Did the Vikings or earlier Scandinavian cultures use snowshoes?

by pier25
textandtrowel

The Viking Age is really the earliest period when we start getting reliable texts about people in Scandinavia, and unfortunately, everyday items, which would include snowshoes, rarely get mentioned. As far as I know, there are no pre-medieval references to snowshoes (and I don't know the sources for the Scandinavian Middle Ages, so I can't comment on that either).

I did do a quick check of the Scandinavian archaeological databases (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark), but I couldn't find anything. If you have any Scandinavian languages, you might play around with these and see if you have better luck than I do.

However, you might be interested to know that there are occasional finds of ice skates. Admittedly, I had a hard time finding these in the Scandinavian online databases as well, but you might be interested in this page by Hurstwic or a few actual finds from Viking-Age Dublin. Ice skates were used in northern Europe before, during, and after the Viking Age, most often made from cow shin bones, but occasionally using the bones of smaller mammals as well, such as goats.