Burial in ships.—The mode of burial in ships would appear to have belonged exclusively to the North, where it seems to have been in much favour, and shows in a remarkable manner the seafaring character of the people.
Until recently few descriptions have been more ridiculed by persons who did not believe in the Saga literature, than those which gave accounts of burials of chiefs, warriors, and others in ships. Here again archæology has come to our aid to prove the truthfulness of the Sagas, and in such a perfect manner as to settle the question beyond controversy; for we find ships in which the body of the dead warrior was not burned, and other ships which have been used as a pyre. The earliest account of such burial is in Voluspa, amplified in the later Edda, which gives us a vivid description of the funeral of Baldr, the son of Odin.
“The Asar took the body of Baldr and carried it down to the sea. Hringhorni was the name of Baldr’s ship; it was larger than any other ship. The gods wanted to launch it for the burning-voyage of Baldr, but it did not move. Then the gyg (Jötun-woman)[[211]] in Jötunheim, named Hyrrokkin, was sent for. She came riding on a wolf, with snakes for reins. She leapt from the steed, and Odin called to four Berserks to take care of it, but they could not hold it except by throwing it down. She went to the stem of the ship and pushed it forward at the first attempt, so that fire issued from the rollers and the ground trembled. Then Thor grew angry, seized his hammer, and would have broken her head if the gods had not asked him to spare her. The body of Baldr was carried out on the ship, and his wife Nanna, Nep’s daughter, on seeing this died from grief. She was laid on the pyre and it was set on fire. Thor went to it and consecrated it with Mjölnir. At his feet there ran a Dverg named Lit. Thor pushed him with his foot into the fire, and he was burned. To this burning came many kinds of people. First went Odin and his ravens and Frigg, as well as the Valkyrias. Frey drove in a carriage drawn by the boar called Gullinbursti (gold bristle) or Slidrugtanni (the awful-tusked). Heimdal rode the horse Gulltopp (gold tuft), and Freyja with her cats. There came also many Hrim Thursar and Bergrisar. Odin laid on the pyre the gold ring Draupnir; afterwards every ninth night there dropped from it eight equally heavy gold rings. The horse of Baldr was led on the pyre in full harness” (Gylfaginning, ch. 49).
“They carried him in the snowstorm to Naustanes, where a tent was put over him at night. In the morning, at high water, Skallagrim was laid in a ship, and they rowed to Digranes. Egil had a mound made near the end of the ness (cape), and in this he was laid, with his horse, his weapons, and smithying tools. It is not mentioned that loose property was put in the mound with him. Egil took the inheritance, lands, and loose property; he took care of the farm” (Egil’s Saga, c. 61).
Gudrun after having slain her husband Atli said:
I will buy a ship (knörr),[[212]]
And a painted coffin,
Wax well the sheets[[213]]
To wrap thy corpse with;
Think of every need,