ABSTRACT
The Viking view of death was heterogeneous and often expressed in elaborate burial rituals that left large monuments and richly ordained graves accompanied by destruction of wealth, slaughtering of animals, and sometimes, human sacrifice. This chapter approaches Viking beliefs about death by looking at diverse funerary practices as depicted in medieval texts, iconography, and archaeological remains. The chapter examines these diverse rituals by progressing through three rites of passage – separation, transition, and incorporation – that transfer the dead from this life to the next. Progressing through each rite of passage, Viking ideals of hospitality, reciprocal exchange, and feasting provide the cultural logic that structures the diverse mortuary rituals apparent in both texts and archaeological remains. A key to understanding Viking death is the recognition that interactions between the dead and the living did not cease when the act of burial was complete. To explore these interactions with the dead, the chapter emphasizes a Viking preoccupation with the successful navigation of the state of liminality, wherein the deceased person exists between this life and the next.
