6. Viking boys needed to hunt, help on the farm, fight and even marry before they would be seen as grown men
Becoming a man in Viking society was no easy process. There was no sudden transition from boyhood to manhood. Rather, a young male would have to prove his maturity over the course of several years. This was a tough environment, and Norse males were expected to be leaders and warriors in every sense. So, while in old Norse law, a boy was considered a ‘man’ at either the age of 12 or after ’15 winters’, this meant little in reality. Indeed, though he could ride a horse and even drink wine with the men of his community, only when he passed a series of trials would he truly be accepted as an adult male.
It was down to a young boy’s relatives to prepare him for manhood. To start with, as a young boy, he would be expected to help out running the family farm. Then from the age of around 10, he would begin to hunt, learning alongside grown males. What’s more, before he even reached his teens, he would learn how to fight. Only when he proved capable of fighting and hunting wild beasts would a boy be regarded as a man. However, according to Norse law, there was one final obstacle to manhood – marriage. Scandinavian youths would be married off as young as 12. Once he had a wife of his own, a boy had really made the transition to adulthood.