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Viking Horsemen

Scott Haley

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I just saw the trailer for the upcoming film "Pathfinder." It's about Viking raiders fighting with Native Americans, "600 years before Columbus." Good fun, but I was startled to see the Vikings on great big horses. Horses? I just saw men rowing a modern replica of a Viking ship on the British show "The Worst Jobs in History," and there's no way that they could have brought large horses on one of those. Maybe one of those dog-sized mini-horses.

I ask those who know more history than me: In 892 A.D., could Scandinavians haul big live horses across the Atlantic?

You can see the trailer at http://www.pathfinderthemovie.com/

--Scott
 
Not a viking chance.

The Vikings (in those days) fought mainly on foot. Their weapons were uniquely suited for both-feet-on-the-ground-bashing-heads-chopping-arms-legs-and-heads combat.

ETA: Good source here.
 
I know that when Iceland was settled they brought horses..... this is where the Icelandic horse came from. Iceland was settled about 874. Here is a history of Icelandic horses, it includes some old photos of the horses. Notice they are not large. In real life, these horses are what most people call pony-size - 12.3HH to 13.1HH. (That means "Hands High". A hand is 4", making the size 51" to 53" tall at the top of the shoulders (withers) at maturity.) A horse this size will weigh "about" 500 - 650 lbs. Of course it depends on what shape the horse is in, whether it is pregnant or not etc. and I would expect the weight range of horses living at that time to have been a little lower - possibly as low as 400 lbs.

In the history it points out that the horses were VERY important to the people that brought them, so I don't know that they would have been risked on exploratory journeys - I would expect someone would only take their stock with them if they knew there was somewhere to go, where they could settle and had a reasonable expectation of grazing. Of course that is simply conjecture on my part, as a person that raises horses.

In short, I guess you could say it was POSSIBLE, but does seem wildly unlikely - and even then the horses would not be big, they would be small pony-sized animals.
 
Amapola said:
In the history it points out that the horses were VERY important to the people that brought them, so I don't know that they would have been risked on exploratory journeys - I would expect someone would only take their stock with them if they knew there was somewhere to go, where they could settle and had a reasonable expectation of grazing. Of course that is simply conjecture on my part, as a person that raises horses.
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I don't know about this. Dogs were very important to the Eskimo and Innuit precisely because they were needed for these journeys. It may very well be that the success or failure of a Viking expedition hinged on the horses.
 
qayak said:
I don't know about this. Dogs were very important to the Eskimo and Innuit precisely because they were needed for these journeys. It may very well be that the success or failure of a Viking expedition hinged on the horses.
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That's true, of course. The Icelandic horse is favored by the islanders BECAUSE they can get so much done in a rough landscape simply due to the horses. If you go to the link you can see a modern day farmer dragging a sheep across a river while riding a horse. Try THAT little trick with a tractor..... :D
 
Perhaps wild horses floated to the New World, clinging to driftwood? Or on ice floes. Or they might have developed crude wings, not for flying so much but for gliding. Or a particularly strong horse could probably swim. In 1902 a horse swam the English Channel. Perhaps some horses did that centuries ago, only once in France they purchased steamship tickets to cross the ocean? Except that theory doesn't quite work, because France wasn't really France back then. It was Frankenland or something, where Frankenstein ruled with an iron first and horses were made to work in sweatshops, making counterfeit designer jeans.

Occam's Razor suggests that the simplest theory is that the original Viking explorers brought some horse eggs with them, and hatched them out on arrival.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but why did they need to bring their own horses? I thought the American continent already had wild horses? (Of course, the vikings didn't know this when they started their journey.)
 
TragicMonkey said:
Perhaps wild horses floated to the New World, clinging to driftwood? Or on ice floes. Or they might have developed crude wings, not for flying so much but for gliding. Or a particularly strong horse could probably swim. In 1902 a horse swam the English Channel. Perhaps some horses did that centuries ago, only once in France they purchased steamship tickets to cross the ocean? Except that theory doesn't quite work, because France wasn't really France back then. It was Frankenland or something, where Frankenstein ruled with an iron first and horses were made to work in sweatshops, making counterfeit designer jeans.

Occam's Razor suggests that the simplest theory is that the original Viking explorers brought some horse eggs with them, and hatched them out on arrival.
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The horse could be carried by an African swallow.
 
NorwegianSquirrel said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but why did they need to bring their own horses? I thought the American continent already had wild horses? (Of course, the vikings didn't know this when they started their journey.)
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Horses originally evolved in North America but went extinct between 8 and 10 thousand years ago. They were re-introduced by the Spanish in the early 1500's.

ETA: The Icelandic Sagas claim that all manner of livestock were brought on the expedition(s) to Vinland the Good.
 
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Why are Americans so keen on making remakes of movies? I just don't get it, the original Pathfinder is an amazing movie, certainly the best Norwegian movie ever made.

The American version seems silly and not very historically correct. Yeah, the Vikings had horses, but they were pretty small.
 
In qayak's link it says there were no stables for animals which I suppose does not prove anything one way or the other..... and of course without evidence they brought horses that far, all we can do is guess. They COULD have but that doesn't mean they did.......

All and all I think the movie is more about trying to get people to fork over the price of attendance than it is about historical accuracy.
 
Beady said:
Yes, but it was barely a decent toe-hold, and didn't last very long. The best account I've found has been SE Morison's The European Discovery of America, The Northern Voyages.
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That's because it takes a special breed of man to live in Newfoundland. Obviously the"mighty Vikings" just weren't up to it.:D
 
Fitter said:
That's because it takes a special breed of man to live in Newfoundland. Obviously the"mighty Vikings" just weren't up to it.:D
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No it doesn't, it just takes a lot of booze! :D
 
Screech!! Where? I'll take on all the Vikings for it. (Including the ones in Minnesota.)
 
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