Drinking Horns: A History of Ancient Rituals to Viking Feasts
Drinking horns are commonly associated with Vikings, but these drinking vessels have been found across cultures for millennia. Nearly always symbolically powerful, the drinking horn presents itself and its contents in a manner meant for some combination of prestige, social bonding, celebration, divine connection, and high status.
Let’s explore the history of drinking horns while highlighting their use in the Viking Age.
Ancient Origins of Drinking Horns
Before the Vikings used drinking horns, they were found across the globe. They were often tied to cultures that used cattle as a primary food source, resulting in the use and meaning of their horns.
It began around 2,600 years ago in the Early Bronze Age with the Proto-Indo-European people of the Pontic-Capsian steppe, around modern-day Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania. Drinking horns continued in traditions to the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, and Scandinavians.
The strongest early evidence is from 400-700 BCE with the Scythians and Thracians, both with roots in the same Pontic-Capsian steppe region. These were primarily found with warriors and leaders with potential connections to royalty. The Greeks used their own form of drinking horns during this time as well.
The Celts provide the clearest early use of drinking horns in a way we think of with Vikings. The Celtic people of the time, the Gauls, used drinking horns from aurochs, an extinct cattle species, gilding them with gold, bronze, iron and silver and using them in feasts as the Vikings later did as well. The horns were symbols of honor, divinity, and hospitality amongst the community.
Viking Age Drinking Horns
In the Viking Age, natural horns from aurochs, bulls, goats, and rams were used with metal rims and tips (end portion). Those metal pieces are much of what we have remaining as evidence for horns of this time, though they show us plenty about the horn’s size, shape, and designs.
Drinking horns were primarily used for ceremonial purposes and special occasions. For everyday use, more practical drinking vessels were created from pottery or wood.
Nevertheless, feasting and drinking were central to Viking traditions. That means drinking horns held a frequent and meaningful role in their society. Passing a drinking horn around a mead hall was a ritualistic and communal event to show camaraderie and hospitality.
When guests were to be honored, they would be offered a mead horn as both a beverage and an appreciative gesture. This was typically offered by the women of the home, which may be why horns have been more commonly found in women’s grave sites than in men’s.
Connection to Norse Mythology
Various references to drinking horns were made in Norse mythology, as found primarily through the Prose Edda.
Odin’s story with the Mead of Poetry is one of the most significant. In this, Odin steals the Mead of Poetry from the giant Suttungr. This story solidified drinking horns as vessels with divine connection.
Thor’s story was of drinking from a horn that secretly contained all the seas. Despite his power, Thor wasn’t able to drink the horns in full, but his efforts led to lowering the sea level and creating tides.
Valhalla, the hall of the Asgard, is home to where fallen warriors live on. Mead is served by Valkyries, the hosts who bring fallen warriors to Valhalla. The mead flows continuously from Heidrun, the mythical goat.
Drinking horns were common in religious practices as well, being used to toast the gods, ancestors, and fallen warriors. The deep spiritual and social connections that horns were bound into show how deeply meaningful and rooted they were in Viking culture.
Post-Viking Age Medieval Europe and Ceremonial Horns
Drinking horns were progressively less used during the Viking Age in favor of more practical vessels, and this decline continued afterwards. By the year 1400, horns were primarily relics that represented ritual and preserved pieces of the past. Like artwork, they were more often given as gifts to be appreciated for their styling rather than their functional abilities.
Christianity decreased the appearances of drinking horns as well as they were associated with pagan practices. However, modern Scandinavian and worldwide appreciation of Viking culture as well as Modern Heathen and Asatru practices has helped to return drinking horns to popularity, even if symbolic.
Drinking Horns Today
Drinking horns are common accessories for anyone aspiring to a Viking aesthetic. You will see them in reenactments, at medieval festivals, used in fantasy cosplay, and in collections.
Horns today are still made from animals like cattle, goats, and rams. Some are adorned with silver, bronze, iron or gold and intricate patterns from ancient Viking artistry. Artifacts can be found in auctions at times, but most horns purchased today are replicas and recreations. Aside from your own collection, you may find a drinking horn in a mead brewery.
Drinking horn users today can be found around the world, in some cultural and religious practices that still use them ceremonially and symbolically, to local renaissance faires and festivals and celebrations at home. The drinking horn remains what it was for Vikings a thousand years ago: a representation of community, divinity, and honor.