• 100 story ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Viking Story Writing Ideas

Each idea comes with one real detail of the Viking Age and a turn.

Viking Story Writing Ideas

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  1. A girl is told that the stone lifting at midsummer is not for her.Real: wrestling and stone lifting were tests of strength. Turn: by morning it has moved a pace, and nobody says who.
  2. A farm boy from Iceland sails to Norway to be a king's poet.Real: most known skalds served Norwegian kings, and more and more were Icelanders. Turn: the king has four.
  3. A shipwright from the pine country is asked to build in oak.Real: ships were built of pine in Norway and Sweden and of oak in Denmark. Turn: the oak builders ask him about pine.

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On the farm 25

  • A boy carves a set of game pieces from bone for his father, who is away at sea. Real: game pieces were made of wood, bone, stone, glass and amber. Turn: the king comes out looking like his father.
  • A boy finds a good whetstone in the stream and sets up as the farm's first trader. Real: whetstones were traded, to sharpen tools and knives. Turn: his first customer is his mother, who pays in advice.
  • A boy is ashamed that his father has never sailed farther than the fishing grounds. Real: most Vikings also farmed, fished, traded or worked a craft. Turn: the longship crew needs his father's nets.
  • A boy is learning the law by heart from his uncle, the lawspeaker, whose voice is going. Real: the lawspeaker memorized the law and recited it. Turn: at the thing the boy prompts him from behind.
  • A boy must bring the sheep down before the first snow and comes back one short. Real: wool made the warm clothes and the sails. Turn: the ewe is found by a girl who wants a fleece for it.
  • A boy who is small for his age is the best swimmer on the fjord. Real: swimming was a popular sport, diving included. Turn: a neighbor's best pot goes overboard in deep water.
  • A carver comes to cut a runestone for a farmer who sailed east, and asks the daughter what it should say. Real: runestones record the names of people who went on voyages. Turn: she has him add her mother, who kept the farm.
  • A dairy girl's skyr will not set in the week the chieftain comes to stay. Real: milk was made into skyr, butter and cheese. Turn: he likes it runny and asks for the mistake again.
  • A farm grows caraway, mustard and horseradish, and the youngest child cannot stand any of them. Real: all three were grown at home for seasoning. Turn: a trader's pinch of black pepper sets her asking where it grows.
  • A farm on thin soil gets the valley's first new plow. Real: the moldboard plow let people farm even poor soil. Turn: every neighbor wants a loan, and a girl keeps the list.
  • A girl carves her name on a stick in runes and gets one of them wrong. Real: runes have no strokes along the grain, which would split the wood. Turn: the wrong rune becomes her nickname.
  • A girl goes to the thing with her mother, expecting to be bored. Real: women were present at some things but left out of the deciding. Turn: her mother's quiet word settles a case.
  • A girl is left to run the farm for a week while her mother is away at the thing. Real: the housewife managed the farm's resources and did business. Turn: a wool buyer tries his luck with her.
  • A girl is the only one on the farm who can weave the cloth it is known for, and she wants to see a town. Real: fine woolen cloth was made to send abroad. Turn: she goes along to sell it and learns what it fetches.
  • A girl is told that the stone lifting at midsummer is not for her. Real: wrestling and stone lifting were tests of strength. Turn: by morning it has moved a pace, and nobody says who.
  • A girl skis to the farm across the valley to say the pass is closed. Real: skiing was a winter sport and a way over the snow. Turn: she meets their boy halfway, bringing her the same news.
  • A girl who spins the finest thread on the farm learns that this winter's wool is for a sail. Real: the Vikings spun and wove with skill. Turn: she asks to see her work fly and is taken out past the point.
  • A nanny goat gives more milk than the cow the family is proud of. Real: cows, goats and sheep gave the milk. Turn: in a hard spring the goat feeds everyone and gets the cow's stall.
  • A whole household shares one longhouse, and a boy wants a corner of his own. Real: a longhouse is a long, narrow building for living in together. Turn: he is given a sea chest, a room with a lid.
  • The best hazel tree in the wood stands on the line between two farms that are not speaking. Real: hazelnuts mattered in the diet. Turn: the children of both farms pick it and split the sack.
  • The grandmother of a farm is the best hnefatafl player in the valley, and she always takes the smaller side. Real: the smaller side has a king, who starts in the center. Turn: a passing trader stays three days trying to beat her.
  • Guests arrive, and porridge is the only thing the youngest daughter knows how to cook. Real: porridge was cooked with milk, or with fruit and honey. Turn: a trader pays for seconds with a bead.
  • The household's antler comb goes missing on the morning of a feast. Real: combs, often of antler, are a common find, and grooming was common. Turn: the goat has it.
  • Two brothers race on skates across the frozen fjord to carry news to the next farm. Real: ice skating was a winter sport and a way to get about. Turn: the slower one knows where the ice is thin.
  • Two farmers quarrel over a strip of meadow and take it to the thing. Real: a thing was an assembly of free people that settled disputes. Turn: their children have shared it for years.

