Going Out in a Blaze of Glory

Over a thousand years ago in the land of the Vikings, if you were a peasant your funeral would most likely consist of a hole in the ground and not much more. However, if you were worthy of it, you'd get a Viking burial.

The way the burials were carried out could differentiate, but the overall belief was the same. The Vikings believed that after death they would join the Gods in the afterlife. They envisaged that they would need the same tools in the afterlife as they did whilst alive, so Vikings were buried with all of their worldly possessions. Men were commonly buried with tools and weapons, whilst women would take with them their jewellery and domestic equipment. It was important to Vikings that the deceased were buried with the same social standing as they had in life, so that they did not become homeless, wandering souls for all eternity. The barrows they were buried in often directly correlated to the wealth and social class of the deceased, in a similar way to the expense of a person's casket nowadays. Food and drink was sometimes included as a last meal for their final journey.

Vikings were often put in ships or boats with all of their worldly goods. People often think of Viking burials as ships set on fire and pushed out to sea, but apparently it was actually more common for small purpose built boats to be buried in the ground. Some were even made out of stone and set out in the soil. The big, extravagant ship burials we associate with the Vikings tended to be reserved for important people and kings.

Nowadays it would be pretty hard to replicate a Viking burial due to the rules and regulations of where burials can legally take place. It wouldn't be entirely impossible; you would just have to work closely with the various agencies in charge of the legalities of burials at sea and open air cremations, etc.

The idea of taking your worldly possessions with you is interesting, though. In the time of the Vikings they were things like tools and weapons, but what would that be in the modern age? A man's modern "tools" may consist of his iPhone, his PlayStation and maybe parts of a beloved car or motorbike. As a woman, I don't much like the idea of being buried with my domestic tools - the idea of sharing my casket with bottles of Cif Lemon and scrubbing brushes doesn't exactly fill me with glee! I like the idea of taking things with me though, perhaps photographs of loved ones, sentimental jewellery or some memories of key moments in my life.

What would you take with you?