A Viking funeral for ashes

Charles 5 Comments
Charles

Over at Scattering Ashes, here, Rich has been trialling his prototype Viking longship for the fiery water burial of cremains.

What do you think?

5 Comments

  1. Charles

    Fantastic!
    We are expecting to take delivery of ours around the end of the month. While it is going to be a display piece it will, eventually, be used for my Dad’s remains (Many years from now, I hope). He, like myself (actually its my fault) is a Viking re-enactor and he (unlike myself) is also a professional Viking who goes into schools to talk about the Vikings…there was no way that we weren’t getting one of these!!!

    As an aside, there is no evidence that Viking ships were ever set alight on the water as funeral pyres. the only evidence of a fire ship funeral is in the writings of Ibn Fadlan from around 922. The ship and its contents were burnt on land and then covered with a barrow. There are also several finds of unburnt ship burials covered in the same way. In ‘Beowulf’ the funeral pyre is covered with a barrow although no mention is made of a ship. It doesn’t matter, of course. The image made by this ship is amazing. I think it would look as good on dry land or in the water!

    Thanks so much for putting me on to this, Charles, my Dad is made up! He is coming up to have his photo taken with it when it arrives, in full Viking kit 🙂

  2. Charles

    I loved it – wondered how far it sailed away from shore?!

    If you get time look at the GOKSTADSKIPET it was used for a burial in Norway and recovered in the 19th century – must have been a bit like burying an elephant….24m long 5m wide!!

    You walk into the exhibition hall in Oslo and it’s just there –
    on its own.. it was so very impressive. ( English on the right down the page)
    http://home.online.no/~joeolavl/viking/gokstadskipet.htm

    Opens a debate about how we mark ‘big deaths’ ..we do the ceremonials alright, but imagine burying the Queen in one of the state coaches inside a huge burial mound in Windsor Great Park?

  3. Charles

    Thanks for the postive comments!
    It went about 20metres / 60ft (guessing) from shore and then stayed in the same place. The main flaming part was about 5m from shore.
    I like the ‘barrow burning’ – that would work well too…
    Still can’t think of suitable music (if any is needed)

  4. Charles

    We also love it, and can’t wait to take delivery of ours. we’re not really product driven as you know, but this ticks all of our boxes on so many levels. A great compromise for anyone who wants the elemental thrill of a pyre, but doesn’t want to go the whole hog.

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