Death is an absolute unknown. All written records date from the post-Christian era and seem to have been influenced by Christian ideas about death.
The Vikings did believe in an afterlife, as Norse burial customs were clearly designed to ensure that the deceased had everything they needed to thrive after death.
Viking burial rites
The most common Viking funerary practices were cremation (followed by burial of the cremated remains) or burial. Viking burials tended to include burial items alongside the dead, suggesting that they would be needed in the afterlife.
Vikings were buried with things that reflected their lives: tools of their profession, jewelry that showed their status, and could also be used as urgent currency (Vikings often chipped off pieces of their jewelry to use as currency), and warriors with weapons.
Very wealthy Vikings could be buried in a ship that they could use in the afterlife, or in stone outlines designed to represent ships that also seemed suitable for the purpose.
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There is also strong evidence that very, very wealthy people may have been buried with slaves. A Norwegian burial at Flakstad, Norway, contains several bodies in one grave, suggesting that most were slaves.
The 10th century traveler Ahmed Ibn Fadlan also claims to have seen a woman sacrificed during the funeral of a Viking leader. But most of the Vikings had a much more modest send-off.
The kingdoms of the dead in Norse mythology
Many of us have heard of Valhalla, but this is just a small part of the broader Scandinavian understanding of the afterlife.
Scandinavian mythology suggests that a person consisted of four parts: Hamr, physical appearance; Hugr, personality or character; Fligja, totem, or familiar spirit; and Hamingja, quality or innate success in life. While someone's Hamr is leaving this world, it is likely their Khugr moves into the afterlife, while their Hamingja may continue in their family, explaining the Norse practice of describing people as ancestral reincarnations.
According to Scandinavian mythology, there were several different afterlife worlds where the Hugr soul element could be located.
Such as:
Valhalla, the most famous land of the dead, was considered a great hall in Asgard, the kingdom of the Scandinavian gods. This hall belonged to Odin, the king of the Scandinavian gods and the god of war and wisdom.
Folkvangr is the kingdom of the goddess Freya, the Scandinavian goddess of fertility and magic, she also took the fallen Viking warriors from the battlefield, the most famous were here.
According to Norse mythology, Vikings who did not fall in battle are likely to end up in Helheim, a world under Midgard in the cosmology of Norse mythology ruled by the goddess Hel.
Some stories from Norse mythology also suggest that the dead may have ended up in Helgafjell, the Holy Mountain, which could have been a specific place or just a mountain in the vicinity.