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Chapter 5. The Underworld 125
during life, but according to that which had been the cause of their death
[sic]. Those who died in battle or as the result of some accident did not go
to the Underworld but peopled another world up in the heavens.” 19
Juha Pentikäinen in his brief essay “The Dead without Status” echoes the same
thought but also includes the Germanic folk (both Heathen and Christian):
“In that it contains the sociological term status, the concept of ‘dead
without status’ is a reference to social position; it indicates that the problem
before us may be considered social as well as religious. The dead without
status are those whose admission to the community of the departed has, for
one reason or another, been denied (my emphasis). Such dead persons lacking
position or status either in the communities of the living or those of the
dead, remain in a permanent transition phase that may be compared to the
Catholic concept of Purgatory. Finnish belief tradition embraces a similar
concept, sijattomat sielut (placeless souls), which refers to those among the
departed who are restless. In German tradition they are called arme Seelen
(poor souls).” 20
The cause of death or the condition of the corpse at the time of burial appears
to have been important throughout the entire northern half of Europe from the
Heathen period well into this century.
Most likely, the Land of the Dead was subdivided into different regions. It is
quite probable that the early Germanic people saw the Afterlife as a reflection of
this life. Communities of the dead, group of the dead traveling from one place to
another, the dead’s engaging in daily agricultural duties including herding cattle,
cooking and weaving, engaging in battles between communities, and feeling of human
emotion are all commonly described activities throughout recorded history. If seeing
the Underworld as a reflection of Midgard is the most common view of the Land of
the Dead in spite of the fact that it is contrary to Christian teachings, then there is
only one Land of the Dead as there is only one Land of the Living.
Heathen reconstructionist groups of the latter half of the 20 th century have a
tendency to glorify “death in battle” as some how being the noblest way to die
with dying after a life of good works running a close 2nd place. Simply going
into a common Land of the Dead is very distasteful for many if not most of the
20 th century Ásatrú folk. The Christian concept of “sitting at the right hand of
God” seems to have washed over into their way of thinking so that “going into the
Halls of their Gods” after death is far better than dying into the arms of their
p. 128.
19 op. cit., p. 80.
20 Pentikäinen, Juha ”The Dead without Status” in Kvideland and Sehmsdorf Nordic Folklore,