Men were sometimes buried in a ship’s boat.
“Ingimund was laid in the boat of the ship Stigandi, and his body prepared honourably as was the custom with high-born men. Thorstein said to his brothers: ‘It seems to me right that we shall not sit in our father’s seat at home, or at feasts, while his slaying is unavenged.’ This they did, and neither went to games nor other gatherings” (Vatnsdæla Saga, 22).
One of the most valuable discoveries, showing the burial of a warrior in a ship without his body being burned, is that of the Gökstad ship.
Very few things in the North have impressed me more than the sight of this weird[[215]] mausoleum, the last resting-place of a warrior, and as I gazed on its dark timber I could almost imagine that I could still see the gory traces of the struggle and the closing scene of burial when he was put in the mortuary chamber that had been made for him on board the craft he commanded.
Fig. 747.—Sepulchral chamber, Gökstad ship.
The greatest length of the mound was from N.E. to S.W. About 150 feet in diameter, height above the soil 15 feet; above the sea 18 feet. The roof of the structure had been broken through by the weight of the earth of the mound above it. The large cut in the side was probably made by thieves wishing to get possession of the weapons, &c.
Fig. 748.—Bedstead, upon which the dead warrior had been placed, found in the sepulchral chamber, Gökstad ship.
Fig. 749.