If you were to picture a Viking in your mind, what would you imagine? It’s fair to say that most people’s ideas of what Viking life was like would come down to the popular cliché of bloodthirsty, horned-helmet-wearing invaders, intent on little else besides ravaging, pillaging, and just generally causing mayhem wherever they landed.

But domestic life in Viking times was, for many families, an unsurprisingly far more sedate affair, with their homes and communities centered on an agrarian lifestyle of planting crops and raising livestock. And while wealthier, more powerful Viking families may have lived in grand furnished houses and halls, archeological evidence suggests life was far simpler for most ordinary families—with perhaps only a few stock items of furniture, tools, and other household equipment among their belongings.  

1. Hearths
2. Wooden Chests
3. Axes
4. Looms
5. Sewing Equipment
6. Oil Lamps
7. Combs
8. Ear Picks

Hearths

The centerpiece of most Viking households was a hearth or fireplace, which was used not only to prepare food and warm water for cleaning, but also as a handy source of heat and light to warm and illuminate the entire home. In larger Viking “longhouses,” meanwhile, the hearth acted as a central community hub, around which people could meet of an evening to tell stories or hear sagas.

Wooden Chests

Chests were multifunctional items in Viking homes that doubled both as solid lockboxes in which household valuables and jewelry could be stored, and as makeshift chairs and tables if so required. Smaller chests were also portable, which made them useful for storing and moving smaller items if a family had to relocate.

Axes

Whereas swords were somewhat prestige items, which needed to be light, well-balanced, and made by master craftsmen, Viking axes were multipurpose items that could be used both as weapons and as handy tools used in farming, shipbuilding, carpentry, and preparing firewood. Axes were ultimately affordable, portable, practical, and functional, making them a must-have in any Viking household.

Looms

The Vikings were expert textile makers, and so-called warp-weighted looms—which stood upright, using weights to keep the vertical fabric taut—were widely used to make fabric for clothing, boats, and trade. Although the wooden frames of these looms have not survived, the clay or stone weights used on them have, and archaeologists can even use the size of the weights to work out the kind of fabric each weaver would have made. Lighter weights would be used for finer fabric, while heavier weights would be used to make wadmal, a dense woolen cloth used in sails, blankets, and outerwear.

Sewing Equipment

So important was the production of textiles in Viking life that Viking women appear to have carried smaller items, such as needles and pins made of iron or bone, in small ornamental cases kept on their person. Some Viking women’s graves, meanwhile, have been found to contain small rounded items of smooth stone or glass that are thought to have been used to smooth linen or flatten seams.

Oil Lamps

Viking homes would for the most part have been somewhat dark, with windows not widely used and much of the light inside coming from the hearth. Some families, however, would have used simple oil lamps—typically powered by fish, seal, or whale oil—often consisting of a clay bowl with a central column around which a wick could be coiled.

Combs

Everyone’s popular image of a Viking might be of a long, straggly-haired man with an equally straggly beard, but archaeological evidence suggests the Vikings were actually relatively well groomed, and took at least some pride in their appearance. Combs often made of bone have been repeatedly found in Viking settlements, and there’s even evidence that the Viking raiders who arrived in medieval England from the 8th century AD onwards brought combs with them on their journey across the North Sea.

Ear Picks

Another sign of just how seriously the Vikings seem to have taken their grooming regimen is the discovery of small spoon-like items known as ear picks or ear scoops, which were used to remove earwax and other detritus from the earholes. Archaeological evidence has also found that a typical Viking toiletry set would also have included items such as tweezers, razors, and even toothpicks.