The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction Read Online Free PDF

with a selection of implements and utensils of everyday life, whether the rite chosen was cremation or inhumation. The intention appears to have been to equip the dead for the next world, which was imagined as being very like this. Oðinn needed slain warriors to be buried with their weaponry, and the wealthy were accompanied by their horses, dogs, and slaves. Burial with boats, wagons, or horses represented the journey into the next life, and if a whole boat was not available a stone setting in the outline of a ship might do.
    In much of Norway and Eastern and Central Sweden cremation was the most common form of burial, but it was rare in Denmark, outside northern Jutland. In Sweden cremation was prevalent s
    during the preceding Vendel period and continued, with boat burial, g
    kin
    into the Viking Age. Cremation graves under mounds generally e Vi
    cluster around farms. Cremated remains could be placed directly Th
    into a pit, put into a bag or a pottery or metal vessel, or spread 5 . Burial mounds, Birka
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    upon the ground. Multiple cremations are known. In southern and central Jutland and northern Norway inhumation was prevalent from the beginning of the Viking Age. The body might be placed directly into the ground, or in a coffin, chamber, or vehicle. Contrary to popular belief the majority of burials were poorly furnished.
    Ninth-century burials are the simplest and the knife was the most common simple find, in graves of both sexes. A distinctive group of rich ‘cavalry’ burials with weaponry and equestrian equipment appeared in Denmark in the 10th century. Grave-goods are sometimes included in Swedish graves up until the 12th century.
    Temples and cult places
    The majority of pre-Christian religious activity probably took place in open spaces and sacred groves. The so-called pagan temple P
    at Old Uppsala referred to by Adam of Bremen has been agans an
    reinterpreted as a large feasting hall in which pagan festivals may have taken place at certain times, rather than a dedicated religious d Christians
    building, although the use of the place-name element hof , as at Hofstaðir in Iceland, may indicate the use of a building for religious rituals.
    During the 1980s a number of new structures were found which support the idea of small-scale, local, religious and votive activities carried out at special sites. Excavations on the highest point of the island of Frösön – literally Freyr’s Island – in Sweden, under the floor of a medieval church, uncovered what appear to be the remains of a sacrificial grove. Under the medieval altar were the decayed remains of a birch tree, which had been deliberately felled.
    Around its roots was a large animal bone assemblage which had accumulated while the tree was standing. This included the whole bodies of five bears, the heads of six elks and two stags, as well as remains of sheep, pigs, and cows. These may have been skins or whole bodies which had been hung from the tree. Radiocarbon dates place the activity in the 10th and 11th centuries; the stone church was built towards the end of the 12th century.
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    At Borg, in Östergötland in Sweden, a cult building was attached to a chieftain’s farmstead. The building came into use as early as the start of the 8th century although most of the ritual activity belonged to the 10th century. It comprised two rooms separated by a passage; along the eastern wall there was a stone platform, possibly a plinth, on which idols were set. Two rings were found in the south-west part of house, but there were no other finds. The surrounding ground surface was covered with large stone paving, and the overlying layer contained a hoard of another 98 rings, as well as 75
    kg of unburnt animal bones and slag. The rings appear to have been used to carry amulets, such as hammers or axes, which are usually found singly in graves. Some were unfinished, suggesting they were being manufactured here. Three adjacent buildings with sand floors had been