The vast majority of Norse people lived on small farms. However, the nature of these settlements varied widely from one region to another. In prosperous regions, farms tended to cluster into small villages or hamlets. In less prosperous areas, individual farms were well separated. In Iceland, farms were widely separated, and nothing like villages existed.

Typical farm settlements took the form of a central cluster of buildings enclosed by fences. Outside the fenced areas were the fields used for cultivation or grazing. Each homestead typically consisted of a longhouse and multiple out-buildings.

In the earlier part of the Norse period, it appears that everything was contained in the longhouse: animals, people, tools, food storage, work shop. Later, all but the people were moved to out buildings. For example, the early longhouse recently excavated at Aðalstræti 14-16 under the streets of Reykjavík had animal stalls in the living quarters. The floor plan of the house (left) shows the animal stalls located opposite to the front door. While this arrangement was common in early longhouses found in Norway, this is the first example found in Iceland.

Farmhouses generally were built on a slope or other high ground, which provided for better drainage. Houses were built near running water. While wells (right) were known and used in the Viking age, especially in densely settled areas like trading towns, running water was preferred at a farmstead.

The late Viking-age farm at Stöng (right) was built at the top of a hill above a stream, an excellent location. Today, a modern building covers the ruins of the farm on top of the hill.

A high location also allowed for better visibility. It was better to see visitors well before they arrived at the farmhouse, should the visitors not be friendly. The Viking-age farm at Vatnsfjörður (left) could light signal fires on the ridge above the house to call for help to neighboring farms, should assistance be required. The photo shows the ruins of the longhouse, with paving stones in front of the doorway, and the varða (cairn) on the cliff in the distance where fires were signal fires were lit.

Svarfdæla saga (ch. 14) says that Klaufi first built his farmhouse at Klaufanes (Klaufi's point) in north Iceland, near a river, but it was too exposed, so he moved his farm to Klaufabrekka (Klaufi's slope), further up the valley.

The large, wealthy farm at Stöng in Iceland had a barn with stalls for 18 head of cattle when the farm was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the year 1104. The ruins of the cow shed are shown to the left, as it appears today. Stone slabs that divided the stalls are still visible (right).

Njál's farm at Bergþórshvoll had stalls for 30 head of cattle, a very large Viking age farm.

Like the cattle, the sheep were driven to higher pastures in summer, where they were allowed to roam free. In the fall, all the farmers in a region worked together to round up the sheep and sort them by owner. This practice is still followed in Iceland; the sorting pen shown to the right differs little from those used in medieval times. In winter, some sheep may have been sheltered in barns or simple barrows (fjárborgir).

Sheep in the Viking age were about 60cm (24 inches) high at the withers and weighed about 35kg (80lbs).

Horses were raised, not only for their utility for travel and transport, but also because their meat was prized. It was a common, inexpensive part of the diet. In addition, horses were sacrificed to the pagan gods, and the meat consumed as part of the feasting ceremonies. When Christianity was adopted, the consumption of horseflesh was banned.

There appears to have been special interest in breeding horses in Iceland, perhaps the only farm animal to be systematically bred. Large breeding stocks were kept, with the goal of producing horses that were especially good for the popular sport of horse fights.

Viking age horses closely resembled modern Icelandic horses (right). They're small (15 hands, about 150cm), but sturdy, strong, and willing.

No doubt other domesticated animals were kept, as well. The sagas tells us that dogs were kept to warn of intruders (Brennu-Njáls saga, chapter 76) and were used to track men who were fleeing their pursuers (Reykdæla saga og Víga-Skútu, chapter 4). One might expect that they were used to help round up sheep, as well. Viking-age dogs resembled modern Icelandic dogs (left), a medium-small breed.

Cats are rarely found in the literary sources or in archaeological sources, but it seems likely that they were kept to help control pests such as mice around the farm. The sagas occasionally mention cat-skin being used for garments, such as for gloves and for hood-linings (Eiríks saga rauða chapter 4). Archaeological evidence confirms the stories. Cat skeletons have been found on Viking-age house sites having marks consistent with skinning.

