Road To Hel - Rune Web Vitki

34
FUNERAL CUSTOMS
the Latin version of the lost Skjöldunga Saga; there are elaborate descriptions of
cremation ceremonies in the Edda poems in connection with the funerals of Sigurðr and
Brynhildr; and there are casual references to cremation as the accepted custom in the
Hàvamàl. These passages are important, and will be examined later because of the
evidence for ship-funeral or human sacrifice which most of them contain.
The Norwegian kings in Þjóðólfr’s poem are said to be laid in howe. Certainly this
custom had made the deepest impression on Old Norse literature, for except for the
Ynglinga Saga the prose sagas as a whole assume that inhumation is the only method of
disposing of the dead and that burial in a howe is the normal practice in pre-Christian
times. The memory of cremation seems to linger in them solely as a method of disposing
of bodies which will not lie quiet after death, or of someone so troublesome in life that
destruction by fire at the funeral seems the only means to prevent the corpse from
‘walking’ out of its grave-mound. The ceremony of the laying of the dead in howe is
often described in the Íslendinga Sögur. The dead man or woman is usually provided
with grave-goods, and sometimes a man’s horse may be killed to bear him company.
while sometimes he may be laid in his ship inside the howe. It is the recognised duty of
kinsmen and friends to lay the dead man in his grave and to be present at the closing of
the howe, and after it is closed they usually return home for the funeral feast, though this
may be postponed for a long while after the burial. Occasionally a fiat grave instead of a
howe is said to be made at the place of death or near the house of the dead man; and a
few people, particularly criminals or those who have met with a violent end, are buried
under cairns of stones. 1
If no wealth is buried with the dead, the occasion is represented as an exceptional one. In
Egils Saga (LVIII) Skallagrimr is laid in howe together with his horse, weapons and
smith’s tools, and the fact that he received no wealth in addition is noted. The reason for
this is clear, because the mercenary disposition of his son Egill who superintends the
funeral has been subtly indicated throughout the saga; although even Egill will not let his
dearly loved brother be buried without some treasure, and gives up two fine gold
bracelets, a king’s
1 Stone cairns are found dating from the Viking Age. and have a very long ancestry. Flat graves seem to
belong to Christian times, although we have isolated examples which may be earlier. For this see Almgren,
Vikitigatidens grafskick’. (Nordiska Studier til. A. Noreen, Uppsala, 1904), p. 334 f.