Drinking horn
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[[Image:Horns.JPG|200px|thumb|right|Drinking horns from [[Vendel era]], [[Sweden]], at the [[Swedish Museum of National Antiquities]]. One of the drinking horns is made in glass.]]A '''drinking horn''' was a [[drinking vessel]] formerly common in some parts of the world, and notably in Northern Europe.
== Use ==
:"All of the Northern [[Europe]]an nations formerly drank out of horns, which were commonly those of the ''[[Aurochs|urus]]'' or [[European buffalo]]. These horns were carefully dressed up and their edges lipped all round with [[silver]]. One of these immense horns, at least, an ox-horn of prodigious size is still preserved in [[Dunvegan Castle]] on the [[Isle of Skye]] in [[Scotland]]. It was only produced before guests, and the drinker in using it, twisted his arms round its spines, and turning his mouth towards the right shoulder, was expected to drain it off." (''Dwelly’s [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary'': Còrn)
Drinking horns were common amongst the [[Norsemen|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]] burial site. Carved horns are mentioned in ''[[Guðrúnarkviða II]]'', a poem composed about 1000 AD and preserved in the ''[[Elder Edda]]'': [[Image:Drinking horn.jpg|thumb|150px|A modern, functional replica of a small drinking horn.]]
{|
|
:Váru í horni
:hvers kyns stafir
:ristnir ok roðnir,
:- ráða ek né máttak, -
:lyngfiskr langr,
:lands Haddingja
:ax óskorit,
:innleið dyra.<ref>[http://www.heimskringla.no/original/edda/gudrunarkvidainforna.php Guðrúnarkviða II] in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.</ref>
|
:On the horn’s face were there
:All the [[runes|kin of letters]]
:Cut aright and reddened,
:How should I rede them rightly?
:The [[ling-fish]] long
:Of the land of [[Haddingjar|Hadding]],
:Wheat-ears unshorn,
:And wild things inwards.<ref>Morris' and Magnusson's translation.</ref>
|
|}
The [[Arthurian]] tale of [[Caradoc]] also features the drinking horn.
Large drinking horns were also common among the [[Thracians]], often covered with worked silver or gold plating.
In parts of the ancient world, the drinking horn gave way to a horn-shaped drinking vessel called a "[[Rhyton]]" fabricated from metal or clay. When drinking from a rhyton, the vessel is held upright and the liquid flows out of a hole in the end of the "horn", suggesting that natural drinking horns could have been used in the same manner. This would have enabled the same horn to be used for both drinking and for sounding.
[[Image:Horns2.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Drinking horns from [[Vendel era]], [[Sweden]], at the [[Swedish Museum of National Antiquities]].]]
They were in use, well into the [[Middle Ages]], dying out mainly in the 1600s.
Modern-day [[Asatru]] adherents use drinking horns for [[Blót]]s and [[sumbel]]s; the horn represents the [[Well of Urd]].
Drinking horns are also a significant cultural symbol in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].
==Notes and references==
<references/>
==See also==
*[[Cornucopia]]
*[[Rhyton]]
*[[Shophar]]
==External links==
*[http://www.housebarra.com/PastTimes/articles/horn1.html Horn as a drinking vessel]
*[http://home.earthlink.net/~odindis/horn.html Drinking horn]
*[http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~cmw/1995/Horn.html Hochdorf drinking horns]
==References==
* {{Dwelly}} Corn
* ''The Second Lay of Guðrun'', in the ''Elder Edda'' (Morris and Magnusson translation)
[[Category:Artifacts in Norse mythology]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon society]]
[[Category:Viking Age]]
[[Category:Drinkware]]
[[Category:Archaeological artefact types]]
[[de:Trinkhorn]]
[[eo:Trink-korno]]
[[ka:ყანწი]]
[[nl:Drinkhoorn]]