I’ve had a passion for viking history and norse mythology for as long as I can remember. My mother had a print of the Håvamål that I read when I was younger, and now I have my own copy in my bookshelf.
There is something very intriguing about how they were able to travel the world, trade with all kinds of nationalities and how they had a reputation as fierce warriors as well. And their feasts! We still celebrate Jul in Norway, although it is mostly considered a Christian celebration.
However, my grandfather is also interested in vikings, and for his 85th birthday I decided I wanted to make him a drinking horn. I had never done it before, but how hard could it be?
I scoured the internet for information, collecting everything that passed my eyes. I went to a local woodsmith and asked for advice on sandpaper and tools, he called a friend that made drinking horns and I got some advice from him as well. My mother knows a guy that works for the slaughterhouse, and they were able to get me some horns! After cutting them to size and packing them in an unfattomable amount of paper and plastic, I packed them in my suitcase and flied them back to Stavanger where I spent several hours refining them in my backyard.
I bought a couple of bottles of mead as well that was part of the gift, and he was very happy with the gift. He even drunk mead from the horn the same day!
The process of finding the information was timeconsuming and there’s a lot of contradictions on best practices online, so I wrote a short e-book about my experiences that I published on Amazon. You can get it here:
I will probably add some updates to it along the way, but I’m very happy to have published my first book!
Hopefully you will find it interesting and decide to make your own horn!
