Hestavíg was an entertainment activity during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

in the

Icelandic Commonwealth The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing () in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. W ...

(930–1262), presumably a sport consisting of a brutal and bloody confrontation between two stallions, egged on by their masters, which mainly served to choose the best specimens for breeding. It was a cultural event of great importance and sometimes led to verbal and physical confrontations among the spectators. The triumph of a champion or the other could have social and political impact due to the pacts and alliances between

goði Gothi or (plural , fem. ; Old Norse: ) was a position of political and social prominence in the Icelandic Commonwealth. The term originally had a religious significance, referring to a pagan leader responsible for a religious structure and com ...

(chieftains) and

bóndi Bóndi (also húsbóndi, (pl.) bændr in Old Norse) was the Norse core of society, formed by farmers and craftsmen in the Scandinavian Viking Age, and constituted a widespread middle class. They were free men and enjoyed rights such as the use of ...

(homesteaders), as testified in the

Norse saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

s. The site where these battles were held was a neutral place used to strengthen friendship or address issues among rivals. It was also an opportunity for courtship between young couples. Sometimes rivalries raised among participants ended in bloody conflicts. Some examples appear in the ''

Njáls saga ''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), or ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) (Which can be translated as ''The Story of Burnt Njáll'', or ''The Saga of Njáll the Burner''), is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 a ...

'' (chapter 59) and ''

Víga-Glúms saga ''Víga-Glúms saga'' (Modern Icelandic pronunciation: ) is one of the Sagas of Icelanders. It takes place mostly in and around Eyjafjörður in North Iceland, and recounts the life and fall of Glúmr Eyjólfsson, a powerful man whose nickname, '' ...

'' (chapters 13-14). The origin of the activity possibly came from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Sometimes Icelanders exported stallions specially trained for competitions on the continent.

Skeið

''Skeið'' was another activity related to horses. It was a popular race competition from mainland

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

.Svale Solheim (1956), ''Horse-fight and Horse-race in Norse Tradition'', ed. H. Aschehoug, pp. 45, 46, 162.

Popular culture

Hestavíg is featured in the Icelandic viking film ''

In the Shadow of the Raven ''In the Shadow of the Raven'' ( Icelandic: ''Í skugga hrafnsins'' ) is the title of a 1988 film by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, set in Viking Age Iceland. The film was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 61st Aca ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hestavig Viking practices Obsolete blood sports Horses in culture Early Germanic culture Animal cruelty incidents Animal combat organized by humans