Standard Disclaimer
Disclaimer the first: My chosen subjects are definitely Eurocentric. That’s where my passion and my heart lie: in Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe. However, I reject any notion of Euro-periority. There is nothing that makes Europeans smarter, better or any such nonsense than Africans, Asians or any humans anywhere else.
Disclaimer the second: This diary contains descriptions of sex, violence, rape, murder, slavery and animal sacrifice. So gather the kids and read it aloud! Ahem, so be cautious because I am not going to pull punches and I am going to try to describe things as close to the archeological/literary descriptions as I can. This may be uncomfortable to read.
What made the Vikings stand out in history?
Why do we remember them so vividly when the Franks, the Goths, the Bulgars and on and on recede into an anonymous background of tribal names? Was it their weapons? No, in fact many of their most famous weapons were probably made by the Franks in what is now Northern Germany. Their clothing and ornamentation was not unique, similar ornamentation and dress existed throughout Germanic and Baltic tribes. Their religions and myths were not all that different from other Pagan Germanic and Slavic tribes. So, why do we know about Vikings? Why do they capture our imaginations, 1,000 years after they vanished?
Two reasons, I think:
- The writings of the Icelanders which captured the mythology and the individual stories of these people in a way that made them real, human and immediate to us and;
- Their ships
The r(ev)olutionary technology of the Viking ships
Since the neolithic, Europeans have used boats extensively for trade, travel, migration, fishing, romance (you don’t think young people in the stone age rowed to the middle of a lake to catch a gorgeous sunset or sunrise? Think again). In the Bronze Age boats made from hollowed out logs were common — and amazingly capable of long journeys along the Atlantic coastlines. So were wood frame covered in hide circular boats (those things look terrifyingly frail to me). Soon sails came along and humans were really moving.
But the Viking ship was something new, a further step along in technological development that allowed the formerly backwater Pagan Northern Scandinavian culture to break out and spread. And spread it did.
In the Hagia Sophia in Turkey a Viking inscribed in Younger Futhark runes something along the lines of “Halfdan was here.” Runestones in Sweden recount a disastrous expedition to China. There are accounts of Vikings in North Africa (apparently they greatly admired the warrior prowess of the “Blue Men” — black was a term reserved for hair color, not skin and Vikings called black people blue). In the 900’s Vikings walked the streets of Bagdhad. Russia gets its name from the Swedish Viking tribe the Rus’.
And it wasn’t just the dudes who travelled. Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir became known as Gudrid The Well Travelled and boy did she earn that title. Born in Iceland. Travelled to Greenland, then to Vinland. Gave birth to the first European born in North America. Then back to Greenland, then Norway, then Iceland. She was a Christian and headed off to Rome for a quick pilgrimage. Finally, back to Iceland as a nun. Not bad considering she had 0 frequent flyer miles for her entire lifetime!
So what specifically made these boats so badass? I hope to revisit this in another diary but for today’s purposes, they used wood split along the grain which preserved the strength of the wood (not a Viking innovation), they allowed for use of oars and sails (not a Viking innovation), the design of the boats was a clinker design which overlapped planks for additional strength (not a specifically Viking innovation).
Then they combined all of the above with a wide, shallow boat bottom. That was a huge innovation. This allowed for carrying what at the time was a large number of men, surprising amounts of cargo and safe ocean travel. But these same ships could travel up very shallow rivers as well because of the flat bottom (shallow draft). So that same boat in port on the coast of the Netherlands peacefully trading could two days later be a hundred miles up French rivers raiding towns and back in Norway a another three days later.
Dr. William Short, founder of Hurstwic, a Viking studies and re-enactment organization in Massachussetts elaborates:
“Another thing they [longboats] could do was sail very close to the wind – atypical for European ships of that time," Short continues. "So they could sail in many directions, and unexpected directions given the wind." One of the advances that enabled this virtually unique ability, related to "tacking" in today's terminology, was the "beitass," which was a spar that helped brace the sail against strong winds.
Finally the Viking ships had one more characteristic which allowed them to travel in turbulent waters that would destroy the contemporary ships of their rivals:
F L E X I B I L I T Y .