Aboard the ship 25

  • A boy is given the steering blade for one watch. Real: a flat blade over the right side at the stern steered the ship. Turn: he holds a straighter line than the skipper.
  • A boy sent to choose the tree for a keel picks the oak his grandmother planted. Real: planks were split, not sawn, from big old oaks. Turn: she says that is what she planted it for.
  • A boy's father fishes from the smallest boat in the fjord, in sight of the longships. Real: boats were built for fishing and trade as well as for war. Turn: in a lean spring the longships buy his catch.
  • A crew has to carry its ship across a neck of land between two waters. Real: the ships were light enough to be carried overland. Turn: a farmer on the way offers his oxen, for a price.
  • A crew rows east along the great rivers with a cargo of furs. Real: Norse traders regularly took furs down the Volga. Turn: the buyers at the far end want the ship's dog instead.
  • A crew rows up a river farther than any of them has been. Real: the ships were alike at both ends and went in a meter of water. Turn: the banks close in; they row out backward.
  • A family takes its smallest ship up the coast to a wedding, with the cow as the gift. Real: a karve carried people, cargo or livestock in very shallow water. Turn: the cow will not get off.
  • A girl hides among the sheep on a knarr to follow her brothers to Iceland. Real: knarrs carried sheep and horses across the North Atlantic. Turn: only she can keep the horse quiet.
  • A girl is taught one star by her grandfather before her first night at sea. Real: sailors likely steered by the Pole Star, the lode star. Turn: midsummer is too light for stars.
  • A knarr sets out for market with walrus ivory, furs and honey in the hold. Real: knarrs carried all three as cargo. Turn: the honey leaks into the furs, and the furs sell first.
  • A ship blown far to the west sights a coast with tall trees. Real: the Norse reached Newfoundland about 1000 and did not stay long. Turn: the youngest wants to stay and is outvoted.
  • A ship bound for Iceland puts in at the islands on the way, and a boy does not want to get back aboard. Real: the Norse settled Shetland, Orkney and the Faroes too. Turn: he is given until the tide to decide.
  • A ship of thirteen benches is one rower short on the morning it must leave. Real: a snekkja had 13 benches, for 26 oarsmen. Turn: the cook takes the last oar and will not give it back.
  • A shipbuilder's apprentice drives the rivets of his first hull. Real: the planks overlap and are riveted together. Turn: his one crooked row faces the village, and it stays.
  • A shipwright from the pine country is asked to build in oak. Real: ships were built of pine in Norway and Sweden and of oak in Denmark. Turn: the oak builders ask him about pine.
  • A steersman's eyes are failing, and his daughter knows the coast better than he does. Real: the steersman was the skipper and set the course. Turn: she names the marks, and the crew hears only his orders.
  • A trading ship lands on a beach where nobody expects visitors. Real: a shallow draft let the ships land on open beaches. Turn: one child walks down to ask what they are selling.
  • A weaver finishes a sail the day before the ship leaves, with one stripe a different shade. Real: sails were woven from wool. Turn: her family can pick the ship out from the headland when it comes home.
  • The dragon head carved for a new ship comes out looking friendly. Real: longships were called dragon ships, after the head at the bow. Turn: they sail with it, and trade is never better.
  • Fog comes down halfway to the islands, and the crew argues about the way. Real: steersmen read the sea, the sky, the wind and the seabirds. Turn: the quietest rower points at the gannets.
  • The newest boy's job is to push tarred rope between the planks, and the ship still leaks. Real: tarred rope between the planks kept the hull watertight. Turn: the leak is under the captain's own chest.
  • On her first crossing a girl feels the hull bend with every wave and is sure it will break. Real: thin planks made the hull strong and supple. Turn: an old hand tells her a stiff ship is the one to worry about.
  • The supply ship for Greenland is late, and a girl watches the fjord for it every day. Real: knarrs carried stores to the Norse settlements in Greenland. Turn: it comes in with her cousin aboard, to stay.
  • Two brothers inherit a longship and a knarr, and both want the longship. Real: a knarr was wider, deeper and shorter and took more cargo. Turn: the slow ship's brother ends the summer richer.
  • The youngest of a crew comes aboard with no sea chest to sit on. Real: rowers may have sat on the chests that held their things. Turn: he rows from a coil of rope for a week.