The growing of hay was essential to maintain the farm animals over the winter in Norse lands. Hay was required for the animals that were sheltered under cover over the winter, and hay may have been provided to livestock in pasture lands for animals that were out of doors through the winter.

As a result, it was necessary to put up sufficient hay each autumn to maintain the livestock until spring. At the beginning of the winter, the number of livestock was compared to the amount of hay in storage. If the farmer thought that insufficient hay was available, the weakest animals were slaughtered before the winter started, so that the available fodder would last the winter. Over two tonnes (2 tons) of hay was needed for each cow to last the Icelandic winter. A large farm in Viking age Iceland had around 20 to 40 milk cows, so harvesting and storing sufficient hay to last the winter was an arduous but important task. Studies of several Viking era farms in north Iceland suggest that farms could produce between 0.5 and 0.9 tonnes of hay per hectare (0.22 - 0.44 tons/acre) in good years. These figures imply that large farms required 20 to 80 hectares (50 to 200 acres) of land set aside for hay cultivation to keep their livestock over the winter.

Sheep and goats, being hardier, could survive the winter outside, but might be brought under cover at the height of a storm.

While hay was grown on uncultivated land, the best hay was grown in the tún, the home field near the farm. This hay was carefully cultivated, with animals (and people) excluded so that the grass remained untrampled and uneaten while it grew during the summer.

Hay was harvested using scythes, and then raked and turned and stacked against a wall for drying. Scythes needed frequent resharpening in order to keep the edge sufficiently sharp. Whetstones, imported from Norway, were used to keep the edge sharp. In addition, the ropes (ljábönd) which attached the blade to the wooden handle worked loose as the work progressed, requiring a pause to retighten. As much hay as possible was stored under cover in barns, but it's likely that at least some of the hay had to be stored outdoors over the winter. This hay was built into stacks and protected from the weather by turf piled around and over the stacks.

The tún at Bjarg, the farm where Grettir the Strong was raised, is shown to the left as it looks today. When the photograph was taken, the haying operation was in full swing, using modern farm machinery.

heysláttur photos courtesy of
Michelle Lynn Mielnik,
Minjasafn Austurlands

An experimental hay harvest, using traditional tools and methods, was recently conducted by Minjasafn Austurlands. The photo to the left shows Gráni loaded with hay in a klyfberi (pack-saddle). It appeared that Gráni ate more hay than he carried on his back.

During the second harvest (right), the pack-saddle on Hringur's back was much more heavily loaded.

In order to keep out animals, walls were built of sod and stone. The walls both enclosed and protected the hayfields, and also marked boundaries. A turf wall is shown to the right, which was under construction when the photograph was taken. Building and maintaining the walls surrounding the meadows and the homefield was a major chore at the farm every year. The law required that walls be the shoulder-height of a man and five feet thick at the base (Grágás K 181). Maintaining the walls was so important the law code specified that three months out of each year were to be set aside for the maintenance of walls. Chapter 15 of Fljótsdæla saga tells of a master wall-builder, Ásbjörn, who built boundary walls and hayfield walls in the East Fjords. The saga author says that some of his walls were still standing centuries later when the saga was written.

All available manure was spread on the homefield to fertilize the soil and to maximize the crop. In the spring, manure that had accumulated in the animal shelters over the winter was spread on the homefield. There is some evidence that some fields were irrigated, for example the laws about irrigation that appear in Grágás (K 191), the medieval Icelandic law book. However, if irrigation happened at all, it must have been on a small scale, due to the difficulty of digging extensive irrigation ditches with the tools available in the Viking age.

Hay was so important to Viking age farms that growing sufficient hay was written into the law, which required that tenant farmers hire enough farm hands that all hay meadows could be worked. The law prohibited land from becoming waste through lack of attention.

In some cases, the sel was near the farm, in the same valley, but further in the valley or higher up the wall of the valley. The sel for Bolli's farm in the Sælingsdalur valley was located adjacent to the ravine Stakkagil (left), as told in Laxdœla saga. Although at the time of the saga, the valley was wooded, it's possible that the farm was visible from the sel. Chapter 55 of the saga says that while working at the sel with only his wife and a few farmhands to help, Bolli was attacked and killed.