When waves crashed against a Viking longship the ship actually bent — the wood was allowed to flex against the pressure of the wave, preventing the planks from breaking. When the pressure eased the planks would spring back to their original shapes and the ship would still be seaworthy.
Nothing else in that day and age combined those characteristics. And these capabilities brought immense wealth and power to the Northmen.
The significance of these ships to the Vikings
Scandinavians fully appreciated what they had in their unique ships. Ships permeated their culture, the traders and raiders (often one and the same people) who used these ships were at the top of the social ladder. Ships are depicted in art, on jewelry, in tapestries, carved into stones, on coins and of course… graves.
Interestingly, Viking burials sometimes involved symbolic ships rather than actual physical boats or ships. Examples of this are gravesites with stone markers laid out in the shape of a boat or ship. Often this occurred at inland locations but that was not always true. An example of this in the very southern tip of Sweden is Ale’s stones, pictured below. The blue at the top is the Baltic Sea:
It also was not uncommon for ordinary citizens to be buried with a boat; small boats barely big enough for two sometimes appear in graves and midsize ships also appear here and there. You can read about an interesting two generation use grave for four in my previous diary.
But you didn’t come here to read about dead poor people. You are here for the full scale Viking ship funeral.
- Norse and Danish Vikings apparently liked both cremation and inhumation funerals. Sometimes they planted ‘em, sometimes they burned ‘em before planting ‘em.
- Swedish Vikings definitely preferred cremation over burial.
- Vikings had no clue they were Vikings. To them, the word “Viking” was a verb indicating raiding, piracy, which were normal, acceptable ways to go about getting wealth and fame. They saw themselves in terms of tribal identity like “Rus”, “Svear”and so on.
The Oseberg Viking Ship Burial
Can you imagine being a farmer who is sick of ploughing around big hills in your field so you get a shovel and dig to see if they can just be removed and find this?
That’s what happened to Norwegian Farmer Oscar Rom in August 1903. We are so damn lucky because he contacted archaeologist Gabriel Gustafson and in summer 1904 he excavated the ship and it’s treasures. And holy shit there were treasures; not gold and silver — sadly the grave was robbed in prehistory of those items and there was probably mountains of it — but archeological treasures.
The biggest treasure was the ship itself. Made of oak sometime around 820 CE in southwestern Norway (opposite side of the penninsula from the burial site). Her length was 71 feet/21.6 meters in length; 16 feet/5 meters wide; the central mast probably stood 33 feet/10 meters high and the sail would have been 297 square feet/90 square meters in size allowing her to travel at a calculated 10 knots of speed. Each side of the boat had 15 oar holes, meaning there were spots for 30 oars.
But this boat was not only functional; it was beautiful and ornately decorated:
The prow and stern is richly carved with beautiful animal ornamentation far below the waterline and up along the prow, which ends in a spiralling serpent’s head. Such an ornately decorated ship has undoubtedly been reserved for special members of the aristocracy.
This style of carving is so uniquely distinct that it gives its name to an entire period of Viking art: the Oseberg style which is known as the “gripping animal” style. It often depicts either fantastical beasts or everyday animals (wolves, ravens and so forth) in an exaggerated manned, often biting their own or another animal’s limbs. More examples of this style are pictured below.
The People in the Oseberg Viking Burial
So who would be buried in such a magnificent ship? Knowing the hyper-martial patriarchal Viking culture you can probably guess that only a warrior chieftain with a reputation for bloodthirsty conquest and raiding could possibly have been honored in this way.
Actually, this burial was for two women. Both were older women by the average of the Viking period. The older was between 70 and 80 years old and had probably been killed by cancer. The younger was in her fifties and we do not know what killed her. It is distinctly possible that she was sacrificed or voluntarily committed suicide to accompany the older woman. Her collarbone was broken but had been healing for several weeks before her death.
