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Women in the Viking Age. Death, Life After Death and Burial Customs

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Women in the Viking Age. Death, Life After Death and Burial Customs WOMEN IN THE VIKING AGE. DEATH, LIFE AFTER DEATH AND BURIAL CUSTOMS Cristina Spatacean Submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the Center for Viking and Medieval Studies University of Oslo May 2006 II Table of Contents AKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................VII INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................IX CHAPTER I: Theoretical Background...................................................................1 1.1. State of art..........................................................................................................3 1.2. The Viking religion............................................................................................9 1.3. Thesis statement. Theory and method.............................................................11 1.4. Sources and source criticism ............................................................................15 1.4.1. The written sources .....................................................................................15 1.4.2. The contemporary material sources..........................................................23 CHAPTER II: Death in the Viking Age..................................................................25 2.1. The concept of DEATH in the Viking period..................................................27 2.2. The grave – the residence of the dead .............................................................29 2.3. Death realms: life after death in a world beyond the grave..........................30 2.3.1. The realm of Hel.........................................................................................30 2.3.2. Helgafell or life after death inside the Holy Mountain ...........................35 2.3.3. Valhalla – the warriors’ death realm .......................................................37 2.3.4. Various other death realms .......................................................................41 2.4. The revenant – another ‘face’ of death/life inside the grave ........................43 2.5. Burial customs ..................................................................................................45 2.5.1. Preparing the body for burial ..................................................................45 2.5.2. The form, placement and orientation of the grave.................................46 2.5.3. Burial practices: inhumation vs. cremation. Grave goods ....................47 2.5.4. The memorial feast and the memorial stone...........................................49 2.5.5. Other burial customs ................................................................................50 III 2.6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................52 CHAPTER III: Women in the Viking Age. Death and Life after Death. The Evidence of the Written Sources ....................................55 3.1. Women in the Viking Age.................................................................................57 3.2. Women and the various death realms available to them after death...........64 3.2.1. The realm of Hel.........................................................................................64 3.2.2. Helgafell.......................................................................................................71 3.2.3. Freya – the goddess of death .....................................................................72 3.2.4. Other possible death realms open for women .........................................77 3.3. Life inside the grave. The female revenants ...................................................82 3.4. The belief in rebirth ..........................................................................................93 3.5. Contact with the dead .......................................................................................96 3.6. Conclusions ........................................................................................................98 CHAPTER IV: Women in the Viking Age. Burial Customs. The Written Evidence Supplemented by the Contemporary Material Evidence ...........................................................................................101 4.1. Burial rituals – what are they?.........................................................................103 4.2. Burial customs as reflected in the written sources .........................................105 4.2.1. Cremation and grave goods........................................................................105 4.2.2. Cremation and burial rituals on Volga .....................................................109 4.2.3 The symbolism of the funeral ship..............................................................114 4.2.4. Inhumation and burial customs .................................................................118 4.3. Burial customs as reflected by the contemporary material evidence...........121 4.3.1. General remarks..........................................................................................121 4.3.2. The Oseberg find – a story about death, life after death and burial customs ...............................................................................................122 IV 4.3.3. Memorial stones..........................................................................................128 4.4. Conclusions ........................................................................................................132 FINAL CONCLUSIONS ..............................................................................................135 FIGURES .......................................................................................................................141 BIBLIOGRAPHY .........................................................................................................145 V VI AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to express my warmest and most respectful gratitude to my coordinator, Gro Steinsland, who had the kindness to share her vast knowledge in the field of Norse mythology with me, and the patience to guide me through the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank my good friends, Karin and Ådne Kvadsheim, for accepting me as part of their family and for helping me feel like ‘home’ in Norway. All my teachers and collegues deserve my gratitude for offering me both their friendship and their professional help. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, and especially my boyfriend, for their moral support and constant encouragements. The present thesis would not have been the same without all these people. Cover illustration: The picture-stone from Levide. From Lindqvist 1941: Taf. 71, Fig. 178. VII VIII INTRODUCTION The following thesis is a mentality study focused on the Viking beliefs connected with death, life after death and burial customs in relation to women. My main interest is to find out if it is possible to get a unitary picture of beliefs concerned with the fate of the Viking women after death. The paper is divided into four chapters, the first one being meant as a theoretical background in which I present the previous research done in the field, the aim of the thesis, and the theories and methods that are going to be used. I also take into discussion the various types of sources that form the basis of my thesis and give a short presentation of the concept of Viking religion. The second chapter is a general presentation of death as understood during the Viking Age. This part of my thesis is meant to explain how death was perceived by the Vikings; life did not end upon the physical death of a member of society but rather went on, either inside the grave or in one of the various death realms. I discuss such aspects as the grave, seen as residence of the dead, the characteristics of the various death realms, the belief in corporeal revenants, and the various customs practiced upon burial: treatment of the body, placement and orientation of the grave, the burial method etc. All these represent an introduction and a background for the analysis of the Viking beliefs in relation to women and their fate after death. The third chapter starts with a discussion on the importance of women during the Viking Age. The purpose of such a discussion is to see if we should expect to find in the sources enough information regarding the fate of women after death. The whole chapter is focused on the evidence of the written sources concerning the possible death realms open to women after death, the existence of female revenants, the belief in rebirth, and the possibility of communicating with the dead. The last chapter deals with burial customs as mirrored in the written sources and supplemented by the contemporary material evidence. I start by explaining what burial customs and rituals are, and then I discuss the information found in the sources about the various methods of burial practiced in relation to women, the placement of grave goods, the significance of the ship burial, the raising of memorial stones etc. I also talk about the evidence of the Oseberg burial and interpret it in the context of a story about death, life after death and burial customs. Last but not least, I sum up the information obtained and present it in the form of conclusions. IX X CHAPTER I Theoretical Background 1 2 1.1. State of art In the present thesis I am interested to find out what representations of death, life after death
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