THE VIKING DRINKING HORN
Drinking horns were common amongst the Norse and the Anglo-Saxons. In the Prose Edda, Thor drank from a horn that unbeknownst to him contained all the seas, and in the process he scared Útgarða-Loki and his kin by managing to drink a conspicuous part of its content. They also feature in Beowulf, and fittings for drinking horns were also found at the Sutton Hoo Viking burial site. Large drinking horns were also common among the Thracians, often covered with worked silver or gold plating.

The universal drink of the Viking period was ale - not as we know it today, but fairly weak, sweetish, cloudy, and often unhopped (a wide variety of herbs were used for flavouring, although the hop trade existed). This was drunk by everyone, including children, and for a very good reason - wells and streams were often dirty (in settlements like York they must often have been contaminated by the latrine pits ), but water for brewing was boiled and thus rendered safe. Mead, the favourite drink for celebrations, was brewed from the washings of the honeycombs after honey extraction (honey was the only available sweetener). The wealthy had expensive imported wine.

Drinking Horns were in use, well into the Middle Ages, dying out mainly in the 1600s.