A structure much like a small house had been built as a burial chamber just behind the main mast of the ship. In this chamber the two women had been placed, with very elaborate, decorative tapestries on the wall. They were placed on a bed which was made up with bed linen. One woman was dressed in a red wool dress knitted in a lozenge twill pattern with fine silk strips appliqued to a tunic under the dress and a linen gauze veil. The other was dressed in a blue wool dress and had a wool veil (I have no understanding of textiles; this is more or less copied from the Wikipedia page and verified with two Viking textile enthusiasts).
The Grave Goods
These women were buried with some SERIOUS bling and we can only imagine what gold, silver, electrum and so forth was looted in antiquity. But the thieves left the following goodies for us to find:
- Clothes, shoes and combs
- Ship’s equipment (oars, rigging, bits of sails, anchor, rope, bailing pail)
- Kitchen utensils
- Farm tools
- Three ornate sleighs and a working sleigh
- A cart (the only complete Viking Age cart found so far)
- Five carved animal heads (pictures of four below, the fifth is not on display)
- Five beds (including a runic carved post)
- Two tents.
- Fifteen horses
- Six dogs
- Two small cows
Full inventory here. These goods are beyond opulent for the period. Most Viking graves have a bone comb, maybe the remnants of a small knife, a few beads. These women were important.
Another thing that is clear from this list is that A LOT of animals were sacrificed for this funeral rite.
Finally there are some items I want to call special attention to: the five carved animal heads, a leather band knotted in a specific way, the carved bed post with runic symbols, a small bag containing cannabis (seeds I believe, I’ve not been able to confirm from a reputable source), a wooden pipe, 4 rattles and a wooden stick about 40 cm long that has been compared to an arrow.
What mysteries are hidden in the all of the above information?
There are two major thoughts about who these women may have been and their roles in Viking society and the interesting thing is that they may not be incompatible. Dendrochronology tells us that the timbers for the burial chamber were felled in autumn of 834. Tests of the dental remains of the women indicate the women lived near Adger, Norway. Based on this, the speculation is that the older, high ranked woman may have been Queen Åsa of the Yngling family; grandmother of Harald Fairhair, the first king to unite the Norway.
The other idea is that the women were Völva, the women who practiced magic in Viking culture. Their magic and mysteries were referred to as seiðr. The presence of the wand-like wooden rod shaped like an arrow, cannabis, the knotted leather, a bedpost carved with runes and a valknut along with the animal heads may indicate powerful magical/spiritual workings.
Although the cannibis could have easily been used to treat the pain of the cancer that claimed the older woman.
Even more interesting than the who is this: we know that for the Oseberg burial the Vikings brought the ship ashore, conducted the funeral rituals, placed the women inside the burial chamber and half buried the ship in a mound… but left the other half, including the burial chamber accessible for months and months. People were visiting the dead women, leaving objects, taking objects. We know this from leaves, grains and pollens in the burial chamber showing the changing of the seasons.
What does this mean?
Okay Andyt, you’ve given us a lot of pictures and objects but what does that add up to? What actually happened at a Viking ship funeral?
I’m so glad you asked that. Let’s leave Oseberg behind and travel forwards in time and Eastwards in geography to the only account of a Viking Ship funeral we have…
The remarkable account of Ibn Fadlan
Ibn Fadlan was a emissary from the Abbisad Caliph of Baghdad, Muqtadir to the Khan of the Bulghars. The Bulghars had recently converted to Islam and were seeking religious instruction and protection from the Jewish Khazars who controlled the area. All indications are that he was a remarkably observant traveler who strove to record what he saw accurately and faithfully. Evidence of this is his willingness to note not only his successes but also his failures and errors on his journey. He set out in 921 from Baghdad and in 922 he encountered a people called the Rus who were most likely Swedish Vikings. They had arrived to trade at the upper reaches of the Volga river.
Initial impressions
Ibn Fadlan was a diplomat from the then current center of world civilization and education. He was traveling in the backwoods of the barbaric frontiers. What would he think of the Vikings?
