Icelandic Horse
Title
Icelandic Horse
Subject
Photograph
Description
The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse from Iceland that developed from horses taken to Iceland by the original Viking settlers. It is small, often pony-sized, but very hardy.
Pagan Scandinavians ate horse meat as part of their religious observances. Hrafnkels saga tells how he had a horse that he held sacred to Freyr. It is recorded that the eating of horse flesh was banned in Iceland after the conversion to Christianity.
Horses were ridden, although some Vikings were reportedly too large to ride the diminutive horses of the time, such as Göngu-Hrólfr (Walker-Hrolf) who was the first ruler of Normandy.
Horse-fighting was a popular pastime for the Vikings. In a horse fight, two stallions would be set on each other, goaded on by their owners. The Icelandic sagas record a number of horse fights that ended badly, because one owner used his goad to hit the other owner. In the recorded instances, this led to feuds that could last generations.
Pagan Scandinavians ate horse meat as part of their religious observances. Hrafnkels saga tells how he had a horse that he held sacred to Freyr. It is recorded that the eating of horse flesh was banned in Iceland after the conversion to Christianity.
Horses were ridden, although some Vikings were reportedly too large to ride the diminutive horses of the time, such as Göngu-Hrólfr (Walker-Hrolf) who was the first ruler of Normandy.
Horse-fighting was a popular pastime for the Vikings. In a horse fight, two stallions would be set on each other, goaded on by their owners. The Icelandic sagas record a number of horse fights that ended badly, because one owner used his goad to hit the other owner. In the recorded instances, this led to feuds that could last generations.
Creator
Thomas Quine
Source
Wikimedia Commons
Publisher
Wikimedia Commons
Date
30/07/2007
Contributor
Administrator
Rights
By Thomas Quine (originally posted to Flickr as Icelandic Pony) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Format
jpg
Language
English
Type
Image
Coverage
Modern, Iceland
Original Format
photo
Physical Dimensions
1024x768
Geolocation
Social Bookmarking
Item Relations
Item: Horse-fights: The brutal entertainment of the Icelanders in the Middle Ages | dcterms:relation | This Item |
Comments