The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

by Neil Price

The conclusion of the rituals also has something to tell us. Ibn Faḍlān describes a ten-day funeral at the end of which it all seems to hinge on a naked man, who is the only one to approach the pyre, taking precautions as he does so. He seems to expect something to be active in there; in protecting all the openings of his body, it seems that he believes it can move. The moment he lights the funeral fire, it is apparently safe, and everyone comes forward to add a burning torch to the conflagration. Oseberg has something reminiscent of this wariness, although the burial is an inhumation rather than a cremation. Most of the objects were deposited with great care and attention, but at the very end most of the larger wooden items—the wagon, sleds, and so on—were literally thrown onto the foredeck, beautiful things just heaved over the side from ground level and being damaged in the process. The accessible end of the burial chamber was then sealed shut by hammering planks across the open gable, but using any old piece of wood that seems to have been at hand. The planks were just laid across at random—anything to fill the opening into the chamber where the dead lay. The nails were hammered in so fast one can see where the workers missed, denting the wood and bending or breaking off the nail heads. Why the need for such haste? Were they afraid, like the kindler of the pyre in ibn Faḍlān?