Norway’s ‘Viking row’: the real history behind the World Cup football chant

Over the past few weeks, Norway’s World Cup squad has captured the imagination of football fans around the globe with its ‘Viking row’. But as David Musgrove reveals, real Viking rowing chants were every bit as fierce and bawdy as you might expect
Did the Vikings chant about death, sex and masturbation while they rowed on the raiding missions that terrorised Britain and Europe between the eighth and 11th centuries?
That’s a pertinent question in the context of this summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup. If you’ve been following the tournament, you’ll have no doubt seen clips of Norwegian supporters honouring their Viking ancestry by pulling imaginary oars in unison to the beat of a manly roar, with a drummer keeping time. The football team themselves perform the same motion when they win a game, led in general by their talismanic striker Erling Haaland (pictured above).
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That is the so-called ‘Viking row’, apparently invented by a Norwegian fan only in the last year or so, but building on a tradition of mass-participation rowing and clapping among Scandinavian supporters. It’ll be a feature, no doubt, of the build-up to the big game on Saturday night, when Norway face England in the World Cup quarter-finals.
The idea of the mass-participation row is not only to celebrate Norway’s Viking past, but also create an intimidating stadium experience when Norway is playing, and help foster a strong team spirit among the footballers and their supporters.
It’s a nice idea, even if some people have questioned how far we should celebrate the Vikings who paired their great seafaring explorations with murder, pillage, rape and slaving.
Those ethical considerations aside, does the Viking row have a direct historical precedent?
Blood, sex and masturbation
The Vikings’ seafaring prowess was built on their ability to swap sails for oars when they got close to land, enabling them to engage in coastal raiding or trading. And, according to experts, it does seem that they combined their rowing with songs and chants.
“In Old Norse sagas, song and battle have a very close connection,” explains Dr Eleanor Parker, a leading expert in Old Norse and Old English literature at the University of Oxford and the author of Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England. “Viking warriors are often shown chanting poetry in the midst of fighting, or before and after combat.”
“Like war chants, these poems sometimes channel the collective voice of the army, urging them on against the enemy. There is one that has Viking sailors singing as they’re about to land in England: ‘Let us be brave in battle, let us shake our spears and shoot! Great numbers of the English take to flight before our blades’.”
A few years ago, Professor Richard Perkins also wrote an academic article about Viking rowing chants, and how their rhythmic metre might have formed the basis of a particular style of court poetry that developed in the early Viking period.
However, the chants that Professor Perkins identified from the Viking period are a touch more involved than those we’ve already heard at the 2026 World Cup.
They generally have more of a story to them, sometimes employing dramatic language of violence (blood raining down, men smiting each other mightily) and sometimes delivering some pretty spicy innuendo (oars as penises, that sort of thing). One verse even hints at masturbation: “While we work the soft oar stiff on the gunwale”.
It certainly sounds like there was enough going on in the songs to keep the rowers’ minds off the hard task at hand, while also keeping them to time as they pulled hard to shore.
The original England–Norway showdown
Returning to Saturday’s quarter-final clash, much capital is being made of the parallel between the match and the battle of Stamford Bridge. It was there, in September 1066, that the English king Harold II defeated the renowned Norwegian ruler Harald Hardrada, and made the river run red with Viking blood.
According to his saga, Hardrada composed some warlike verse before this battle. It’s not clear whether that would have been part of a rowing chant, but it did him no good in the battle, as he died along with most of his men.
Some optimistic English pundits might hope that Hardrada’s demise offers some sort of precedent for this year’s tournament, while enthusiastic Norwegians will be trusting that their adoption of the Viking row will allow their players to harness the spirit of the raiding warriors.
The football Viking row is distinctly sanitised in comparison to the original. If the Norwegians truly want to channel their ancestral spirit, they need to be singing about death, sex and masturbation – which might not go down well with the American TV networks showing the game.
Authors
David Musgrove is the content director at HistoryExtra

Facts Only

* Norway’s World Cup squad has a ‘Viking row.’
* The chant involves supporters pulling imaginary oars in unison to a manly roar with a drummer keeping time.
* The football team performs the same motion after winning a game, led by Erling Haaland.
* The idea of the mass-participation row is recent but builds on Scandinavian traditions.
* Experts suggest Viking warriors combined rowing with songs and chants in Old Norse sagas.
* Viking chanting sometimes included dramatic language about violence and innuendo, such as references to oars as penises and masturbation.
* The historical event referenced is the battle of Stamford Bridge in September 1066 between Harold II and Harald Hardrada.

Executive Summary

Norwegian supporters are engaging in a mass participation rowing chant during the World Cup, mimicking historical Viking practices. This practice involves supporters pulling imaginary oars to a rhythm accompanied by drumming, which is mirrored by the football team during celebrations. The practice is described as an idea invented recently but builds on Scandinavian traditions of mass clapping and rowing among supporters. The intention behind the row is to celebrate Norway's Viking ancestry, create an intimidating stadium atmosphere, and foster team spirit. While some have questioned celebrating a history involving violence, the historical context suggests that Viking chanting combined songs related to battles, which may have included themes of warfare, sex, and masturbation, as suggested by some historical accounts. The connection between the modern chant and the original is noted as being significantly sanitized.

Full Take

The narrative juxtaposes a modern, sanitized cultural performance—the football Viking row—against potentially harsher historical realities involving raiding, murder, and sexual violence associated with the Vikings. The tension lies in the negotiation of ancestral identity: whether honoring heritage requires confronting the full spectrum of that history, or if simplification is necessary for contemporary consumption. The analysis of historical chants suggests a pattern where ritualistic expression frequently incorporated explicit references to violence and sexuality to channel collective emotion during high-stakes events. The modern adaptation, which seeks to harness "ancestral spirit," appears to actively retreat from this intensity, suggesting an appeal toward a palatable form of heritage celebration suitable for mainstream media consumption. This dynamic raises questions about the curated nature of historical memory when it is repurposed for contemporary spectacle and team building. What mechanisms drive the preference for sanitized narratives over complex historical echoes in public performance? How does reducing potent historical expressions to simple rhythmic gestures impact the perception of both the past and the present collective identity?

Sentinel — Human

Confidence

The article successfully blends contemporary sports commentary with historical scholarship, demonstrating a human analytical flow, although some specific historical interpretations are framed as expert speculation.