Before Television

     We all have those moments when the power goes out, the tv is dark and the internet will not boot up.  Some people must wonder what people did to amuse themselves before there was television. Poor people who could not afford candles or gas lamps went to bed early.  In Northern countries, in the wintertime, that would be a lot of sleep. No wonder the Norse had so many children.
     I have been working on my final papers.  The last one is on the Icelandic family sagas.  I think I know what Icelanders did for fun in the Middle Ages.  They fought.  They had sword fights with each other in random places or they got the neighbors together and showed up at someone's house with torches in hand to burn down the house with everyone in it. Good times - roasting marshmallows over the ashes of a pesky neighbor.
      Well, that would be the men.  The women were too busy washing dishes, washing clothes, looking after children, giving birth, making cheese, making butter, baking bread, sewing clothes, mending clothes,  scrubbing floors, scrubbing kids, cooking meals to get into that kind of mischief. Although.... there was an  occasional one who tried. Well now you know.
       I personally suggest playing cards by candlelight or ghost stories in the dark. I think the Icelanders did that last thing too. They have a lot of stories about draugr, animated dead men.