The Zoroastrian and Viking Funeral

The Viking Funeral is when a chieftain dies they bury him in a temporary grave for ten days. During this time clothes are prepared for the individual. Along with specials clothes, when a chieftain dies one of his slave girls is required to “volunteer” to join him in the afterlife. Once the tribute was chosen she will then be guarded throughout the day and night. She would be given daily doses of an intoxicating drink throughout this period. When the cremation ceremony finally began the girl would have to travel from tent to tent until she had sex with every man in the village. They would rape this girl behind the reasoning that they were doing this all out of love for the deceased. At the end of this tent to tent trail of sex, the final tent would contain six men, after they had sex with her they would strangle her to death with a rope and then she would be stabbed by a village matriarch. To finish off the ritual the chieftain and the slave girl would be placed on a wooden ship and set on fire. This was referred to as the coup de grace. The Vikings did this ritual so that they would ensure the chieftain had a slave girl to serve him in the afterlife.

Once a Zoroastrian dies the body is seen as defiling. Anything it touches is considered tainted, this includes the ground, clothes, people, and even fire. In order to cleanse the body the Zoroastrians would douse it in unconsecrated bull urine. Which could not just be done by any random person but only by a trained member of the community. Once the body was cleansed the deceased would be wrapped in linen and then visited twice by a dog that could ward off the evil spirits, this dog was called the Sagdid. After the Sagdid was finished the family and friends were able to see the body and say their goodbyes, although touching the deceased was strictly forbidden. Once the mourners are done the body is stripped of all its clothing, done so by using tools to take the clothes off.  It is placed on a Dhakma or the “Tower of Silence” and then vultures are welcome to come and prey on the deceased. Leaving no remnants left behind.

The only real similarities are that both cultures do not bury their dead. In the end there is virtually no physical remains of the bodies. In contrast to one another, the Zoroastrains go through their ritual fairlly quickly. The Vikings took up to two whole weeks to finish the process. Each culture has their own way of giving respects to their deceased. For the Vikings it is to sacrifice the slave and for the Zoroastrians it is to cleanse their body after it has been defiled.

The Vikings

Zoroastrians