Death in Norse paganism
Death in Norse paganism was associated with diverse customs and beliefs that varied with time, location and social group, and did not form a structured, uniform system.
The concept of the self in pre-Christian Nordic religion was diverse and is not presented as rigid or consistent in surviving Old Norse texts, nor is there a strict dualism of body and soul as in Christianity.
[8] Prior to Christianisation, the North Germanic peoples practiced a variety of burial customs, such as cremation and inhumation, that varied in popularity over time.
Scholars believe that these ideas of Hel are influenced by Early Medieval Christianity, which taught of a realm of punishment in contrast to paradise.
Valhalla is presented primarily as an abode for deceased men, with the principal female figures being the valkyries who gather the fallen warriors on the battlefield and bring them to Odin's hall, where they pour mead for them.
In Gautrek's Saga members of a household believe they will go to Valhalla after sacrificing themselves to Odin by jumping off a precipice named Ætternisstapa (Family Cliff).
[19] [20] Grímnismál describes how Valhalla's roof is made of spears and shields, similar to the hall of the howe-dweller Geirröðr in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns.
[21][22] It has been proposed that Valhalla developed and gained importance around 500 CE, when Odin gained prominence relative to female gods associated with death, amid other changes in religious practice, such as a shift in focus from bodies of water to halls and cult buildings, and the development of an aristocratic warrior elite in southern Scandinavia seeking territorial expansion.
[23] Fólkvangr is an afterlife field ruled over by Freyja, who chooses half of those who die in battle to reside with her there, attested solely in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál:
[31] Once awake, the dead Angantyr refers to the entrance to his grave as "Hel's gate" (Old Norse: helgrind), suggesting there is no clear distinction between the realm and the physical place the individual inhabits after death.
[32][33] In the episode in Hervarar saga ok Heidreks, the fire acts as a boundary between the living and the dead, akin to the fiery barrier that separates the realms of the gods and jötnar in Skírnismál.
[34] In addition to the ambiguity between Hel and the grave, the deceased can also return to their howe from Valhalla, as in Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, where the hero Helgi physically travels from there by night to his open burial mound where he lies with wife Sigrún.
Here, Helgi is described as being bloody, with ice-cold hands and frost in his hair, and tells her that her weeping over him causes him pain, similar to in Laxdæla saga.
Þórólfr's son Þorsteinn Þorskabítr later dies, along with his crew, on a fishing expedition: Þat var eitt kveld um haustit, at sauðamaðr Þorsteins fór at fé fyrir norðan Helgafell.
[39] Rán, the wife of Ægir, is a god who receives into her halls those who drown at sea, as described in sources such as Friðþjófs saga and Sonatorrek.
Snorri Sturluson adds to this description in Gylfaginning, stating that it is reserved for those who acted virtuously in life and is located in the third heaven, Víðbláinn, separate from Andlàngr and Asgard.
[48] This is not attested elsewhere and may be an invention by Snorri although it has been noted that the association between the god and chastity is also seen in Völsa þáttr, when she is invoked by a girl who opposes the religious practice involving an embalmed phallus.
[50] Rebirth is also suggested in some sagas such as of Starkaðr and Olaf Geirstad-Alf, the latter case of which is directly associated with entry into the deceased's burial mound.
[54] Old Norse sources describe burial mounds acting as places of religious activity, often with the aim of bringing or maintaining the fertility of the land.
[57] The tradition of putting out gifts such as food and beer on mounds has survived into modern times throughout Northern Europe such as to the Orcadian hogboon or hog-boy, which derives its name from Old Norse: haugbui (howe-dweller),[58][59] at Wayland's Smithy in England,[60] and to elves in Sweden.
[61] A recurring motif in Old Norse literature is an otherworldly encounter connected with a male figure sitting on a howe, who is commonly a herdsman, such as the jötnar, as with Eggþér, Þrymr.
[62][63] Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds, from Flateyjarbók, describes how the shepherd Hallbjörn remembered a verse told to him in a dream by the dead skald Þorleifr as he slept on his howe, and was thereafter a great poet.
[64] Similarities have been noted with other Northern European cultures, such as the Welsh and Irish, in which howes are also a place to encounter and receive knowledge from the otherworld.
[67] The connection is also seen with producing a rightful heir in Völsunga saga in which it is upon a howe that King Rerir receives an apple from one of Frigg's maids in the form of a crow that allowed his wife to conceive Völsung.
She then teaches him galdrar to protect him from danger, including the curse of a dead Christian woman, similar to the waking of Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál[74][75] In Hrolfs saga kraka, the half-elf daughter of King Helgi, Skuld defeats Hrólf Kraki in battle by reanimating those who fall on her side as draugs, who are stronger than they were in life.
It is also seen in the journey of Hading to the land of the dead in Gesta Danorum between those who died in battle, and in the story of Thorstein Uxafotr from the Flateyjarbók, where the fight takes place in the grave.
[77] In the telling of Hjaðningavíg in Skáldskaparmál, Hildr brings back to life each night the fighting armies on Hoy of her father and lover, while in the account in Sörla þáttr, Freyja is responsible for raising the dead.
The skald praises the brave sea warrior who fights in vain against the natural forces, but who finally has to give up, and then he enters Rán's bed or is embraced by her nine daughters.
