What did the Anglo-Saxons do for fun?

Entertainment in Anglo Saxon times:

the year is AD 600. There are no Ipods, no Internet, no TV, radio and not even newspapers and books (unless you were wealthy ). What do you do to keep from getting bored?

Here are some ways that the Anglo Saxons had fun in the dark evenings.

Indoor entertainment and feasts

There was a high degree of ceremony connected with feasts. It would start outside the hall. A horn was blown to summon the guests to table and the host would great them at the door where there would be a hand washing ceremony at the door. The doors were shut to keep gate crashers away!

 Then the guests would enter and sit at benches lining long tables. The king’s warriors or thegns could sit in his halls but only men of high rank would sit at the high table. Women of high rank would be cup bearers and pour drinks for the king and lords. In the Christian era bread was blessed and then broken in remembrance of the Eucharist or holy communion/ mass.

Feasts might go on all day and night: there were even some 3 day feasts.

It was considered a serious matter to commit an offense or undertake violence at a feast

Entertainment at feasts: These might include playing the harp, lyre, horn, trumpet, drums flute or cymbals. There would be accompanying signing: often songs recalling battles.

They enjoyed dancing and juggling and the asking of riddles. Here is a typical Anglo-Saxon riddle from the Exeter book which has many riddles. Some are obscure and some lewd and suggestive. This one is straighter forward.
On the wave a miracle: water turned to bone.
What is the answer? See at the end of this section.

The Saxons loved stories such as has every generation of  humans from the earliest times. In the long lost mead halls of the Saxons tales of the past, of monsters and kings and heroes were told. In one of these halls the tale of Beowulf would have had its world Premier as we think of such things today. Imagine the scene: the fire is crackling and dancing away throwing shadows against the walls. The bard stands in the firelight. The rumble of conversation from the benches dies away. The poet bows to the king who inclines his head, signalling that the tale should begin. The unknown genius begins his tale – a story that to the Anglo-Saxon settler echoed back to earlier times and linked him to his past on the shores of distant Denmark just as that same story remains with us a powerful link to our own past in these Saxon halls.

Above: a game of Hnefatafl 
The Anglo-Saxons were fond of dice games. Dice were made from the knuckle bones of animals such as pigs. Board games were also popular and often recalled battles in a symbolic way. An example is Hnefatafl which is played using stone pieces on a carved wooden board.  One player’s pawns coming from the corners of the board would attack the other side’s king and pawns which were positioned in the centre. The player with the King would be trying to get him off the board (to escape from the battle) whilst the other player would try and trap him. These un-even games – where the two sides were of different sizes and abilities – were very prevalent in Anglo-Saxon and later Viking cultures. The Romans seemed to have brought Nine Men’s Morris and Three Men’s Morris to Britain. The English were certainly playing this my medieval times and it seemed likely that may have been aware of it in the Saxon Period.

Nine men’s Morris

Outdoor Sports:

Horse racing  was mentioned in Beowulf  in 8th century copy which exists and by the writer Bede in the 7th. There are records of dog racing, hunting, ice skating, swimming, falconry, hawking, acrobatics wrestling and gymnastics.

So we see that the Saxons certainly filled the long dark winter evenings.

Here is the Answer to that riddle: 

On the wave a miracle: water turned to bone.
Ice or iceberg.