The Old Icelandic calendar only knew two seasons, winter and summer. Winter lasted from mid-October to mid-March, summer was from mid-March to mid-October. However, summers in Iceland were always short and often not particularly warm, while winters were long, cold and full of hardship.
Accordingly, back in Iceland, a person's age was measured by the number of winters they had already survived. We have just been practicing this in Icelandic class, where we are currently reading a children's version of the Egils saga, when the great Viking killed his first man at the tender age of 7: "Egill var á sjöunda vetri", Egill was in his 7th winter when he committed his first murder.
The fourth winter month of Þorri
The Old Icelandic winter month of Þorri begins on Friday between January 19th and 26th, with the 13th week of winter. This “drought month” was the month in which all supplies were finally used up and there was still nothing new and fresh to eat.
This month used to celebrate a
great pagan sacrificial festival, the
Þorrablót, the sacrificial festival in the month of Þorri. Or for the month of Þorri, with which an attempt was made to make this cold winter month a little milder, so that it wasn't too grim. People decorated their houses, similar to Christmas or Easter. There were also special customs. So on
bóndadagur, the first day of the month of Þorri, the farmers skipped around the house barefoot in only their shirts and one trouser leg, dragging the other trouser leg behind them and thus marking their farm and their property, and afterwards their wives gave them particularly delicious food such as pickled mutton testicles or singed sheep's head. And freshly baked Flatbrauð.
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| Flatbrauð in the Viking kitchen in Haitabu (May 2024) |
In addition, there were celebrations again on the farms, with all the traditional dishes that had a long shelf life in winter - foods such as black pudding and liver sausage, pork testicles, whale meat or seal fins, which were marinated in acidic whey and thus preserved for a long time. The “guest of honor” at Þorrablót was always the winter month of Þorri itself, which was intended to be merciful with this sacrificial festival.
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| Vikings in Haitabu (May 2024) |
These traditional Icelandic customs surrounding the sacrificial festival of Þorrablót were apparently largely suppressed in the course of Christianization.
The first recorded Þorrablót of modern times only took place in 1873, organized by a group of Icelandic students. From around 1880 onwards, the Icelandic Society for Classical Studies celebrated a festive Þorrablót every year. In the 1950s, local heritage associations also held festive Þorrablóts to mark the occasion. From 1958 onwards, the Naustið restaurant in Reykjavík, on the initiative of one of the owners, Halldór S. Gröndal (1927 - 2009), offered Þorramatur in order to give city residents the opportunity to get to know these traditional dishes.
Today, local associations hold their Þorrablót festivals all over the country. But you can now easily get almost everything you need for a hearty Þorrablót at home with friends or relatives in the supermarket:
You can buy various súrmatur, i.e. meat products marinated in sour whey, in a 2 liter bucket. And if you don't dare buy the 2 liter bucket, you can also buy smaller quantities, for example a Þorrabakki, i.e. a tasting tablet with various traditional Þorramatur dishes.
Typical Þorramatur dishes include lamb smoked over sheep dung (hangikjöt), salt meat (saltkjöt), brawn such as sheep's head brawn (sviðasulta), pickled ram testicles (súrsaðirhrútsprungar), various blood sausage and liver sausage dishes (blóðmör og lifrapylsa),
and rolled meat (lundabaggar), but also fish dishes such as dried fish (harðfiskur) and rotten shark (hákarl).
Traditional side dishes for Þorrablót are often mashed turnips (rófustappe) and mashed potatoes (kartöflumús), as well as the typical Icelandic sweet rye bread (rúgbrauð) and thin flatbread (flatbrauð).
In addition, people used to drink plenty of high-proof alcohol, such as Brennivín.
I found a recipe for a typical Þorrablót dish in an old cookbook, but for various reasons I didn't actually try it myself:
For the
pickled ram's testicles in brawn (here on the right on the plate), the testicles of the freshly slaughtered sheep are placed in boiling salted water in autumn and allowed to cook for about an hour. The cooked testicles are then removed from the broth with a ladle. The jelly is then prepared from a little broth with salt and aspic. The cooked testicles are then placed in a large container (e.g. used 2 liter bucket from
súrmatur), poured with the jelly and placed something heavy on top for pressing. When the jelly has set, cut the brawn into thick slices and pour plenty of whey over them. The whey is then changed regularly, first after about 2 weeks, then after about 6 to 8 weeks, and in January the pickled
hrútsprungar are ready to enjoy. Or for consumption, however you take it.
Honestly, to a taste of a Central European, many of these traditional meat dishes aren't even that tasty. But of course we tried it anyway!
And on February 23, 2025, the next, fifth winter month begins, the month of Góa. This month starts on Sunday in the 18th week of winter, i.e. today between February 18th and 24th. On the first day of this month, Iceland celebrates konudagur, or “Women’s Day”.
By the way, there is a weather rule in Iceland, it is said that if Women's Day was stormy and the weather was bad in the first days of this month, it should be a good summer. Let's see what the weather will be like on Sunday - and what summer 2025 will be like.
[Translated from
here.]
Classic egg salad
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