In the market town 25

  • A bead maker's son drops a tray of glass beads in the street in Ribe. Real: Ribe was a center of glass bead making. Turn: every child in town brings some back, and he strings one for each.
  • A boy finds a lump of amber on the beach after a storm. Real: amber from the North Sea and Baltic coasts was made into beads. Turn: a carver offers a bead for half; he says no.
  • A boy in Hedeby is paid in walnuts for carrying water. Real: large amounts of walnut shell have been found at Hedeby. Turn: he eats all but one, and plants it.
  • A boy in the island town of Birka has never left the island. Real: Birka stood on Björkö, Birch Island, in a lake. Turn: the lake freezes, and he walks to the far shore and back.
  • A boy keeps watch on the high wall at Hedeby and has never seen anything come but cattle. Real: a wall 9 meters high guarded the town's western side. Turn: what comes at last is his own lost goat.
  • A carver has one piece of walrus ivory and one chance. Real: walrus ivory was sold abroad and used for game pieces. Turn: he makes a king, and the buyer orders the set.
  • A coin with strange writing on it turns up in a payment of silver. Real: coins struck in Central Asia have been dug up in Scandinavia. Turn: a girl asks ship after ship who can read it.
  • A comb maker's apprentice in Dublin is sick of carving the same knot pattern. Real: hundreds of antler combs survive from Viking Dublin. Turn: he carves a ship on one, and it sells first.
  • A customer drops a soapstone pot at a stall and says it was cracked already. Real: soapstone was traded and made into pots. Turn: the seller's daughter saw it fall and has to decide whether to say.
  • A farm boy at his first market is handed a coin and does not know what to do with it. Real: outside trading towns such as Ribe and Hedeby, coins were little used. Turn: he weighs it, as he would silver.
  • A farm girl sees Hedeby for the first time and tries to count the houses. Real: about 965 a visitor called it a very big town at the far end of the world's ocean. Turn: her numbers run out.
  • A Frankish merchant's son and a Danish merchant's daughter have no word in common. Real: Hedeby lay between the Frankish Empire and the Danish kingdom. Turn: they trade words one for one, and keep count.
  • A girl asks every trader on the quay where pepper comes from and gets a different answer each time. Real: spices came through Chinese and Persian traders far to the east. Turn: she draws a map from the answers.
  • A girl is paid her first coin, and it has a ship on it. Real: early coins from Hedeby carry ships as emblems. Turn: she wears it on a cord all year, then spends it on seed.
  • A girl minds her father's scales at the market and notices that they weigh heavy. Real: traders carried small scales to weigh out payment. Turn: her father did not know; a rival had changed a weight.
  • A lyre player comes to market with one string missing. Real: the Vikings played harps, lutes, lyres and fiddles. Turn: the tune with a gap in it is the one children sing.
  • A salt seller and a cod seller share one stall and a grudge. Real: salt and cod were both sent abroad for sale. Turn: a buyer wants the two together, and they have to speak.
  • A silk ribbon arrives in a town where everyone wears wool and linen. Real: the richest wore costly clothes, often silk. Turn: it is cut so that forty people get a thumb's width.
  • A smith's daughter sells iron rivets by the hundred to the shipbuilders. Real: iron rivets held the planks of Norse ships. Turn: she starts asking where each ship is bound, and keeps a tally.
  • A stall sells cinnamon by the pinch, and nobody in town knows what it is for. Real: cinnamon was brought in from abroad. Turn: a baker's daughter tries it in bread, and a line forms down the street.
  • A stick carved with runes is left at a stall with no name on it. Real: messages were carved in runes on sticks. Turn: it says come home, and three traders each think it is for them.
  • A trader's daughter is the only one in Birka who can talk with the fur sellers. Real: Birka dealt in furs, iron goods and craft work. Turn: she translates the price her own way, and both sides smile.
  • A trader's only glass cup cracks on the voyage. Real: glass was much prized, and beads were often made of imported glass. Turn: the pieces come home as a necklace.
  • The baker at Birka runs out of wheat in the week of the market. Real: bread found at Birka was made of barley and wheat. Turn: the all-barley loaf is what visitors ask for next year.
  • Boys earn their supper hauling ships over the log road near Hedeby. Real: ships were pulled overland there, between two seas. Turn: one boy stays aboard to see the other sea.

