As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

burial

Was This Viking Warrior Gender Fluid?

by
Vikings - Pixabay

An ancient Viking warrior who was given a hero’s burial may have been “transgender, non-binary or gender fluid”, according to researchers. Three years ago, the ornately dressed remains of a high-status Viking warrior from the mid-900s were discovered alongside swords, spears and two slaughtered horses in Birka, Sweden. Following studies, it was assumed that the remains of the Viking warrior were those of a female – a finding that threw into question a once commonly-accepted view that Vikings ascribed to traditional gender roles. Now, three years on, scholars are questioning whether the remains could actually have been those of a … Read more

Viking Laid to rest for Likely “Mirror Afterlife”

by
Viking Burial

Archaeologists in Norway have unearthed the 1,100-year-old grave of a Viking warrior, whose steel sword was placed in an unusual spot: on his left side. Though the sword’s sinistral position is still somewhat perplexing, one theory is that the Vikings perceived the afterlife to be a mirror image of the real world, so whoever buried this warrior may have been accounting for that, said Raymond Sauvage, the excavation’s project manager and an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum. According to that theory, the warrior would have been left-handed and worn the sword at his … Read more

For Writers: Death in the Future

by
death

Every society has its ways of dealing with death. Some enforce long mourning periods in ritual dress. Some cover mirrors. Some hold celebrations of life. And of course there are countless individual variations as well. I once read a great book by a terrible author whose name I won’t share here, where telling the whole truth about a person, both the good and the bad, had become a tradition. It fascinated me – this idea that we do a disservice to people by only saying the good things about them after they have passed. On the practical side, cemeteries take … Read more