The Viking Drinking Horn

While the Vikings did not put horns on their helmets, horns were still a large part of their culture. Heimdall will use his Gjallarhorn to signal the beginning of Ragnarök. In the earthly realms, cow and goat horns were carved, cleaned, polished, and decorated to become Viking drinking horns.

Drinking Up

A drinking horn ends in a point, so you can’t set it down until it’s empty. That made the horn a test. Accepting a horn from your host and leaving it unfinished was poor form, and draining it in one pull showed stamina. Even Thor could fail: in the Prose Edda he visits the giant Útgarða-Loki and is handed a horn that ‘strong drinkers’ empty in one draught. Three mighty swallows barely lower it, because, as Thor later learns, the end of the horn was sunk in the sea. His drinking had lowered the ocean and created the tides.

There have been some examples of horn stands designed to hold the horn. However, these were likely used when the horn was empty.

In the Horn

Horns were filled with alcohol. Mead, made from honey, was the drink of feasts and poetry, and ale was the everyday drink, brewed at different strengths. Wine was a luxury for the elite, imported mostly from the Frankish Rhineland.

Status Symbol

The first way the Viking drinking horn indicated the host’s status was by its size. A larger horn was more impressive. The horn could then be outfitted with jewels and precious metals. It might also be carved with geometric symbols or Norse mythology scenes.

Viking Drinking Horns and Oaths

Drinking horns were often the instrument of choice to bind two people in an oath-taking ceremony. It was important that the people involved drink alcohol from the horn to legitimize the oath.

The First Drinking Horns

The Vikings didn’t invent the drinking horn. Horns for drinking appear across ancient Europe and the steppes: the Scythians and Thracians used them, and the Greeks made horn-shaped vessels called rhyta. Closer to the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons buried magnificent horns at Sutton Hoo and Taplow.

Drink Your Full Measure

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