In the hall 25

  • A boy asks what a saga is and gets an answer he can use. Real: the Old Norse word saga means what is said. Turn: he calls his sister's gossip a saga; she makes one about him.
  • A boy cannot find a second word for his verse that starts with the same sound as the first. Real: Old Norse poetry is alliterative verse. Turn: the hall shouts out words until one fits, and it becomes a game.
  • A boy who cannot learn his runes is told how long it took Odin. Real: in the stories Odin hung nine nights on Yggdrasil to learn the runes. Turn: the boy allows himself ten.
  • A boy who loses a tooth is told about the god with teeth of gold. Real: Heimdall is called gold-toothed and born of nine mothers. Turn: he asks how nine mothers ever got him to wash.
  • A chieftain gives a skald a painted shield and waits for the poem about it. Real: shield poems describe the scenes on a shield a patron gave the poet. Turn: the painting is bad.
  • A chieftain who never loses at hnefatafl sits down to play a guest's child. Real: the king's aim was to escape to the edge or the corners. Turn: the child runs the king out, and the hall is quiet.
  • A chieftain's son would sooner have the harp than the oar. Real: skill in music was thought fitting for a cultivated man. Turn: the crew rows better to his playing.
  • A farm boy from Iceland sails to Norway to be a king's poet. Real: most known skalds served Norwegian kings, and more and more were Icelanders. Turn: the king has four.
  • A girl draws the nine worlds in the hearth ash while the skald names them. Real: the stories set Nine Worlds around one sacred tree, Yggdrasil. Turn: she adds a tenth, the farm.
  • A girl hears that the goddess Frigg sees the future and tells no one. Real: so the stories say of Frigg. Turn: she decides her grandmother is the same and tests her on the weather.
  • A girl in a hall full of poets means to be a skald. Real: few women skalds are known by name. Turn: her first verse is about the hall dog, and the hall asks for another.
  • A girl sweeping the hall finds a tiny silver figure of a woman under a bench. Real: small silver figures of women have been found and may show valkyries. Turn: three guests each say it is theirs.
  • A one-eyed stranger takes the seat by the door, and the children decide he is Odin. Real: the stories make Odin one-eyed, with wolves and ravens beside him. Turn: he is a peddler with a tame crow.
  • A skald arrives at a king's hall with no poem ready and until nightfall to make one. Real: skalds made poems to honor kings, sometimes on the spot. Turn: he praises the cook, and the king laughs first.
  • A skald is asked to put something untrue into a praise poem. Real: praise poems became a spoken record that later sagas quoted. Turn: he hides the truth in a kenning.
  • A skald is paid to make an insult verse about a neighbor he likes. Real: skalds also made insult verses. Turn: the verse comes out so mild it passes for praise, and he returns the fee.
  • A skald's apprentice cannot keep his kennings straight. Real: skaldic verse is full of kennings that take a knowledge of myth. Turn: his worst mix-up is repeated for years.
  • A stable boy at a jarl's hall has never been inside it. Real: jarls were wealthy, with huge longhouses and horses. Turn: the night the best mare foals, the jarl comes to him.
