Editing Viking ship (section)

== Ship burial ==
{{See also|Ship burial}}
[[File:Ladbyskibet.jpg|thumb|The [[Ladby ship]] is part of a [[ship burial]] that has been preserved where it was discovered, with a museum built around it]]

Prominent men or women in Norse society sometimes received a ship burial. The body of the deceased would be prepared and dressed in fine clothes and then be transported to the burial-place in a wagon drawn by horses. The deceased would be placed on the ship, along with many prized possessions. Horses, dogs and occasionally [[thrall]]s and households might also be sacrificially killed and buried with the deceased. The origin and meaning of these customs remain unknown. Several examples of Viking ship burials have been excavated, e.g. the [[Oseberg ship]] in Norway, containing the remains of two women, the [[Gokstad ship]] in Norway, and the [[Ladby ship]] in Denmark.

There are literary sources such as the Norse  ''[[Skjoldunga Saga]]'' and the ''[[Ynglinga Saga]]'' which describe more literal "ship burials" in which the deceased and goods are placed on a boat in the water and the vessel is launched into the sea, sometimes being shot with burning arrows and vanishing into the night, ablaze. Nothcotte Toller, however, states:
{{blockquote|Whether such fiery funerals ever actually took place is impossible to know; but it is much more difficult to imagine that a king's body and accompanying treasures would have been simply pushed out to sea, where they would have been in danger of returning, or of falling into the hands of strangers or even enemies who might maltreat the one and plunder the other.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Nothcotte Toller|title=Textual and Material Culture in Anglo-Saxon England|date=2003|publisher=D.S. Brewer|page=43}}</ref>}}

Burial of ships is an ancient tradition in Scandinavia, stretching back to at least the [[Nordic Iron Age]], as evidenced by the [[Hjortspring boat]] (400–300 BC) or the [[Nydam Mose|Nydam boats]] (200–450 AD), for example. Ships and bodies of water have held major spiritual importance in the Norse cultures since at least the [[Nordic Bronze Age]].