Hello Vikings!
Viking society wasn't only about work and raids. Their community was also built upon games and competitive sports that tested the most important attributes for the Vikings, like strength, speed and durability. Those competitions were meant to be challenging, as they were a way to train skills and hone abilities.
Usually, Vikings were competing between each other and their games often defined winner and loser. Besides that, it served as entertainment for the spectators.
While most of you may instantly think of some simple, strength or speed-based competitions like armwrestling, sparring or running, Vikings also had less physical and more brain-based games, including hnefatafl, which was a popular board-game.
If that, for some reason, didn’t sound very “attractive”, don’t worry! We are talking about Vikings after all and how could we talk about their sports without a dose of brutality? One of the more extreme “sports” was the drowning competition, which basically meant that the participants would take turns in holding their opponent under the water as long as possible.
Of course, Vikings not only spend their free time competing against each other. They also had a bunch of relaxing and safe activities.
Being a decently hygienic society, Vikings took a bath at least once per week (yes, at their times it was pretty often). One of their favorite methods of relaxing baths were hot springs. You can find your settlers chilling there, while also increasing their health.
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