The View of Death in Viking Mythology and Christianity In today's society death is something we fear. We shudder of awe when we think about dying and some consider it to be the end of existence. Maybe this is due to decades of grim and ghastly myths and stories mentioning death as the most horrible of all horrible things. Death itself has moreover been moulded in a hideous human-shaped body dressed in black. However, it has not always been like this. During the medieval time-era death was, among some folks, in fact something you wanted to achieve. We have chosen to compare the view of death among Vikings and Christians. Death has always been a subject of great discussion, and it has been looked upon in many different ways depending on religion, culture or time era. In the Viking society death was more of an everyday matter. There were only a few people who got really old during this time period, a lot of them died in an early age by sickness or accidents. Warrior activities or the hard and difficult manual labour were often the cause of these things to occur. According to the Nordic mythology ones life does not have to end when you die. Death was just another level of existence. Likewise, the Christians did not give credence to soul-destroying or the loss of power when passing away. [grave.gif] In this time the Christians did not find the ceremonial customs in burial as important as the Vikings. For the Vikings it was an obligation to equip and inhume the deceased. Even the greatest foe should have a fairly honourable burial procedure. The dead person was buried adjacent to the extant in order to hold the connection between the two dimensions open. Before the burial, nose, eyes and mouth were closed and the body was washed and new clothes were put on. The Christians at that time also washed their corpse, yet instead of putting on new clothes they wrapped the body in materials very much similar to sheets. At the funerals gifts were given in order to honour the dead among both Christians and Vikings. Christian people have always left flowers and candles at the grave whereas the free Viking usually took his weapons and armours with him in order for him to be able to use them in the posterity. Women were often buried together with jewels and instruments used in domestics. A large grave alluded to a more aristocratic position in both Nordic mythologies as well as in Christianity. In present time, however, the Christian graves are more identical to one another. The exterior appearance was more palpable on Viking graves than on Christian ones and another major difference between the burial procedures was that the Christians were buried in consecrated dust nearby the parochial church. The sacred edifice in Uppsala is a specimen of a sanctuary belonging to the Vikings, which could be resembled to the Christian churches. The Christians found cremation a pagan act that should not be approved. When the Christian missionaries reached Scandinavia trying to convert the Vikings, one of their goals were to put an end to the, in their opinion, barbarian burials. Ibn Fadlan was a caliph from Baghdad. In the following quote, he describes a Viking opinion of the Christian burials: "You Arabs really are stupid. You take the person that you love and honour the most and you put him into a hole in the ground, where the insects and worms will eat him. We burn him in fire and after a minute he goes immediately to Paradise". According to Christian beliefs the body of the deceased shall revert to the dust from where it once arose. After a while though, they came to the conclusion that it was more profitable to let the Vikings keep their old tradition. Since death was a delicate matter, it is conceivable that the missionaries did not want to force the Vikings into any radical alterations seeing that an action like that might have implied a stronger disbelief and lack of respect from Vikings towards the Christian society. Eventually both cremation and conventional burials were accepted among Vikings as well as missionaries. Nevertheless, when Christianity conquered Scandinavia casket-burials were once again put into use. It was actually not until during the post-war era that cremation once again become a socially accepted choice when having a Christian funeral. Today it is also the most used form of burial in Scandinavia, but it is still not applied as often in the rest of Europe. One can analyse whether its use in Scandinavia is a trace of 16-century Lutheranism or 10-century paganism... In old Nordic mythology the warriors came to Valhalla, the Viking answer to the Christian heaven. Valhalla was the home of Odin, the oldest and wisest of the Viking gods. The men slaughtered during fierce battles on earth were picked up and brought to Valhalla by the Valkyries, the female servants of Odin. Valhalla was a place for men and the only women that are mentioned to be there are the Valkyries, who only lived in there to serve the men. It is difficult to say what happened to women after death, but they could probably come to both Helgafell and Hel, since female Viking graves that have been found also contained gifts that the women could use in their afterlife. The Valkyries, nevertheless, were sexually "available" for all the brave Viking soldiers. But the strangest thing was that they at the same time stayed everlasting virginal. [battle.gif] The warriors, who were called the Einheriar, enjoyed themselves with battles on the hills in front of the great hall. Each night when the battle was over those who were slain during the fight were brought back to life again, free from