Stone ship

Stone ships were an early burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Northern Germany and the Baltic states.

Scholars have suggested both that the stone ship developed out of the desire to equip the dead with everything they had in life, and alternatively that it was specifically associated with the journey to Hel.

[2] In a paper published in 2012, Joseph S. Hopkins and Haukur Þorgeirsson propose a connection between stone ships and the image of a 'ship in a field' that the goddess Freyja's afterlife locations Fólkvangr and Sessrúmnir produce when considered together.

According to Hopkins and Haukur, "'A ship in the field' in the mythical realm may have been conceived as a reflection of actual burial customs and vice versa.

It is possible that the symbolic ship was thought of as providing some sort of beneficial property to the land, such as good seasons and peace brought on by Freyr’s mound burial in Ynglinga saga.