In other the cases, the sel was a considerable distance from the farm, perhaps in the next valley, or in the highlands between valleys. The sel ruins shown to the right were discovered in 2004. They are probably the remains of a sel for one of the farms in Hrafnkelsdalur in east Iceland. Perhaps it is one of the sels that Einar rode to in search of the lost sheep, as described in chapter 5 of Hrafnkels saga. The site was studied in 2006, but little conclusive was found. The next year, the site was flooded by Hálslón, the lake behind the new dam at Kárahnjúkur.

Milk collected at the sel was turned into butter, cheese, and skyr on-site. Skyr (left) is usually translated as curds, which for most English speakers, fails to convey the pleasures of this yummy dairy treat.

The dairy products were brought down to the farms in skin sacks. Products such as skyr were stored in partially buried vats (right), which kept the skyr cool, helping to preserve it. During the winter months, when cows stopped producing milk, the skyr in storage became the main source of dairy food. In addition, sour milk was used as a preservative for other foodstuffs.

In Iceland, grain cultivation must have been difficult even in the best of times. The best chances for success were in the warmer parts of the country, in the south and southwest. Njáls saga, set in the south, contains a number of references to the growing of grain. Chapter 111 tells that Höskuldr Hvítanesagoði went out one morning with his seed bag in one hand and his sword in the other to sow grain in his field (left, as it appears today). The sons of Njál were waiting behind the fence, and they ambushed Höskuldr and killed him.

Larger grain fields were plowed with an arðr (left) drawn by oxen, while smaller fields were worked with hand tools. The iron cutting piece of the arðr (right) lacked flaring sides, so it merely cut grooves into the soil, rather than turning the soil like a modern plow. In the photo, the cutting tip is to the left, and the opening that receives the wooden frame of the arðr is to the right.

Sometime in the 11^th century, a drift of sand covered a farmer's field in northern Jutland. When the sand was removed in the 1950s, the Norse era field was still intact from its last plowing (right). The slightly curving furrows can be seen, along with the tracks of a wheeled vehicle, and footprints, possibly those of the farmer who plowed the field.

Various tools were widely used for cultivating, harvesting, and processing the crops. Iron-shod spades (left) with a wooden blade and handle, and only a thin iron edge were used to dig ditches. Iron picks and iron-shod hoes were used to work the soil. Iron scythes, sickles, and leaf-knives were used for harvesting. Wooden pitchforks and rakes (right) were used for spreading manure and for haymaking. Manure was also spread by dragging bundles of sticks over the homefield to break up and spread out the clots of manure. Flails were used to thresh the grain. Stone querns (below) were used to mill the flour (although archaeological evidence suggests that water powered mills might have been used in towns during the Viking era).

The farm staff typically consisted of the owner of the farm, his family, as well as extended family who lived with the farmer in the longhouse. In addition, hired men and servants worked at the farm, in exchange for wages and room and board. Most farms kept slaves, a practice that was widespread throughout the Viking lands on both large and small farms. Slaves generally worked alongside the hired workers on the farm, but probably were assigned the harder and less desirable work. Lastly, shepherds were hired to tend the sheep, but this work had little respect.

The low status of shepherds is revealed in several sources. Shepherds received no wages, but only room and board. The law (Grágás K.78) prohibited farmers from assigning shepherding duties to the hired men, which would be demeaning. In chapter 26 of Reykdæla saga og Víga-Skútu, Skúta pretended to be a shepherd while he was being pursued. He turned his cloak inside-out (to display the less showy inner lining), broke off the spearhead from its shaft (turning it into a staff and appearing weapon-less), and took the saddle off his horse (to appear poor). Riding bareback, Skúta shouted at the sheep as he rode towards his pursuers. As he passed, they didn't recognize him as the imposing man with weapons they had been chasing.

Occasionally, men did not want to move. Chapter 26 of Víga-Glúms saga says that Einarr won a case against Glúmr. Glúmr was banished from the district, and Einarr bought his land. On the last of the moving days, Glúmr sat in his high seat and refused to leave his home. Einar's mother came and turned him out. "You can't stay any longer. I turn you out now, for the land is consecrated to Einarr." Glúmr's farm at Þverá is shown to the right as it appears today.