any of the mutilations they might have suffered. They were brought back to Valhalla to engage in feasts of eating and drinking endless resources with food and mead. This lifestyle would continue everyday until the approaching judgement day, called Ragnarök. This day was the end of all Gods and everyone else that depended on them for their own being. The life in Valhalla appealed so much to the brave warriors who, if they did not manage to get slain on the battlefield before their active lives were over, actually had themselves wounded by spears in their death bed s, in order to reach the promised halls of Valhalla. The Christians believed that the soul left the body and gained an eternal life where God and man were one. On judgement day God would appear and send people to either heaven or hell based on their actions and sins during their lifetime. The Nordic Mythology was a rather primitive religion with a less developed written language. Instead the different kingdoms are described in a more physical and visual manner compared to Christianity, whose descriptions are far more abstract. The Christians talked about eternal goodness of your soul when the Vikings talked about the good things in life. We hold the Viking heaven, Valhalla, as a more frolic place for drinking and fighting all day long, while the Christian heaven was an uniting of man and god. A clear difference between the two religions is the fact that Valhalla was a locality for a somewhat bellicose elite. To reach Valhalla you had to die in battle and your other actions in life did not affect your prospects of getting there. In comparison to this the Christians believed that a peaceful and sinless living throughout your entire existence on earth would take you to heaven. Suicide was an incomparable sin within Christianity that implied that you could not be buried in a cemetery. In Viking mythology taking your own life actually could signify the reach of Valhalla. Maybe the largest religious difference is the Christian belief that one could always be forgiven by God when confessing your sins. It did not take any physical qualities to reach immortality in heaven, but the important issue was the goodness of your heart. The Christians have a saying that the lesser man shall become the foremost in the hands of The Almighty. In other words it was of no importance whether you were rich or poor, week or strong, meek or self-righteous you were always worthy of God. It is therefore not hard to imagine that the general public found Christianity an attractive religion. [riket.gif] The Vikings postulated that the world was flat and shaped as a circle. In the middle one could find the home of the Gods, Asgård, and outside Asgård came the human abode Midgård. Midgård was held together by the giant Snake Of Midgård. In Utgård subsisted giants and other beast creatures, all of them opponents and enemies of Gods and humans. In the middle of Asgård, the giant world tree Ygdrasil was settled. The roots of Ygdrasil reached from the lower regions, through the land of mortals and all the way up to the land of Gods. Altogether there were nine worlds. Asgård, Midgård and Utgård are the best known and you could reach each of these worlds by ascending the different branches of Ygdrasil. The Christians also assumed that the world was flat and they believed that there were two realms apart from the one on earth. Hell, was situated below the earth's surface and heaven was located above. One Viking theory of the realm of death, was Helgafell, the holy mountain. In Helgafell the humans gathered after their death to live a life fairly akin to their former life. They joined in the warmth to drink and talk. This can be compared with one Christian point of view of the afterlife, the belief that one after one's death shall reach heaven and meet old friends and relatives. As a contrast to Helgafell there was the gloomy underground realm of death called Hel, one of the eight worlds of Utgård. This was the kingdom of a giant woman, also named Hel. When someone once had arrived there the gates were closed and one could never go back. The conception of Hel is probably coloured by the Christian views of a punishment after death. The word Helviti (Hell) actually means the punishment of Hel. [pray.gif] One contrariety to the Christian contemplation of hell was that in the Christian world the people who went to hell were the once who did not believe in God Almighty and neither felt regret nor confessed their sins. In the Viking world it was those men who had not died in battle but of sickness or age. In Christianity the most important thing in life was man's belief in God and to be a good Christian and in old Nordic mythology the most important thing for a man was to be a good warrior. So you could state that it, in both religions, were the ones who had accomplished the most significant deeds in life who reached paradise, the others went to some sort of Pandemonium. After death the Christian souls came to the purgatory. Here, they had to penance their sins from the past. After that came the last judgement where all souls were united with recreated bodies and then the gates to the Elysium were opened. It is difficult to say what the exact view of the Elysium is in Christian beliefs, considering its many different ramifications. Nowadays, if you ask a number of Christians of their view of heaven, you would probably get different answers from each of them. The same thing goes for the views of hell. According to the New Testament, the meaning of hell could be that you would live separated from God, the worst punishment