I saw the Rus, who had come from trade and had camped by the river Itil. I have never seen bodies more perfect than theirs. They were like palm trees. They are fair and ruddy. They wear neither coats nor caftans, but a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves one hand free. Each of them carries an axe, a sword, and a knife and is never parted from any of the arms we have mentioned. Their swords are broad bladed and grooved like the Frankish ones. From the tips of his toes to his neck, each man is tattooed in dark green with designs, and so forth.
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness by Lunde and Stone
This is the only evidence we have for tattooing among the Vikings.
He was not as impressed with their bathroom habits:
They are the filthiest of God’s creatures. They do not clean themselves after urinating or defacating, nor do they wash after having sex. They do not wash their hands after meals. They are like wandering asses.
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness by Lunde and Stone
The Vikings seem to have perplexed Ibn Fadlan. He was impressed with their jewelry and ornamentation, disgusted that they publicly had sex with the female slaves they were selling (FYI slave trade was a huge part of the Viking economy. And Christian Europe’s economy. And the Arabic world too. The big difference apparently was that the Christians and Mulsims raped their slaves in private) and fascinated by them.
Then he heard that their chieftain had died a that he should see the funeral. We have no archeological evidence for this burial — which since it is a cremation is not surprising.
The Viking Ship Funeral and how it accords with evidence from other Viking graves
- The funeral starts with a temporary burial of the chieftan. The funeral is so complex and takes so long to plan they must bury their dead leader first to prevent decomposition.
- This agrees with what we see archeologically in Iceland – we have found temporary burial sites next to primary graves. Temporary graves in Iceland had post based structure over it. Was only used for a few days. Very little timber in Iceland which makes postholes near graves really remarkable – that was a scarce resource.
- Even temporary grave was not bare. The chieftain was placed in temporary grave with food, alcohol and a musical instrument.
- Dr. Neil Price comments that “sounds like something to pass the time while waiting for main burial.” This implies the dead man is thought to be active in the temporary grave. For this burial he was buried in clothes he died in.
- What follows is a ten day long funeral, not ten days of preparation for a funeral.
- Special clothing is manufactured for the dead man to be buried in. The implications are alarming for archeologists – our reconstructions are often based on what the people were buried in. A full 1/3 of the dead chieftan’s money is spent on the clothing, about the cost of a farm.
- Another 1/3 of dead man’s money is spent on alcohol. Often this is interpreted as a giant party. Dr. Neil Price argues this is not the case. People are drinking and drinking and drinking for 10 days. Sometimes people die from drinking at funerals — as Ibn Fadlan says: “...so that sometimes one them dies with his wine cup in his hand.”. These people appear to be using alcohol to create a “different frame of mind.” — a ritual frame of mind. Archeologists assume graves are created by sober people, that may be wrong.
- The remaining 1/3 of the chieftan’s wealth will go to the family.
- Feasts occur frequently during the ten days of the funeral.
- They ask the young slaves of the chieftain “who will die with him?” In this account a young female slave volunteers — we do NOT know to what degree this is truly voluntary — to be sacrificed at the chieftain’s funeral and accompany him into the next world. Once she has committed to doing this, the choice is irrevocable according to Ibn Fadlan.
- The ship of the chieftain is prepared for burning by being drawn onto land and placed atop piles of timber.
- The dead man is placed in special chamber, a kind of room built on the boat.
- Oseberg is an example. “it looked like tent made of wood”
- Dead man placed sitting up on a bench, cushions around him.
- We sleep lying down, Viking slept sitting up in bed – their beds are very short. Perhaps the dead man is perceived as sleeping?
- The Rus begin filling up chamber and decks with goods in a very precise sequence. Food, drink, flowers, weapons (order typed here is random; not the actual order used in the burial) and as they do this the people are singing and chanting but our Ibn Fadlan has no clue what they are saying.
- Large numbers of animals are being killed as this goes on. We have examples of this from other graves. In this account they run two horses until they are blowing, lathered in sweat and tired then two men attack them with swords — the Arabic terms used by Ibn Fadlan are for fighting, combat, not for food slaughter or sacrifice. They are hacking these animals. This was not quietly and cleanly done. These are dramatic, immediate events.
- Similar finding for other boat burials: Oseburg – 13 decapitated horses, Gokstad 15 decapitated horses, heaps of seven dogs.
