Before winter, a Viking Age farm in Iceland weighed its cows against its hay. In one famine winter of the 900s, people ended up eating ravens.

What winter was really like for an ordinary Viking Age family in Iceland: the autumn sum of cows against hay, turf houses with four hours of midwinter daylight, smoke you could measure, food kept in sour whey, a weaving hut that smelled of urine, and why the 'filthy Viking' is a story told by a horrified stranger. Every historical claim in this video comes from the archaeological and historical sources listed below.

CHAPTERS
0:00 One evening in October
0:44 What we got wrong
1:25 A house made of earth
2:11 Did the cow sleep with you?
2:47 The air you breathed
3:26 The October arithmetic
4:18 Food without salt
5:16 The hut that smelled of urine
7:05 The 'filthy Viking'
8:35 Twenty hours of darkness
9:28 The end of winter

SOURCES
- Evans Tang, H. J. & Milek, K. 'Cattle, cooperation, and the co-settlement of Iceland.' Viking, Special Volume 3 — https://journals.uio.no/vikingspecialvolumes/article/download/12201/10280/46117
- Andersson Strand, E. 'Weaving Textiles: Textile Consumption for Travel and Warfare.' Viking — https://journals.uio.no/viking/article/download/9053/7781/31448
- Christensen, J. M. (2013). 'Living Conditions and Indoor Air Quality in a Reconstructed Viking House.' EXARC Journal 2013/3 — https://exarc.net/issue-2013-3/ea/living-conditions-and-indoor-air-quality-reconstructed-viking-house
- Milek, K. (2012). 'The roles of pit houses and gendered spaces on Viking-Age farmsteads in Iceland.' Medieval Archaeology 56(1) — https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/handle/2164/4279
- Viðarsdóttir, Á. R. (2025). 'Disentangling the Archaeology of Textile Production in Viking Age Iceland.' MA thesis, Lund University — https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=9197689&fileOId=9197691
- Zori, D., Byock, J. et al. (2013). 'Feasting in Viking Age Iceland.' Antiquity 87 — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141203161035.htm
- Montgomery, J. E. (2000). 'Ibn Fadlān and the Rūsiyyah.' Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 3 — https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/jais/volume/docs/vol3/3_001-25_MONTGO1jun24a.pdf
- Landnámabók, Skarðsárbók appendix, 'Um óaldarvetr' (Old Norse text; translation ours) — https://heimskringla.no/wiki/Landn%C3%A1mab%C3%B3k_-_Vi%C3%B0auki_Skar%C3%B0s%C3%A1rb%C3%B3kar
- Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Saga of Hákon the Good, ch. XV–XVI (trans. S. Laing, 1844) — https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Heimskringla/Hakon_the_Good's_Saga
- Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde. 'The weaver' (Ottar sail) — https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/all-about-the-viking-ship/skibets-haandvaerkere/vaeveren
- National Museum of Denmark. 'Viking health' — https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/the-people/health/
- Swedish History Museum. 'Viking Age Ice Skates' — https://historiska.se/en/explore-history/history-hub/viking-age-ice-skates/
- Museum Nord. 'Hygiene in the Viking Age' — https://www.museumnord.no/en/stories/hygiene-in-the-viking-age/
- World History Encyclopedia. 'Norse-Viking Diet' — https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1311/norse-viking-diet/
- Hurstwic. 'Turf Houses', 'Longhouses', 'Farms and Villages' and 'Games, Sports, and Competition in the Viking Age' — https://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/
- Polar night in Lofoten, 7 Dec – 5 Jan (MET Norway data) — https://www.lofoten.com/en/nature-in-lofoten/polar-night-in-lofoten/
- Daylight at 64.1°N on the winter solstice: our own calculation (NOAA solar method)

Narration uses an AI voice. Images are AI-generated reconstructions informed by the sources above. Some scenes and composite characters are illustrative; historical claims are sourced.