#stone ships

[sealskinparka]

Lindholm Høje - a Viking burial site

[survivethejive]

Ship of the Sun or Ship of the Dead? Nordic Stone Ships

Use code THEJIVE to get 10% off a title from Established Titles. Click here https://EstablishedTitles.com/THEJIVEStone ship settings or Skeppssättning are am...

The mystery of the stone ships of the Vikings is explained in full in this new film

[sealskinparka]

Lindholm Høje - a Viking burial site

[sealskinparka]

Lindholm Høje - a Viking burial site

[coastgods]

Excerpt from "The Ship in the Field"

(x) By Joseph S. Hopkins, University of Georgia, and Haukur Þorgeirsson, University of Iceland.

" ... scholars have sought to throw light on the ship burial custom by refering to Icelandic literary records of Norse paganism. It is tempting to think of the buried boats as vehicles for the voyage of dead warriors to the afterlife in Valhǫll with Óðinn. However, the mythological record does not contain any tales of the dead travelling to Valhǫll by boat. Nor is Óðinn strongly associated with boats or the sea.

... The only Vanir god who is described in the written record as having a relation with death and the afterlife is Freyja. The Prose Edda tells us, citing Grímnismál 14:

' And Freyja is the most excellent of the Ásynjur, she has that homestead in heaven which is called Fólkvangar, and wherever she rides to battle she has half of the slain, but the other half belongs to Óðinn, as is said here: Fólkvangr is called where Freyja decides the seat choices in the hall. Every day she chooses half the slain but half belongs to Óðinn. Her hall Sessrúmnir is large and beautiful. '

... We now turn to a strophe from the Þulur containing the name Sessrúmnir. The strophe is in a group of three strophes containing names for ships and nautical objects:

' Now I will set forth the names of ships: Ark, oar-claw, bark, Sessrúmnir, longship, cutter, ship and Skíðblaðnir, vessel, Naglfari, rowboat, smack. '

... Perhaps Sessrúmnir is originally a hall but someone who heard the name without sufficient context assumed it referred to a ship. Or perhaps the opposite is true, and the ‘hall’ understanding arose by a misinterpretation. Neither of those possibilities can be dismissed and we can see no strong reasons to prefer the Gylfaginning testimony over that of the Þulur strophe or vice versa.

There is, however, a further possibility. Perhaps each source has preserved a part of the same truth and Sessrúmnir was conceived of as both a ship and an afterlife location in Fólkvangr. ‘A ship in a field’ is a somewhat unexpected idea, but it is strongly reminiscent of the stone ships in Scandinavian burial sites. ‘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 propert to the land, such as the good seasons and peace brought on by Freyr's mound burial in Ynglinga saga.

Evidence involving ships from the pre-Christian period and from folklore may be similarly re-examined with this potential in mind. For example, if Freyja is taken as possessor of a ship, then this ship iconography may lend support to positions arguing for a connection between a Vanir goddess and the “Isis” of the Suebi, who is associated with ship symbolism in Tacitus’s Germania. "

[theoldstone]

Stone Ships were an ancient burial tradition characteristic of the ancient Scandinavians that involved creating a burial or cremation site by surrounding it by stones in the shape of a sharp oval to represent a sailing ship with the goal of equipping the dead with all they required in the afterlife. The ships varied in size and construction: some stones fit loosely and were randomly gathers, others were carefully carved and well fitted. Some were even equipped stacked stones in the centres, representing a mast; and in most cased, one end would have a larger, more prominent stone at the tip, representing the masthead. They were predominantly built during the Nordic Bronze Age, sometime between 1000 BC and 500 BC.

For those interested, I recently found this academic article from 2008 on the subject, which goes into more detail about the symbolism behind the traditions. It can be found here.

[ancientart]

The stone ships of Anundshög, which date from approximately the 1st century. Anundshög is the largest tumulus in Sweden, and is located in Västmanland. 

Photos taken by Britt-Marie Sohlström.

[fornsed-blog]

Stone Ship Settings

The Stone ship or ship setting was an early Germanic burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial is surrounded by tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones in the outline of a ship. They are often found in grave fields, but are sometimes far from any other archaeological remains.

The stone ship at Anund's barrow

Ship settings are of varying sizes, some of monumental proportions. The largest known is the mostly destroyed Jelling stone ship in Denmark, which was at least 170 metres long. In Sweden, the size varies from 67 metres (Ale's Stones) to only a few metres. The orientation also varies. Inside, they can be cobbled or filled with stones, or have raised stones in the positions of masts. The illusion of being ships has often been reinforced by larger stones at the ends. Some have an oblique stern.

Scattered examples are found in Northern Germany and along the coast of the Baltic States. Excavations have shown that they are usually from the latter part of the Nordic Bronze Age, c. 1000 BC - 500 BC (e.g. Gotland) or from the Germanic Iron Age, theVendel Age and the Viking Age (e.g. Blekinge and Scania).

Scholars have suggested both that the stone ship developed out of the desire to equip the dead with everything he had in life, and alternatively that it was specifically associated with the journey to Hel. One puzzling feature is that they sometimes occur at the base of a barrow, enclosing a flat area presumably intended for public ceremonies.