- As one animal is killed the other animals are watching and going crazy. This is not funerals as we know them. Cows, dogs, birds –they pull living birds to pieces and throw the parts at different sections of the grave.
- Because this is not enough drama and excitement, the volunteer slave woman is going round the tents of the men of the camp – many, many tents – and having sex with each man in turn. As the men climax they cry, “Tell your master I only do this out of love for him.” Again, we have no idea how voluntary this is.
- All of these proceedings are being guided and directed by a woman Ibn Fadlan refers to as the “Angel of Death” and a “witch”— Dr. Price calls her a sort of “funeral director.” This woman’s daughters accompany the slave woman who has volunteered to go with the chieftain everywhere.
The Actual Ship Burning
This ritual begins with a fascinating moment described by Ibn Fadlan as follows:
“...they led the slave girl towards something which they had constructed and which looked like the frame of a door. She placed her feet on the palms of the hands of the men, until she could look over this frame. She said some words and they let her down. They raised her a second time and she did as she had the first and then they set her down again. And a third time and she did as she (had) done the other two…
I asked the interpreter what she had been doing. He replied:
‘The first time they lifted her up she said: There I see my father and my mother.
The second time she said: There I see all my dead relatives sitting.
The third time she said: There I see my master sitting in Paradise and Paradise is green and beautiful. There are men with him and [young people/children] and he is calling me. Take me to him.
This interpretation is a mix of several sources of the translation which I have compiled/composed myself. Dr. Neil Price and Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness are my primary resources
- The slave woman enters ship by walking up a staircase made by the hands of the men onto the deck. She sings a farewell song to her female companions. Awaiting her are six of the dead man’s closest relatives.
- She is given a drink to drink. Based on the effects it is obvious this drink is drugged.
- Each of the six male relatives has sex with the slave girl — again we are given no context for her feelings or reactions to this. She has been drugged by this time with some kind of beverage.
- At this time the slave girl entered the pavilion where the chieftain is. She appears confused and the “Angel of Death” grabs her head and forces her inside.
- All the men begin to bang on shields with staves. According to Ibn Fadlan this is done to drown the slave girls cries so other slave girls will not be afraid to follow her example.
- Two of the male relatives hold her hands. Two hold her feet. The “Angel of Death” places a cord around her throat and gives the ends to the remaining two relatives. The men with the cords strangle the slave girl at the same time that the Angel of Death begins to stab her repeatedly in the chest with a broad bladed dagger.
- We have archeological examples of this; many; many examples. One good one is the Ballateare skull comes from a burial mound for a young man. On top of mound is 20 year old woman, slain by blow to back of head. She is covered with a thick layer of cremated animal remains including several cows, which are all sealed inside a secondary mound. This type of sacrifice may be related to the bog bodies from hundreds of years prior found throughout northern Europe — men and women killed by multiple simultaneous methods (stabbing, bludgeoning, strangling) and then deposited in a lake.
- The slain slave woman is placed on bed next to her master.
- The closest male relative approaches the ship completely naked. He is very careful to keep all orifices away from boat and as he backs towards boat, he covers anus with hand.
- Dr. Price feels this man is very afraid of something coming out of boat and entering him.
- This male relative places first lit torch on boat. Once he does that everyone else is safe to approach. Everybody then approaches, without any magical precautions, and throws torches onto the ship.
- The whole process is accompanied by music, singing, people coming and going to the grave.
- A Viking laughs at Ibn Fadlan and via an interpreter tells him Arabs are fools to bury their dead because they put the best among them into the earth where worms and insects eat them where by burning the Vikings enter Paradise immediately. When a wind picks up and carries some of the ashes away the Viking laughs again and says that the wind will bear his lord to Paradise.
- After ashes cool they build a mound on top, put a post and carve the name of the dead man and his ruler.
- We find post holes near graves throughout Viking world.
