![]() ![]() Most countries now have laws regulating how a body is cremated and disposed of. This is why vikings cremated the dead first in pyres, then decorated the boats with ornaments, furs, weapons, sacrificial livestock, etc before burying it. At most, a wood ship set on fire with a body would simply burn away most of the skin and flesh, leaving the bones, muscle tissue, and organs behind for the gulls. Why is this important? Without cremating the deceased to completion, there would be charred body parts floating ashore. A typical wood fire, which reaches temperatures of 700-900C over water would never burn hot and long enough to turn flesh and bones to ash. ![]() There were also no signs of burnt timbers from the ships that the archaeologists unearthed.Īccording to the Funeral and Cremation Council, a body must be cremated at 1100C for over two hours and longer for a large body. There have been Oseberg ships unearthed that have had sacrificial women and livestock included in the burial that date from the 9th Century AD. Most likely if they had a small ceremonial Oseberg, this would have been used. ![]() Ship captains would however have the luxury or being buried with their most valuable ship. Boats were far too valuable, especially the longboats. The notion of burying or cremating Vikings on boats is absurd. For ceremonial funerals for high ranking Vikings, the Vikings would place the cremated remains into a stone urn on a boat, and bury it. In the winter months when the ground was frozen solid, they buried the deceased in mounds, again following cremation in a funeral pyre. Most vikings were buried in the earth following cremation. Vikings did not lay their dead in longboats and set them ablaze with a well shot arrow and wait for the wind to carry the soul to Valhalla. "The 13th Warrior," although a great movie, has caused a lot of confusion. Secondly, what people think of as a traditional Nordic Viking rites funeral, where the burning corpse is sent floating out to sea is a myth mainly created in books and by Hollywood. There were Scottish, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian vikings. For starters, "Vikings" weren't just from Scandanavian countries. I always get a good laugh at this as they generally have no clue what they are talking about. Several times a month, I hear metal fans tell me they wish to have a viking funeral. Frame: designed by the artist: gilt, carved wood decorated with classical motifs but also with a running chain pattern which is one of the features of the Viking Borre style of ornament, which flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries.The Realities Of Having A Nordic Viking Funeral Most of the scene is illuminated by the glow of the burning pyre and the torch of the foreground figure, which is reflected in the water and the glistening shore. In the background are austere, rocky mountains seen under a dark and stormy sky. ![]() The boat, with a stern carved into the form of the head of a mythical beast, is hauled into the rough sea by muscular male figures the recumbent body of the dead Viking, fully armoured, is surrounded by flames. Most prominent of these figures is that of an armoured man standing forward of the crowd, wearing a crested helmet and a breast-plate with raised ornamentation, with his right arm raised and holding a flaming torch in his left. Standing on the shore, to the right of the composition, are a crowd of Viking men and soldiers with arms and weapons raised as the burning ship carrying the body is pushed out. Dark and dramatic depiction of the funeral of a Viking, his body being set to sea on a burning pyre. ![]()
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