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Having survived the perils of birth and infancy in an age when there was a very high peri-natal mortality, childhood in the Viking Age was very different from today.

Because children are notoriously difficult to detect in the archaeological record, much of the evidence upon which our assessment of Viking Age childhood is based comes from contemporary documents.

From these we know that hardly any children received anything like a formal education, yet the over-riding emphasis throughout childhood was 'learning for life'.

Archaeologists have found hardly any objects that can be interpreted as toys. Instead, children probably amused themselves by play-acting what they saw their parents and neighbours doing; King Alfred wrote in the 880s that 'children ride on their sticks and play many games in imitation of adults'.

When they were old enough, children would assist their parents in household tasks, in growing crops and tending farm animals and in craftwork, contributing to the family's subsistence and acquiring the skills that would allow them to become independent later in life.

Fighting skills could also be gained through playing with toy weapons, and youths went into battle - Harald Hardraada, future king of Norway, was just fifteen when he fought his first major battle. Indeed, Law Codes from the time of Cnut in the early 11th century indicated that childhood was over by the age of twelve.

Hrolf Douglasson (Regia Anglorum, Viking reenactment group)