It doesn’t really directly apply to my interest in Viking Age costuming, but I thought I’d also share a display from the Iceland National Museum on some of the drinking horns. These weren’t actually from the Settlement Age area of the museum, but rather in a display on the “New Ruling Class” in the Middle Ages in Iceland. The display stated that drinking horns “were common in the Nordic world in the Middle Ages, used for toasts on special occasions”, but that “only in Iceland were such horns decorated with carvings, the oldest one still in existence daring to the first half of the 15th century”.
From top left, clockwise:
- “Drinking horn with carvings of King David, St. Olav and probably Solomon. Inscription: God so loved the world – 16th century”
- “Drinking horn depicting Adam and Eve at [the] tree of [ ] Knowledge of Good and Evil. 17th century”
- “Unusually well-preserved drinking horn with images of monsters, the head of a beast, a human face and interlaced decoration.”
- “Drinking horn with images of St. Anne, Mary and infant Jesus, and Christ on the cross in the embrace of God the Father, 15th century.”
- The dark coloured one in the back is noted as “Mariuhorn, drinking horn with the [inscription] Ave Maria”.
Above – close up on the unusually well-preserved horn.
Above, a closer view of the Adam & Eve horn.
The museum also had a horn from the 1400s, but I didn’t get a good photo of that one.
National Museum of Iceland
Suðurgata 41, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
+354 530 2200
From the Saga Museum
Although the Iceland National Museum didn’t have any Viking Age horns, the Saga Museum did depict horns for their wax figures.
The male figure depicting one of the earliest Icelandic settlers wears an engraved horn hanging from his belt.
Sagamuseum – The Saga Museum
Grandagarður, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
+354 511 1517