- Mead halls served as Viking kings’ homes and political centers.
- Mead halls had no windows and were designed for communal living.
- The mead halls had a ship-like appearance and served multiple purposes.
Mead Hall was a lengthy structure with a single room in Scandinavia during the Viking Age (793–1066) and among the Germanic peoples. These buildings are known as “longhouses” for their lengthy design. Mead, an alcoholic beverage, was traditionally consumed during social gatherings and religious observances in mead halls, thus the name. These drinking halls served as royal residences from the 5th century to the early Middle Ages.
What Was a Mead Hall?
The mead hall served as the king’s home, where he and his family lived, and as the community’s nerve center, where important political decisions were made and feasts were held to celebrate victories with the gathering of the warriors. By way of antonomasia, the mead hall is Valhalla, the palace in Asgard where the einherjar, the warriors who have died valiantly in battle, will aid Odin in Ragnarok, the ultimate fight against the Giants.
From the 400s to the early Middle Ages, a king, lord, or chieftain and his family began to live in mead halls. This made it the most secure building in the northern kingdoms. However, a mead hall could become a dangerous location if the king’s or chief’s enemies surrounded it and set it on fire, as it occurred in history.
In addition to being a political hub, the mead hall also served as a religious hub for the many Norse cults that were held there during the year. Brewing mead was significant even for the Norse, including in Christian times. At the close of the Middle Ages, banquet halls like Bergen’s Håkonshallen took their place.
The Mead Hall Excavations
Tom Christensen, a curator at Denmark’s Roskilde Museum, uncovered the foundations of a Viking Age mead hall in Lejre between 1986 and 1988. The artifacts were dated by radiocarbon to the year 880. Around two decades later, a third hall was discovered in the 6th century. The length of all three discoveries was 164 feet. In 1993, gold artifacts were uncovered at the dig site of a mead hall, which ranged in age from 200 to 550. The discovered mead hall was likely a part of a political and religious hub that hosted royal banquets. The function of the Mead Hall passed to the Banquet Hall from the 11th century.
A Religious and Political Center
In Gamla (“Old”) Uppsala, Sweden, a comparable mead hall was discovered on the Kungsgårdsplatån plateau next to a church. It was created for Swedish royal celebrations. The mead hall was part of the political and religious epicenter of Sweden, together with the Uppsala Temple, the Uppsala öd (“estates”), and the Royal Mounds of Uppsala.
Högom and Borg, both in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, have similarly constructed buildings: a 220-foot-long hall from the Iron Age was discovered, while a 272-foot-long hall from the Viking Age was uncovered. This almost 230-foot-tall Viking Age chieftain’s throne was built on the north side of Vestvågøy in Lofoten, in the municipality of Vestvågøya.
The Longest Building in Europe
One of the chambers in this longhouse complex, which was rebuilt in the contemporary age, was likely used as a mead hall since it was a chieftain’s seat. This building was first built in the 6th century. It was about twice as long as ancient mead halls in Denmark and Sweden and had been restored and enlarged during the start of the Viking Age. It is the longest building ever discovered from this period in Scandinavia and all of Europe.
From 500 forward, until the spread of Christianity in the 13th century, the mead halls were centers of political power.
The Design of a Mead Hall
A typical mead hall was between 130 and 195 feet in length and 33 to 50 feet across. There were also larger buildings. One Lofoten Islands (Norway) landowner’s “longhouse” measured about 260 feet in length. Rows of wooden posts were driven into the ground to outline the walls, and the spaces between them were stuffed with wattle fences and clay. In other cases, peat was used as an outside coating instead of clay. The typical wall height was at least a man’s height.
The high, four-gabled roof was supported by a grid of many joists and light longitudinal beams, which were in turn secured by wooden dowels and lashed with willow rods or straps. Two rows of posts running lengthwise on the interior were joined at the top by a cross beam. Shingles, reeds, or sod adorned the roof’s sloping surfaces.
No Windows
There were no glass panes to be found inside a mead hall. The terms “male” and “female” corresponded to the entrance and exit of the building and were typically located on the west and east sides of the structure.
The interior space was partitioned into three sections by transverse rows of pillars fitted with lightweight dividers. One side compartment was used to keep livestock and fodder, while the other was used to thresh and store grain for the home. The main living and kitchen areas were located in the same room. Here in the middle was an open hearth lined with stones (or two), the smoke from which would escape through a vent in the ceiling.
A Ship-Like Appearance
Houses of the “Trelleborg” (Viking ring castles) type evolved during the Viking Age in Scandinavia on the basis of the typical design of “long” buildings. Their maximum length was often about 100 feet, while their breadth seldom went over 23 or 26 feet. The arced placement of the rows of pillars along the building’s lengthy walls gave it the appearance of a Viking ship. The roof ridges even looked like the prongs on a ship.
A mead hall was generally the Great Hall of the kings.
In Iceland, Greenland, and Norman colonies in North America, the soil or peat filled the spaces between the roof battens and the ground, while the low lintels created a type of covered gallery along the walls. Both the building’s ends and its lengthy walls, towards their margins, might accommodate a pair of doors. In order to further insulate the building, several entrances were built with a minor vestibule.
There were three to four distinct sections inside a Trelleborg-type mead hall, each separated by a light bulkhead and a transverse row of pillars. Hearths (an obvious evidence of habitation) could be found in all compartments, and it was unusual for Trelleborg-type buildings to combine living and domestic spaces under one roof.
Mead Hall in Sagas
An anecdote from Haakon the Good’s saga in Heimskringla describes the cultic use of the mead hall. Haakon the Good, a devout Christian, was coerced into celebrating Christmas with the Pagan Trønders and taking part in their blót (sacrifice). Although he was present at the blót feast in Lade, the monarch ate apart from the rest of his subjects in a modest house. The farmers, however, grumbled because the monarch had to take the high seat in what was most likely the mead hall. Snorri claims that eating horses and drinking mead were key parts of the ceremony. The king ate with his subjects, but he did not finish his meal.
-> See also: Christmas in Sweden: Traditions, Celebrations, and History
Eric the Victorious and the daughter of the Norwegian jarl Haakon are married, and a party is held to celebrate in The Saga of Ingvar the Far-Travelled. In the mead hall they had constructed for the feast, Eric murdered Aki, another chieftain, and his eight attendants. Even though Eric and Aki had made up before the feast, he still held a grudge against him for marrying his daughter against his will and therefore causing the death of her legitimate husband.
The Origin of the Name
The traditional term for such buildings was “hall,” as in Valhalla, or “sal,” as in Uppsala. The name “festsal” now describes this idea and tradition that has been carried over into the present day. For instance, the term may have been influenced by the German word for “party hall,” or Festsaal. The mead halls were created as part of the religion centering around the chief or king’s throne. The mead hall, the most prestigious residence, played host to these events.
