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Burial assignment Vikings in the Celtic World
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Balemans-Højberg 1Cecilie Balemans-Højberg
Vikings in the Celtic World (CCIV10040)
29 October 2021
1.856 words
An Encounter with Viking Burials and Artefacts
As the title suggests, in ‘Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus’, we can read about
Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s encounter with a Viking group called the Rus. Ibn-Fadlan was an ambassador
of the khalif of Baghdad that left the city and encountered the Rus on his way to handle with the
Bulgars.1 The Rus were “Norse traders who travelled east across the Baltic and settled in parts of
present-day Russia and Ukraine.”2 Ibn-Fadlan encountered this Viking group as they were stationed
along the Volga.3 His encounter with the Rus is a detailed account, and it is believed to be written
around 921-922 AD.4 Ibn-Fadlan’s account is very much a secondhand account since he was
encountering a group of people whose culture he was unfamiliar with and not able to understand
what was said as he did not speak the language. He had to rely on an interpreter to tell him what
was said afterwards.5 According to McMahon, Ibn-Fadlan had been accused of exaggerating in his
work as Ibn-Fadlan was believed to be a Muslim who had particular customs when it came to, for
example, cleaning or ritual washing.6 Therefore, there may have been certain prejudices at play
when Ibn-Fadlan went on to look at and describe a foreign group of people and their customs.7 That
being said, this is an early first-hand account of a Viking burial and thus should not be disregarded.
Having read this regional account, this essay goes beyond Viking burials in a narrow sense; it
examines other primary sources, particularly archaeological artefacts and secondary sources that
describe findings at different Viking settlements. Though what Ibn-Fadlan describes might be true,
we should bear in mind that what he describes is seen from a possibly biased standpoint. Therefore,
1 Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan, Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus. Edited for CCIV10040 Autumn
2021, 1.
2 Brian McMahon, “The Vikings: Myths and Misconceptions,” in Viking Myths and Rituals on the Isle of
Man, ed. L. Gardeła and C. Larrington (Nottingham: University of Nottingham, 2014), 15.
3 Meave Sikora, “Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial: A Comparative Study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland
and Ireland,” The Journal of Irish Archaeology, vol. 12-13 (2003-2004): 88, JSTOR.
4 Sikora, “Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial,” 88.
5 Ibn-Fadlan, Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus, 2.
6 McMahon, “The Vikings: Myths and Misconceptions,” 15.
7 Ibid.
, Balemans-Højberg 2
one wonders to what extent Ibn-Fadlan’s account of the Vikings corresponds with what the Vikings
themselves leave us with.8
When Ibn-Fadlan describes the Viking funeral, he states that the chiefs will be consumed
with fire when they die and that the deceased’s family will light the ship on fire.9 Ibn-Fadlan seems
to be describing a ship burial here. This can be true since we have the Ballateare burial on the Isle
of Man, which are burial grounds near the sea and therefore, a cremation at sea would not be
unlikely. To confirm that ship burials happened in the Viking world outside of the Baltic Sea, where
Ibn-Fadlan’s account with the Rus takes place, we can look at Balladoole, which was a ship burial
site on the Isle of Man.10 After talking with his interpreter, Ibn-Fadlan discovers that the Vikings
call burying their revered men and chiefs like the Arabs do, stupid as their bodies will lay in their
graves and slowly decay as they are being devoured by worms and other critters.11 The Vikings of
this particular group appear to believe that cremating their dead ones will allow them to enter into
Paradise immediately.12 Although this group of Vikings seemed to be very keen on cremating their
dead, we cannot be sure if this was the case everywhere as we have found ship burials, like
Balladoole, that were still intact and had not been cremated.13 This may suggest that the belief of
cremating the deceased to enter into Paradise immediately was a regional belief that was not shared
among all Viking groups.
Another element that Ibn-Fadlan discusses in his report is the grooming customs of the
Vikings. Ibn-Fadlan starts by saying that the Vikings are “the filthiest race that god ever created”,
which he may have thought because Muslims have specific practices for when it comes to cleaning
things.14 McMahon notes that hygiene amongst Vikings was not at all consistent.15 Some were
indeed filthy and barely cleaned themselves, whereas others were vain and took extra care when
grooming themselves.16 That being said, after Ibn-Fadlan mentions how filthy the Vikings were, he
8 Ibid.
9 Ibn-Fadlan, Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus, 1-2.
10 Mark Redknap, “Great Sites Balladoole,”British Archaeology, no. 59 (June 2001): 1.
11 Ibn-Fadlan, Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus, 2.
12 Ibid.
13 Redknap, “Great Sites: Balladoole,” 1.
14 Ibn-Fadlan, Extract from Ahmed Ibn-Fadlan’s Account of the Rus, 2.
McMahon, “The Vikings: Myths and Misconceptions,” 15.
15 McMahon, “The Vikings: Myths and Misconceptions,” 15.
16 Ibid.
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