viking games and entertainment

Today I am going to be writing about what the vikings would do for entertainment and whether or not they had any board games.

 Did they have any board games?

The answer is yes. they did have many board games but the most popular one was Hnefatafl, no one actually knows the rules to this game but we know that there would be two players one much stronger than the other who would have many more tokens than the weaker person and would have to get to the opponents king that wasn't guarded very well. this game was very popular until 12th century when it was replaced with chess.

What indoor games did they play?

The vikings had many indoor games but my personal favourite is one that the vikings would usually play after a feast or a meal. this is how the game goes, there would be two teams men in one team women in the other and they would throw a dice to see what team goes first. The team that throws the bigger number goes first and will drink as much as possible and try to insult the other team then the other team would try to out-drink and out-insult the other team the winning team is the team stays the wittiest and drinks the most.

What outdoor games did they play?

The vikings played lots of outdoor games including archery, stone throwing, wrestling, a type of tug of war called toga-hönk, and a ball game using a stick and ball. it wasn't uncommon for someone to get hurt or killed in some of these games. The women would not compete in these games but would sometimes gather round to watch. Family games were usually stuff like swimming and ice skating. did you know that the vikings invented ice skating? of course the vikings didn't have nice shiny ice skating shoes on a nice indoor skating rink but they did have a bit of horse or cow bone attached to their shoes with leather straps on a frozen lake or river.

Did they have any competitions?

Vikings did have lots of competitions they would have swimming races, archery competitions, wrestling competitions and toga-hönk (tug of war).

What toys did kids and babies have?

Viking children would usually play with wooden toys there parents carved for them or play ball and child size games of the ones there father would play.

Did they have any stories?

The vikings had two different types of stories fairy tales and sagas. sagas were like poems a viking would recite a saga to his or her children talking about their time in the war or one of their voyages. sagas where very, very, very long. Prepare yourself because viking fairy tales aren't a single bit like what your used to. viking fairy tales are very gruesome the person to live happily ever after  and be the hero was always the meanest tricksiest person in the story. one of the stories are about where the first man and woman came from and guess where they came from? the armpit sweat of a giant! If the giants used deodorant none of us would be here.