How did pre-modern Scandinavians maintain their sanity throughout the long winters?

by LikeAMonkey101

When the weather isn't conducive to going outside we in the modern world are very lucky that we have computers, TVs, videogames and books to keep us entertained. But I started to wonder: how did people in the pre-modern era stay entertained? Particularly people living in a region where the winters are particularly harsh and where daylight can be extremely limited. How, for example, would a Medieval Scandinavian - especially one not able to read or write - keep him or herself entertained with none of the benefits of modern technology, nor even the ability to read a book?

y_sengaku

I cited the famous 'Nine Arts of the Vikings' stanza of the poem by Earl Rognvald Kali of Orkney as a kind of 'common, general arts' for Viking male elites in the post the I submitted to a few days ago.

It is perhaps useful to complement some arts mentioned in the poem here:

  • Chess: the provenance of the very famous Lewis Chessmen in British Museum is generally ascribed to the workshop of Trondheim, Norway, established as an archbishopric in the middle of the 12th century. In addition to chess, the Norsemen knew another table game, called hnefatafl. The Vikings seemed to bring the practice of this table game with them. This 10th century hnefatafl, found in Ballinderry, Ireland, is thought to be manufactured in the Norsemen-settled Dublin. This gambling dice (blog in Norwegian) is also found from Late Medieval Bergen, Norway.
  • Reading/ Transcribing: Don't you remember the medieval sagas from Iceland, allegedly telling the deeds of their ancestors? Iceland and some Atlantic Islands settled by the Norsemen have traditionally said to enjoy relatively high degree of lay literacy in the Middle Ages. Some of highly literate medieval Icelandic magnates like Snorri Sturluson almost certainly had some private book collections and let them read for them. Even an authority of Icelandic literature in the middle of the 20th century claimed that to transcribe manuscripts was a kinda passtime for medieval lay Icelanders during winter, but this hypothesis have been almost dismissed later. Post-Reformation Icelanders was known to be enjoying to hear sagas read around (sagnakemmtun) in the family gathering in winter night (kvöldvaka) (Driscoll 1997: 38ff.), but I'm not sure whether this tradition can date back to pre-Reformation Medieval period. AFAIK its first verified evidence at least could only date back to the 18th century.
  • Skiing: with the rivers frozen and snows covered in the ground, skiis and sledges were not just pastime hobby, but also very useful for travelling. The winter assembly/ market, Disting (disating) in Uppsala was said to be held in the middle of winter when the travelling by skii/ sledges were most easy, and the Birkebeiner, the political faction in 12th and 13th century Norwegian Civil War is famous for their employment of skii, as shown in this 19th century painting, taken an anecdote of the infant (future) King Håkon IV of Norway (r. 1217-63) rescued by the two warriors carrying him across the moutains during winter, as a motif.

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Works mentioned:

Driscoll, Matthew J. The Unwashed Children of Eve: The Production, Dissemination and Reception of Popular Literature in Post-Reformation Iceland. Enfield Lock: Hisalik, 1997. [Edited]: typo fixes, makes Icelandic words italic.