The Vikings also used crampons to avoid slipping on ice
Crampons have been used in Norway for over 1,000 years. Espen Kutschera has tested Viking-era crampons.
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Norwegians have been contending with slippery winters for over 1,000 years.
Crampons, also known as ice grips – with spikes that dig into the ice to stop people from slipping – are a relatively common find in graves from the Viking Age.
In particular, graves containing sled equipment from the Viking Age often include crampons, used by both humans and horses.
"Many of the horse crampons appear to slightly predate the Viking Age, originating from the 700s," says Ragnar Orten Lie, archaeologist in Vestfold County Municipality.
At that time, horseshoes were not used. They were introduced later in the Middle Ages.
Ice grips from the Middle Ages are often found by archaeologists in cities. Many discoveries have been made in Oslo and Tønsberg.
"Archaeologists not only find the crampons but also shoes with imprints from the use of ice grips," says Lie.
"In a medieval city, the streets would have been paved with split logs, so it must have been very slippery," he says.
Very slippery shoes
Espen Kutschera is a museum educator at Bymuseet (City Museum) in Bergen.
In his free time, he takes his passion for history a step further by living it. One way he does this is by making shoes in the same way they were crafted during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages.
"Crampons are important today to prevent falls and broken hips. But most modern winter shoes have some form of tread on the sole," says Kutschera.
"This wasn't the case in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. So crampons were just as important back then. In fact, it would have been completely impossible to walk on snow and ice without something attached to these shoes," he says.
Get the job done
Kutschera knows this firsthand because he tested it himself a few years ago.
The ice grips unearthed by archaeologists come in slightly different types. Kutschera chose a triangular design with three spikes protruding through a piece of leather. This is attached to the shoe using straps.
"They worked perfectly," reports the museum educator.
"They attach to the shoes just as securely as modern versions and definitely get the job done," he says.
Given how slippery the shoes from that time must have been, Kutschera believes most people likely owned a pair of ice grips.
"You had three options for getting around: skis, ice skates, or crampons. Crampons must have been standard equipment for most people," he thinks.
Here, Espen Kutschera tests Viking-era crampons on a steep hill covered in compacted, slippery snow.
Crampons were useful in battle
The thousand-year-old crampons are also mentioned in historical texts.
In the Icelandic Eyrbyggja saga, written in the mid-1200s, we hear about Frøystein, who was a bit smarter than Steintor. The latter latter seemingly forgot to wear the proper footwear:
'Steintor struggled to stand as the ice floes were both slippery and slanted, while Frøystein stood firm on shoe crampons and struck hard and often.'
A fully intact ice grip in Oslo
Researchers often find only the metal parts of crampons because the leather straps have decayed over time.
However, during excavations in the Oslo's Medieval Park a few years ago, archaeologists unearthed a fully intact ice grip. It was considered one of the most significant finds from that excavation.
“We find the metal part quite often. But the whole thing, including the strap used to fasten it to the shoe – I’ve never seen that before,” NIKU archaeologist Linda Åsheim told sciencenorway.no.
Many could probably afford them
A quick search of the databases at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo yields over 150 entries for ice grips from across Eastern Norway, according to archaeology professor Marianne Vedeler.
There are likely even more in the collection, hidden under other names.
The crampons come in various designs. Some are triangular, others star-shaped, and some are ring-shaped.
"The triangular and star-shaped designs also appear during the Middle Ages," says Vedeler.
Vedeler also believes many people owned a pair of ice grips.
"In the Viking Age, iron was likely a more expensive and less accessible material than in the Middle Ages. Even then, iron cost quite a bit of money," she says.
Iron pots, for example, were very expensive, the professor notes.
"To save iron, wooden shovels were often 'shod' with metal tips, leaving the rest made of wood. However, making crampons requires very little iron, so I believe a good number of people could have afforded them," she says.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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