Commonly kneaded with reindeer blood and pierced in the center, Viking bread sounds a bit like a recipe that orcs in a Tolkien novel might have conjured up over the embers of a dying fire.

There will also be salted fish and pork, goat and plenty of fresh bread. For dessert the Vikings will eat fresh fruit and a little honey on buttered bread. Beer will be drunk as well as mead ...

I fell in love with Neil Price’s comprehensive new history of the Vikings, Children of Ash and Elm, when I got to the paragraph that’s just a list of bread: “There were rectangular loaves ...

The Vikings grew wheat to make bread and beer, and raised animals such as sheep, pigs and cattle. The seas were very important for Viking life and fishing provided a big part of the Viking diet.