It appears that the skalds and other Norse storytellers supplemented their recitations with music. This is not surprising considering that most or all Vikings enjoyed singing and listening to music. Sailors sang songs while rowing ships, for example, and many farmers sang or hummed tunes while planting or harvesting their crops. In addition, people of all walks of life sang drinking songs at parties. It evidently did not matter much to the average Viking whether or not he, she, or a friend possessed a pleasant singing voice. On the other hand, foreigners exposed to Norse music were sometimes appalled at what they heard. An Arab merchant who visited Denmark in the tenth century later recalled: "Never before have I heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Denmark. The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed." Of course, that merchant likely did not hear the finest Viking singers. As for the songs they sang, almost none have survived. One possible exception is called "I Dreamed a Dream." It may have originated during the Viking Age and passed on orally from one generation to the next until it was written down in fourteenth-century Denmark.
Quoted in Mogens Friis, "Vikings and Their Music," The Vikings. Www. viking. no/e/life/music/e-musikk-mogens. html.
World History