  • A storyteller tells of Thor, and a small boy keeps asking where the hammer is now. Real: Thor's hammer is Mjölnir, and hammer charms have been found. Turn: the smith makes him one of tin.
  • A stranger with pen and ink asks the hall's storyteller to say it again, slowly. Real: such tales were first written down in Iceland, in the 12th to 14th centuries. Turn: she gives him the short one.
  • The hall's apples are gone from the store at midwinter. Real: in the stories the goddess Idunn is the one who carries apples. Turn: the children blame Loki; it was the pig.
  • The mead runs out on the first night of a three-night feast. Real: feasts called for beer and mead. Turn: the guests get stories instead and remember that feast best.
  • Three boys in one hall are all named for Thor, and the storyteller calls for one of them. Real: going by people's and place names, Thor was the most popular god. Turn: all three answer, and get nicknames.
  • Two families at one feast each tell the story of the same old quarrel over a boundary. Real: sagas of Icelanders tell of feuds between families. Turn: the children act out both, and the sides look alike.
  • The winter is long, and the hall's storyteller has told every story twice. Real: at feasts music was played, poems recited and stories told. Turn: the children tell them wrong, and better.

How it works

These 100 Viking story writing ideas are sorted by where the story happens: on the farm, aboard the ship, in the market town, in the hall.

Read the full guide

Viking story ideas beyond the raid

Most Vikings also farmed, fished, traded or worked a craft, so these stories are about a missing ewe, a leaking hull, a pinch of cinnamon and a poem due by nightfall. No raid or battle is on the list, and nobody is hurt.

The real detail under each idea

The line marked Real is one true thing to build a scene on: rowers may have sat on their own sea chests, traders weighed out payment on small scales, the lawspeaker recited the law from memory. Each comes from the Wikipedia articles named under the list.

  • Start from a job: steersman, weaver, bead maker, skald. The plot is what goes wrong at work.
  • Keep the gods in the stories people tell by the fire, where the hall ideas put them.

Questions and answers

What are some good ideas for stories about Vikings?

Pick a place first. On the farm, a goat gives more milk than the family's proud cow. Aboard the ship, the new dragon head comes out looking friendly. In the hall, a skald has until nightfall to make a poem for a king.

What did Vikings do besides raiding?

They farmed, fished, wove wool, built ships and traded. Hedeby, Birka and Ribe were trading towns, and cargo ships called knarrs carried sheep, horses and stores across the North Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland.

Did Vikings wear horned helmets?

There is no evidence that they did; the costume first appeared in the 19th century. The only original Viking helmet found, at Gjermundbu in Norway, is made of iron, and no preserved helmet has horns.

When was the Viking Age?

In England it is counted from the attack on Lindisfarne in 793 to 1066, when a Norwegian king's invasion failed. In those years the Norse settled Iceland and Greenland and reached Newfoundland.

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