Viking grave goods

Viking Grave goods tell us a wealth of information, but we must be cautious of misinterpretations. Objects may have been included during the funeral ritual for their magical power or symbolic meaning. For example, axes can be associated with domestic industry, craft, war, fertility, or magic. While spindle whorls symbolize the female virtue of textile processing, economy, and even fate. Young children were sometimes buried with weapons that they clearly did not use during their own lives. Weapons in women's graves can sometimes be associated with domestic industry, magic or war. Sometimes they only represented the identity of the deceased, while in other cases there is a clear link to warfare. In the Ljósvetninga saga, a völva cross-dresses as a man with a helmet and axe. She uses these to make a prediction. 

Regularly, alongside material Viking grave goods, animals and servants were also included in rich Viking graves. This tradition was also practiced among the Celts and Scythians and probably dates back to their ancestors, the Proto-Indo-European steppe herders. 

The magical role of grave goods is emphasized by the fact that objects were sometimes retrieved from the graves of ancestors. The sagas mention that these objects often contained magical powers and helped the new owner fulfill their destiny. Likewise, grave goods were sometimes added long after a person was buried, such as to the 11th-century grave of Suantaka.

Some objects had their own identity and bestowed the bearer with magical power, as we discuss in this other blog. Instead of viewing objects as simple, passive things, it is better to understand them as active forces in the world. The Vikings saw objects as non-human participants in the interaction between humans, the supernatural, and the unknown.

A significant portion of grave goods has a spiritual function, which we modern people cannot always reinterpret. Viking Age Scandinavians did not distinguish between the secular and the sacred world. Old Norse does not have a word for religion but calls it siðr, which meant 'custom' or 'tradition'. Magic and spirituality formed important practices and traditions.

The Viking culture was animistic. This meant that places in nature, the sea, and even stones had their own spirit or personality. This tradition was also applied to objects. This shows that grave goods were not simply placed with the deceased. Some researchers see this as a way to express mourning, while others believe these objects serve to invoke or ward off magical or supernatural powers.

In Old Norse poetry, for example, people are referred to as náðfǫðr – literally 'corpse food'. This suggests that funerals were not only about honoring the deceased but also played a role in broader spiritual and non-human connections, where in their Dharmic religion death was seen as nourishment for giving life.

We cannot only look at funerals as a way to honor deceased people or as a direct representation of their identity. Although funeral rituals are performed by the living, they are rarely intended solely for the living. Funerals were also much more for society than just useful, practical acts. They were also a way to strengthen the social and spiritual bonds between members of the community and between the community and the dead. The dead remained part of the community in which they lived.

For the Vikings, paths and roads were not just routes for trade and travel but also a way to connect with other worlds. In this way, objects in graves helped maintain the connection between Midgard (the human world) and the supernatural.

Everything in Viking culture and other Proto-Indo-European cultures shows that the dead continued to participate in the social system. They were still part of the community. This mentality was an extension of the animistic nature of these Dharmic religions. 

The dead and even their grave goods had powers and continued to exert influence on the world of the living. The dead were regularly honored and consulted for advice. There are many folklore stories of people who fell asleep on burial mounds to experience a vision. This shows that burial was not only a way to honor the deceased but to maintain the dharmic relationship between the dead, living, and immortal soul.  

Examples of items often given as grave goods include:

Many pieces of jewelry are believed to have provided strength and protection to the deceased, both in this life and the next. Thor's hammers and Odinistic jewelry emphasize the bond between the deceased and these gods and offer protection to the deceased.

The most well-known grave goods were weapons, they possibly had magical power and their own personification. Weapons likely symbolized protection for the deceased and emphasized the status of the deceased. The status of the deceased was important because the social class system maintained the cosmic order. If a warrior died during peacetime, Vikings broke his weapons to prevent him from using them if he turned into a draugr, a 'demonic' undead.

Proto-Indo-European peoples, including the Vikings, had a dharmic society based on oath-bound reciprocity. The principle of hospitality was sacred, and hosting feasts played an important role in society and economy. Including cooking equipment can be seen as part of the funeral ceremony, around which often a ‘feast’ was held, where sacred agreements were made. It can also indicate a hospitality feast with the gods, where the gods act as hosts and the deceased as a guest in the new world.

Besides association with feasts, kettles and knives also have a ritual meaning as an association with offerings, blóts.

Sometimes animals like horses and even servants were included in the grave. These could be both men and women.

The grave became a sacred place where the transition between different worlds was thinnest. Here, contact could be sought with ancestors and gods.

Notable graves were the Viking ship burials and burial mounds. These were symbols of the elite within society. Burial mounds became popular among the Indo-European steppe herders and were visible from afar on the vast plains of the steppe. This tradition continued into the Viking Age.