed a small wicket, through which a view could be secured without taking down the bars. In some cases, in the place of a wicket there was a shutter door, low enough for a man to look over, just inside the outer door.
Rooms or Buildings Composing a Dwelling
The dwellings upon the largest and most progressive farms included—in addition to the connecting passageways—the following rooms or buildings: (1) stofa or stufa, the most important room in the house, and used as a living and eating room; (2) skali, the sleeping apartment; (3) eld-hus, or sod-hus the kitchen; (4) bur, or mat-bur, the pantry; (5) badstofa, or laug, the bathhouse; (6) dyngja, a building especially for the women; (7) geymsluhus, the store-house; (8) gesta-hus, a building for the shelter and entertainment of travelers and other uninvited comers. People of wealth sometimes owned special banqueting halls and also additional sleeping apartments.
Williams, Mary Wilhelmine. Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age. The Macmillan Company, 1920.
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