Road To Hel - Rune Web Vitki

36
FUNERAL CUSTOMS
take place in Norway; and there was of course more likelihood of graves worth robbing
there than in Iceland. In the accounts of treasure buried in the howe with the dead, we
find that the conception in the sagas is that of the dead man within his grave-mound
keeping jealous watch over his possessions.
Besides the howe as a dwelling-place for the dead and his treasures, it is also looked on
in the sagas as a sign of honour to the dead, something which perpetuates his memory.
This is the idea which we find expressed in Snorri, in his account of cremation; howes as
well as memorial stones, he says, were set up in Sweden to the memory of the dead man,
if his reputation deserved it. It is also expressed clearly in the Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf, where again the howe is raised after a cremation funeral:
Bid my renowned warriors raise a noble barrow after the burning, on a headland by the
sea. It shall be a memorial to my people, as it towers high upon Whales Ness, so that
those who fare across the sea shall in after days name it the mound of Beowulf, when
they urge their tall ships far over the misty deep (2802-2808).
Something of the same conception seems to remain in the sagas. Obviously a howe did
act as a convenient and unforgettable memorial to the dead; in the Landnámabók the
position of the howes of the dead settlers is known, and carefully recorded. The
obligation on the living to pay this honour to their dead, however, is very strong:
‘We are all bound to do honour to the man who is dead, and to make his burial as worthy
as possible, and to lay him in howe’, says someone in Gisla Saga (XIII), and although the
words are spoken ironically, the sentiment is clearly a familiar one. Considerable trouble
would be taken before this duty to the dead was neglected. After the battle on the heath in
Hrafnkels Saga (XVIII) Samr returns to raise a howe over his brother and the rest who
fell with him. In Njáls Saga (LXXVII) the men who have slain Gunnarr actually return to
ask his mother for leave to raise a howe on her land over two of their party who have
been killed; the request is made formally and humbly, and she accedes to it. In Svarfdæla
Saga (VI), when the brother of Þorsteinn dies at sea, he puts in immediately to the nearest
landing-place and goes to the Jar! who lives there:
Porsteinn said ‘I want you to lend your hall to me and my men. I want to hold the
funeral feast for my brother, and lay him in howe here, with your permission. I will
gladly pay money for this, so that you will not suffer. The jarl said he would gladly grant
this.