In my new novel, Dimensional Shift, the king of Majestic Island is murdered. Burial customs on the island include raft, water cremations. The raft symbolizes safe passage to the afterlife, much like the burial boats used in Norse mythology. The deceased is placed on a raft that is set adrift into the ocean and then set aflame. The bulk of the raft is made from sturdy cedar and bows to mask the scent of decaying and burning flesh, while the base is made from oak, since the dense hardwood burns hotter and longer than the other trees on their island.
According to Norse burial customs, cremation was often done upon a funeral pyre, but high-ranking Norsemen and women were honored by being buried in their boats on land. Having a funeral boat or a wagon buried with you was a practice used by the wealthy. The Vikings also used rocks to form the shape of a ship around the deceased. Vikings were either buried or burned after death. The majority of Vikings were cremated on a funeral pyre, often having their ashes scattered over the sea.
Funeral boats weren’t normally sent out to sea and then set ablaze by fiery arrows as we see in the movies. It wasn’t a common practice for Vikings to burn ships since longboats were labor-intensive and costly. Setting them aflame wouldn’t be practical, nor would the fire be hot enough to destroy the body completely and pieces of the deceased could wash up on the shore.
Like the Vikings, the Majestian people gift the deceased king with grave goods. The Norse felt these items assisted the deceased in the afterlife. Vikings were often buried with their male horses, jewelry, weapons, and even slaves.
With the rise in Christianity and the Viking conversion, burial practices changed and inhumation became more widely adopted. Cremated remains were often buried in an urn, some in shallow graves and others in burial mounds that could hold many bodies, like a cemetery. According to Viking history, the body of the deceased was prepared in new clothes and then put on display at the funeral ceremony, which consisted of people singing songs, chanting, and enjoying food and alcohol.
The sacrificing of a longship can be witnessed at the Helly Aa Festival in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands. This festival began in 1870 and celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands every year on the last Tuesday of January. The Vikings ruled these islands, along with the Orkney Islands, for about 500 years until the islands become a part of Scotland in 1468. If you had your heart set on a Viking burial you can have your ashes sent off in a tiny replica of a Viking ship that has a small urn receptacle.
A special thank you to: https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-vikings-honor-their-dead, http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/wherein-i-mercilessly-slaughter-your-dreams-of-a-viking-funeral, https://www.newsweek.com/viking-burial-horses-norse-iceland-power-sacrifice-ritual-ceremony-1281571http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/01/28/viking-funeral-traditions-burning-ships-complex-ancient-rituals-incredible-helly-aa-festival/
