“Officially, cider was introduced from England by monks in the Middle Ages,” Rosvold explained, “but there is a belief that some form of cider as a drink was made even by the Vikings, because they believed apples to have special God powers.”
In popular Norse mythology, the Goddess Idunn supplied apples to the Gods to preserve their youth and immortality. Without Idunn and her apples, the Gods of Åsgård would face threats of aging and death. As a symbol for life, fertility and knowledge, it is no wonder that this humble fruit had such a place in history.
The Vikings regarded apples as a treasure. In 1904, a Viking Queen was found in a burial mound in Tønsberg, Norway’s oldest city, buried with a basket of wild crab apples and the Oseberg Viking ship, among other artefacts. The ship is believed to be from the 9th Century and is on display at the Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo.
Native European crab apples would have been available to the Vikings through foraging, and “with access to apples, there is no doubt that the Vikings definitely made things with apples,” explained Ellen Marie Naess, an archaeologist and lecturer from Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History.
“We know the Vikings loved to drink alcohol, and it is likely they made something similar to cider with the apples. But the apples they had were the native crab apples, and they are not very good, so the Vikings would have used honey to sweeten it. Although as soon as you put honey in, it becomes mead, not cider, technically.”