Viking Beliefs and Afterlife

Learning Intention

Learning Intention: To understand Viking beliefs

Success Criteria:

- I will be able to outline the role of different Viking gods and godesses

- I will be able to explain importance of the afterlife for the Vikings

- I will be able to examine the development of Christianity in Vikings society

View and make notes

The Viking Belief System

The Vikings believed that different gods were responsible for different areas of daily life. There were gods of harvest, love, family, fertility and war. It is thought that the Vikings made animal or human sacrifices to the gods to get something they needed, such as good harvest or success in a battle. The chief of the gods is Odin. Thor, the god of thunder, guards men and gods against evil. Thunder is the sound of his chariot rumbling across the sky pulled by his two goats. Lighting is the path his hammer takes when he tosses it.

Tales from Viking Mythology

Chief of the Gods is the one-eyed Odin, the god of death, war and wisdom. He traded his other eye for wisdom. With his two brothers, Odin create the nine worlds of the cosmos (universe). Midgard is the world of men, one of four worlds in the middle level of the cosmos. The other three are the worlds of dwarves, giants and dark elves. At the bottom, level the worlds of the dead, Hel and Niflheim.

The home of the Norse gods is Asgard, filled with halls and palaces. The most splendid is Valhalla, the hall of the bravest slain warriors. The slain warriors are brought to Asgard by the Valkyries, beautiful warrior women who ride flying horses. A colourful display of the Aurora Borealis (the northern lights sometimes seen in the northern hemisphere) is a sign they are riding the skies. At Valhalla, the warriors train for Ragnarok, the final battle that will end the cosmos. By day, the hack and chop at each other with swords and axes. At night, their bodies mend and they drink and feast with Odin.

Webquest

The Vikings believed in a number of different gods and goddesses. In other words, they were polytheistic. They believed Gods lived in Asgard, a place full of beautiful palaces, which they could get to only by crossing a rainbow bridge. Complete the table below to gain an understanding of the responsibilities of each god/goddess. The first one has been done for you. To help you, use the following website:

http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/norse-mythology.php?explore

Norse Gods.docx

The Afterworld

The Vikings believed that after death they would journey to and live on in another world. As with many of the ancient cultures, the Vikings sent their friends and families into the next world with some of the things they had used in this world.

They buried wealthy and important people in magnificently carved ships, laden with clothing, weaponry, furniture, animals and even servants who were forced to join their employers in death. Then they either buried the ships under great mounds of earth or set the ship and its contents alight in a great funeral pyre (a pile of things that will burn easily).

Families who couldn’t afford this option might have arranged stones around the dead person’s burial plot to frame it with the shape of a ship. Poorer people just had a mound of earth to mark where in the ground they had been buried.

Valhalla and the Valkyries

According to legend, the Valkyries (pronounced Val-kear-rees) were women who used to ride to the battle fields to collect dead warriors and take them to Odin’s castle, Valhalla. These heroes used to relive their battles each morning and then, having recovered from their wounds, would spend the night feasting with Odin. This legend taught people that warriors preferred to die on the battlefield, rather than in their own beds.

Conversion to Christianity

Source 1: The Oseberg ship — a Viking grave. Archaeologists

discovered this in a burial mound in 1904 and rebuilt much of

its damaged interior piece by piece.

Viking traders had frequent contact with Christians and so did those who raided the treasures of monasteries in western Europe. Many traders wore a Christian cross to make it easier to travel through and do business in Christian countries.

As Vikings established settlements in Europe, they gradually began to practise the Christian religion. From the late tenth century onwards, Vikings within Scandinavia — influenced by European missionaries — also began to convert to Christianity.

Some people, wanting to have an ‘each way bet’ began to bury their dead with Christian, as well as pagan, symbols. For the same reason, new converts to Christianity often wore both a Christian cross and a symbol of their old pagan religion. By the mid twelfth century, most of Scandinavia had become part of the Christian world.

Activity

Answer the following questions below based off of the information above

1. Define the words in bold

a) Pyre

b) Mounds

c) Laden

d) Valhalla

e) Valkyrie

2. List what was buried with important and wealthy Vikings. What was the purpose of this?

3. How were poorer people buried?

4. Explain the purpose of the Valkyries and Valhalla.

5. Outline how Christianity developed within Vikings society.

6. Using Source 1, list the way in which the Oseberg ship could be of use an historian.

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