Hestavíg

Hestavíg was an entertainment activity during the Viking Age in the Icelandic Commonwealth (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.[1] It was a cultural event of great importance and sometimes behaved verbal and physical confrontations among the spectators. The triumph of a champion or the other could impact socially and politically in the pacts and alliances between goði (chieftains) and bóndi (homesteaders), as testified in the Norse sagas.[2] The site where these battles held was a neutral place used to strengthen friendship or treat issues among rivals. It was also an opportunity for courtship between young couples.[3] Sometimes rivalries raised among participants and ended in bloody conflicts.[4] Some examples appear in the Njáls saga (chapter 59) and Víga-Glúms saga (chapters 13-14).[5]

Hestavíg, Andreas Bloch (1898).

The origin of the activity came possibly from Norway. Sometimes Icelanders exported stallions specially trained for competitions on the continent.[6]

Skeið

Skeið was another activity related to horses. It was a popular race competition from mainland Scandinavia.[7]

Hestavíg is featured in the Icelandic viking film In the Shadow of the Raven.

References
  1. William R. Short (2010), Icelanders in the Viking Age: The People of the Sagas, ed. McFarland, ISBN 0786456078 p. 218.
  2. Edwards, Elwyn Hartley (1994), The Encyclopedia of the Horse, New York, ed. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-56458-614-6 pp. 194–195.
  3. Martin, John D. (2003), Sports and Games in Icelandic Saga Literature. Scandinavian Studies 75: 27–32.
  4. Laxdæla Saga, Penguin Classics, 1975, ISBN 0-14044-218-9 p. 130–131 footnote.
  5. Byock, Jesse (1993), Feud in the Icelandic Saga, University of California Press, ISBN 0520082591 p. 243.
  6. Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Histories, Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0-14-044238-0 p. 73 footnote.
  7. Svale Solheim (1956), Horse-fight and Horse-race in Norse Tradition, ed. H. Aschehoug, pp. 45, 46, 162.
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