Conclusions
Vikings saw life and death in fundamentally different ways from us in the modern world. They lived in a world inhabited by spirits, elves and dwarves, giants, trolls and Gods. The dead went places we know tiny bits about: Valhöll where the heroes went after dying in battle, Folkvangr, the mysterious place where Freyja took her half of the dead, Hel, where Loki’s daughter, half beautiful woman and half corpse ruled over the ordinary dead.
Yet at the same time the literary sources tell us of the above they also tell us that heroes entering the burial mounds of their ancestors find their ancestors waiting for them to speak and gift weapons and armour. Other sources tell of the dead having active social lives within the mounds and interact with the living dispensing advice and wisdom.
But we know so little. Dr. Price says that archeology will not get to the detail of what story is being told in each individual grave. However, it may get to ballpark of what they are talking about in those stories, what they are referring to, and if is there a continuing story from one grave to another within a cemetery and within the community.
But to illustrate how large the gaps in our knowledge are let me leave you with this thought: we have no clue what happens to Viking females — girls and women — after death. No idea at all. There are references to Völvas returning to speak prophecies after death but there are no tales that say women go to, for example, Frigg’s hall after death. It is a complete mystery.
Wardruna: Helvengen (the Road to Hel)
Norwegian—————————————————--English translation
Hvem skal synge meg—————————————Who shall sing me
i daudsvevna slynge meg———————————-into the death-sleep sling me
når eg på Helvegen går————————————When I walk on the Path of Death
og dei spora eg trår er kalda, så kalda————and the tracks I tread are cold, so cold
Eg songane søkte——————————————-I sought the songs
Eg songane sende——————————————I sent the songs
då den djupaste brunni————————————when the deepest well
gav meg dråper så ramme——————————--gave me the drops so touched
av Valfaders pant——————————————-of Death-fathers wager
Alt veit eg, Odin———————————————--I know it all, Odin
var du gjømde ditt auge————————————where you hid your eye
Hvem skal synge meg—————————————Who shall sing me
i daudsvevna slynge meg———————————-into the death-sleep sling me
når eg på Helvegen går————————————When I walk on the Path of Death
og dei spora eg trår er kalda, så kalda————and the tracks I tread are cold, so cold
Årle ell i dagars hell—————————————-early in the days end
enn veit ravnen om eg fell——————————--still the raven knows if I fall
Når du ved Helgrindi står ——————————When you stand by the Gate of Death
og når du laus deg må riva———————————-And you have to tear free
skal eg fylgje deg———————————————--I shall follow you
over Gjallarbrua med min song————-across the Resounding Bridge with my song
Du blir løyst frå banda som bind deg!--You will be free from the bonds that bind you!
Du er løyst frå banda som batt deg!------you are free from the bonds that bound you!
*
Quote from Håvamål -- The High Ones Speech, Poetic Edda
Døyr fe, døyr frender——————————————-Cattle die, kinsmen die
Døyr sjølv det sama——————————————--You yourself will also die
men ordet om deg aldreg døyr———————but the word about you will never die
vinn du et gjetord gjevt—————————————--if you win a good reputation
Døyr fe, døyr frender ——————————————--Cattle die, kinsmen die
Døyr sjølv det sama———————————————-You yourself will also die
Eg veit et som aldreg døyr————————————I know one that never dies
dom om daudan kvar——————————————-the reputation of those who died
Lyrics translation: The Lady of the Labyrinth
Sources and shit
My previous Viking Diaries which are good references:
Vikings: Who the Hel were they?
Vikings: Cosmology and the World they lived in
The First DEFINITE Female Viking Grave Burial
Viking Funerals: the Coolest Way to Exit or Not?
Sources:
Engineering the Viking Longboat
Oseberg style
The Viking Way
The Viking Mind Messenger Lectures by Neil Price at Cornell University 2012:
Children of Ash
Life and the Afterlife: Dealing with the Dead in the Viking Age
The Shape of the Soul: the Viking Mind and the Individual
The University Museum of Oslo Website
Dr. Jackson Crawford’s many, many youtube videos on Vikings… in particular the following:
The Viking Funeral Ibn Fadlan Saw
Norse Myth: Hel
Volva: the Old Norse Witch or Seeress