there is. The Bible can be interpreted in many different ways, hell is often described in a symbolic way as an eternal fire of pain. What that actually means is often divergent from individual to individual. But the similarity to what the Vikings believed is that you in both of the religions are separated from God(s). Both Christianity and Viking mythology contains a final day. For the Vikings it was named Ragnarök, the final battle. This was when the gods would fight against the Giants and the other beasts, and when finally both the world of the Gods and the world of the humans would be destroyed. It is also said that a new world should be created. The poem Voluspá depicts Ragnarök, the ultimate battle in the Viking mythology. After the disaster, when earth has been destroyed, a new, forever verdant world shall rise from the ocean. This is told in the following paragraph: [qoute.gif] In the second paragraph, it is described how someone, titled The Mighty, shall appear from above, to pass the sentences, conclude peace, and to statue what will forever be considered as holy. This sounds very similar to the Christian judgement day and resurrection, and The Mighty sounds very much like the Christian God. There are theories that the story of Ragnarök could be coloured by Christian aspects. [godface.gif] There are different aspects in comparing Ragnarök with the Christian resurrection. It is said that the theme is Indo-European, not having anything to do with the Christian theory. It is also said that the new world that would be created after Ragnarök is influenced by the Christian aspects of the Paradise. It is also told that people will be punished for their accomplishments and come to a horrible place, which can be compared with what is told in the Bible, where all people will stand up in their graves and be judged for their miscarriages in life. After that, the righteous ones should come to the new Paradise. The Christians believe that a new world of goodness will appear when messiah returns to earth. The Vikings lack the belief of a Christ-character that represents the holy Trinity of the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Although the goodness of Balder is occasionally compared with the goodness of Jesus Christ (B.L: Den svenska historien, p. 179). So what conclusions can one make from this information? Well we think there are a few aspects that are particularly interesting to look deeper into. After studying the view of death in Christianity and Nordic Mythology we have seen that there are differences, but when we analysed them we found that they might not be as immense as we first thought. Common mistakes that a lot of people do is that they will call the Vikings pagans, without even thinking twice about meaning of such statement. We have found out that when people are comparing two ancient religions with each other, they will base a lot of their opinions on myths. One must not forget that the Vikings lived many hundred years ago and a lot of changes have been made since then. Christianity was certainly not as civilised at that time as it is today. When we think of a missionary today we see a man reading the bible to poor people in an African tribe. That was not exactly what the European kings did when they wanted to spread Christianity in the Imperial Ages... It may seem strange to us that the Vikings actually believed that only a few chosen ones could reach the paradise (Valhalla). What happened with all the others? Did not the remaining women and men question this gist of the religion? It is never easy to set one's face against religious beliefs. For example it is well documented that some hundred years ago the rulers of the European kingdoms guaranteed brave knights and soldiers a place in heaven if they fought for their country. The people in this time paid huge taxes merely to serve a king that motivated his position with the fact that he was send from heaven by God. It is most likely that the Viking kings used the same tactics to motivate young men to their long and dangerous trips to the continent. We see such things as unrealistic in our time, but let us make a comparison with a few chosen ones going to Valhalla in Viking society and today's strategy of Jehovah's Witnesses. This direction of Christianity that certainly has more members (4,3 millions) than the Viking mythology ever had believes that only a certain amount persons can reach heaven. Yet the members do not have any concerns, this is what they believe is God's will and therefore there is nothing to argue about, they wholly accept it. It is likely that the Vikings resonated in the same terms. The Japanese Kamikaze pilots that flew right into their own death's to bomb the US navy ships during the Second World War, had been guaranteed a place in paradise by the Japanese emperors. The families of these young men have afterwards told stories about how the pilots had let go of their fears and agonies because they were convinced that God was with them and so hence had nothing to fear. Modern day conflicts like the ones in Afghanistan and Iran/Iraq in the 1980s are other examples of when religion has motivated people to die, because the soldiers believed that they would reach heaven if they died during fighting for their country. What will people in 500 years say about issues like this? Maybe they will look at it in the same way that we do with the Vikings. Maybe these actions are not as pagan as they seem when you think about the comparison made in the view of death between the Christian and Viking religion. Previous [back.gif] [odal.gif] [next.gif] Next