Burial Ceremonnies Viking Burial – Scandinavia

Viking Burial – Scandinavia

Viking’s ashore. Illustration Long Beach City College

We have all seen images of a Viking funeral with the body laid out on the deck of a dragon ship, floating into the sunset while warriors fire flaming arrows to ignite the pyre. 
While very dramatic, burning a ship is quite expensive, and not very practical. 
What we do know is most Vikings, being a sea faring people, were interred in large graves dug in the shape of a ship and lined with rocks.  The person’s belongings and food were placed beside them.  Men took their weapons to the next world, while women were laid to rest wearing their finest jewelry and accessories. 
If the deceased was a nobleman or great warrior, his woman was passed from man to man in his tribe, who all made love to her (some would say raped) before strangling her, and placing her next to the body of her man.  Thankfully this practice is now, for the most part, extinct.