Story tellers of old

Viking Literature: Stories, Sagas and Myths

Viking culture was rich in stories, tales and poems. Kings, brave heroes, beautiful women, dangerous journeys, battles, fearsome dragons and otherworldly creatures were all subjects of tales told by skalds and everyone else. In the Viking Age, no one wrote them down, but everyone knew them, mostly by heart.
Long winters when people were cooped up inside were fertile soil for these stories of old. For centuries, they were kept alive in the hearts of Scandinavians by storytellers. However, the great literature of the Viking Age was in danger of being completely lost as time went by, old folks died and younger people didn’t remember. Finally, with the advent of Christianity in Iceland, Christian churchmen taught the Icelanders to write.

The Christians brought parchment. The Vikings likely adapted to writing quite fine, and likely did some writing on their won wooden planks now long rotted away.

Parchment was the tipping point and the Romans had a monopoly on production for some time. The classicals actually designed Latin for parchment. They likely had meetings, officially sorting out the who, what and wheres. The writers exit the meeting, go back home with a cart full of parchment and a common set of grammar rules and a dictionary for Indo-European.