"What colour were Viking halls?" Topic

Some interesting thoughts here about Viking Age halls and what colours they might have been. Time to stop painting them 'wood'-coloured, perhaps. I look forward to reading more research on this topic.
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Uh oh. Another topic along the lines of "did the Saxons use cavalry"?

I rather think the lack of literary sources mentioning painted halls is telling, now, if we are talking about wall hangings….!

Uh oh. Another topic along the lines of "did the Saxons use cavalry"?

Hardly. The article cites some physical evidence. We just have to wait for the research to be completed and published, before assessing its value and seeing what other evidence they cite.

@herkybird: Lack of literary sources? You mean all those plentiful literary sources from Viking Age Scandinavia?

Never mind, eh. I thought some might find it interesting food for thought.

I think what herky meant was that there are no descriptions of the Viking halls in the literary sources.

I'm guessing, natural wood and stone color.

Probably a lighter flesh color ----?????
OH, YOU SAID "HALLS"
sorry-- never mind.

Vikings are supposed to have liked red, so that's possible. On the other hand, Medieval houses tended to use a lime wash on the outside, so that's another possibility. White inside would have the added advantage of reflecting light so making the halls feel a bit lighter.

It depends on whether they were going for a retro or minimalist look? Try Grand Designs Dark Ages season 3 for some inspiration.

From Denmark. The houses I have seen….wood…old grey. The colours might have come from tapestries. Shields hanging under the roofs…

Well I doubt the colors came from shields or tapestries since the pigments are in the wood.

Smoky…

Only an assumption on my part, but based on the ornateness and craftsmanship of existing grave goods, jewelry, tools, and weapons, I should think they would carry over this creativity and decoration to their structures. Also living in a rather austere environment, there might be a predilection for colour on their living quarters. The women may have influenced this. (My wife made me paint our kitchen a horrid green! ostensibly to "bring the outdoors in" whatever that means.)but I digress. Would they have painted their ships ?

It's gloomy inside, right? Anything to lighten the gloom would be employed. As today, you had lazy good for nothings with generations of accumulated soot all over everything. And you had OC "spring cleaners" who would not let anyone rest until the grime was scrubbed away, the tapestries shaken/beaten out, every last speck of dust mopped/wiped down and extinguished. And if scrubbing with lime (whatever) would lighten wood and stone surfaces, you can bet that that chore would be assigned until impending collapse……..

If the parts came from Ikea, wouldn't they be white?

I'm betting that the insides were limewashed or some sort of chalked white wash to give some lightness and reflection to the light from cooking fires, lanterns and candles. Easy enough to come up with, and certainly it's been noted in Celtic round houses and other early European structures.

As to the exteriors, red washes, white washes and some other washes, especially yellow washes were also easy enough to make in that period, and could be applied during the spring after the rains had ceased and left to fade through the year and then reapplied the next spring, etc. It would act as a bit of a preservative to the wood, adding some years to the life of the structure.

No reason to think that it wouldn't have been done, as the technology for it was known.