Burials


Pagan burial customs were very different from the Christian ritual. Depending on how wealthy they were, pagan Scandinavians were buried with the objects they might need for life in the afterworld. A poor man might be buried with a single knife, a rich person could be buried with many everyday and luxury items.The queen buried in the Oseberg ship, Norway, was clearly an immensely wealthy woman. In Norway, people tended to be buried with their everyday earthly possessions, farming or handicraft tools, kitchen utensils and items for personal hygiene. Usually the dead person was also equipped with food and drink for the journey to the afterworld.
Sometimes the dead were interred in boats or ships, as at Oscberg, other graves were marked on the ground by settings of upright stones in the shapes of ships, as at Lindholm H?je. Sometimes people were buried in wooden chambers; others were buried in oval, circular or rectanular pits. Wealthy women, especially in Denmark, were often buried in wagons.
Many groups, especially in Sweden and further east, adhered to the old custom of cremating the body on a funeral pyre and then burying the fragments of bone, ash and charcoal, often in a simple clay vessel beneath a low mound. A Viking warrior would be buried with his weapons, usually his sword, spear, shield and battleaxe. In many cases, the dead man would be accompanied by his horse or dogs. Sometimes, in what seems to us a barbaric and cruel custom, another person might be sacrificed to accompany the dead person to Valhalla (Odin's hall), the ultimate destination of all Viking warriors.