Viking dogs

Viking Dogs

There were several types of dogs used in the Viking Age. The great popularity of dogs as pets, working animals, and as companions is shown by the frequency with which they are found in graves, buried alongside their masters. Frigga, wife of Óðinn and goddess of marriage and fidelity, was believed to travel in a chariot drawn by a pack of dogs, perfect symbols of fidelity and faithfulness.

The basic Norse dog is a spitz-type animal, produced by interbreeding of the native Arctic wolf with southern domestic dogs as early as the Neolithic, based on skeletal remains as much as 5,000 years old.

Viking Age art depicts many dogs, especially in runestone scenes depicting the arrival of the slain warrior into Valhöll: The warrior is greeted by a Valkyrie, bearing a horn of mead, and behind her waits the warrior's faithful hound.

Like many dog-owners, the Vikings apparently could not conceive of an afterlife in which their canine best friends were not present. This probably explains, in part, why many warriors' graves contain the bones of one or more dogs, sent to the afterlife to accompany their master.

The favorite – the Old Danish Bird Dog

The favorite hunting dog in Viking Age Denmark was the ancestor of the breed now known as the Old Danish Bird Dog or Gammel Dansk Hønsehund.

Unlike other Nordic dogs, the Old Danish Bird Dog is not a spitz-type, but rather is more closely related to southern tracking type dogs.

Norwegian Lundehund

The Norwegian Lundehund is the most ancient of the Nordic dog breeds. The name Lundehund means "puffin-dog" after the dog's talent for hunting seabirds. The Lundehund originates from the Lofoten Islands in the fishing village Måstad on Værøy Island. The date of origin for the breed is unknown, however scientific research indicates that the breed has been in existence since before the last Ice Age.

The Lundehund was valued for its ability to hunt and catch puffins and other seabirds. Lundehunds have several special anatomical adaptations that make them particularly adept at hunting seabirds. Lundehunds are a zoological rarity by having at least six fully developed toes on each foot.

They can close their ear canals at will and are able to bend their head 180 degrees backwards over their shoulders. Their legs that are extremely flexible and can be stretched straight out to the side, for greater ease in swimming or in maneuvering in the narrow crevices in Norwegian sea-side cliffs where their avian prey lives.

Hunting Dogs

Many of the dogs kept by the Vikings were hunting dogs, bred to assist in the chase. Several varieties of Viking Age hunting dogs have survived to the present day.

Norwegian Elkhound

One of the best-known surviving Norse hunting dog is the Norwegian Elkhound (Norsk Elghund), used for hunting large game such as moose and bear.

The Elkhound (a mis-translation, these are literally "moose-hounds") is derived from the Torvmosehund or Swamp Dog, bred by the ancient Danes.

Jämthund

The Jämthund or Swedish Elkhound is a Swedish hunting dog of spitz type, bred to hunt moose and sometimes bear. The Jämthund is the national dog of Sweden. Some experts believe the Jämthund originated by selective breeding from ancient aboriginal dogs very similar to the West Siberian Laika. Genetic studies show that the Jämthund is also very similar to the Norwegian Elkhound, although larger.

Karelian Bear Dog

Another spitz-type dog was used for hunting game from at least 1100 CE, especially bear and moose, and modern descendants of this breed are called Karelian Bear Dogs in Finland (also called Bjornhund in Swedish or Karjalankarhukoira in Finnish).

According to archeological records, dogs very similar to the modern Russo-European Laika and the Karelian Bear Dog existed in northeastern Europe and Scandinavia since Neolithic times.

The breed standard for Karelians and Laikas today calls for a black-and-white marked dog, but originally the breed included individuals with coats of wolf gray of various shades, red coats like the standard spitz, and black-and-tan specimens as well.

The Karelian Bear Dog was used mainly for hunting small fur-bearing animals, such as squirrels and marten.

Like the Norwegian Elkhound, the Karelian Bear Dog was also used in hunting moose, lynx, wolf and, as its name would suggest, hunting the Eurasian brown bear (a bear species as large and aggressive as the American Grizzly).

In hunting bear, at least a pair of Bear Dogs would be used to harry the animal, barking loudly, in order to distract the bear while the human hunter came in for the kill. Karelian Bear Dogs are being used today for bear control at Yosemite and Glacier National Parks and in Alaska in the United States (see also "Bear Scarer" in People Magazine 49:23 (June 15, 1998) p. 146).

Herd Dogs

A variety of dogs were used by the Vikings in tending sheep, goats, and cattle, and several of these breeds are still bred today. The most common type of herd dog was a spitz-type sheep-herding dog, and these were apparently in use throughout Scandinavia from the time of the Maglemose Culture in Denmark (ca. 6,000 BCE).

Norwegian Buhund

The Norwegian Buhund is one of the oldest known Nordic breeds, and the ancestral Viking herd-dog. The Gokstad ship burial includes the bones of six Buhund dogs. The name "Buhund" comes from then Norwegian word bu, which means homestead, farm or house: this term was first used in 1968 in J. Ramus's book, A Sample Of Words From Norderhov. By the last quarter of the 7th century, the Vikings brought Buhunds to Shetland, Iceland and Greenland. It is thought that the Shetland Sheepdog and Iceland Sheepdog are descended from Buhund ancestors.

Icelandic Sheepdog

When the first settlers arrived in Iceland in 874 CE, they brought with them the ancestors of the Iceland Sheepdog (Ísländshunden in Icelandic), sometimes called Fårehund or "Friar-Hound". In addition to herding sheep, the Icelandic Sheepdog was also used in working horses.

There are references to the Icelandic Sheepdog in many of the Icelandic Sagas, dating from 900 to 1300

Vallhund

The Vikings also used dogs to herd cattle. One of this type was the Swedish Vallhund, also known as Västgötaspets, which are still bred today. T

he Vallhund dates back to the 500's in Sweden.

Lapp Reindeer Dog

The Lapp Reindeer Dog (in Finnish: Lapinporokoira) was used by the Sámi to domesticate and herd reindeer. Like the other spitz-type breeds, the Reindeer Dog's origins are lost in antiquity, but almost certainly predate the advent of the Viking Age.

Lapphund

There are both Swedish and Finnish varieties of the spitz-type reindeer-herding dog originally bred by the Sámi. The Swedish variant is the Swedish Lapphund (Swedish) or Suomenpystykorva (Finnish), while the Finnish variety of this dog is the Finnish Lapphund or Lapinkoira (Finnish). Both varieties of Lapphund were developed by the Sámi as reindeer-herding dogs: