How Often did the Vikings Drink from Drinking Horns?

How Often did the Vikings Drink from Drinking Horns? I explore this question below.

Modern portrayals of the Vikings seem to be obsessed with horns, particularly in regards to those worn on the head (as part of the helmet) and those used for drinking. While the former has been proven false time and again – the Vikings did not wear horns – the second use, drinking from a horn, is a different story. A quick search on the internet might lead someone to believe the Vikings had a pseudo-monopoly on horns as drinkware, and that it was their preferred way to drink. While the use of drinking horns is not in question, the prevalence of such use is. Fictional portrayals seem to put drinking horns in the hands of every Scandinavian of the day. How Often did the Vikings Drink from Drinking Horns? I explore this question below.

What did the Vikings use to drink?

Drinking horns have been found scattered across the Viking Age archaeological record, from grave finds to pictorial evidence. No evidence is more compelling than the depiction of a drinking party, painted on a stone in Got…