As for how the Vikings worshiped the gods whose gloomy future they shared, not much is known. Following the conversion of the Norse lands to Christianity, church officials purposely suppressed and eventually destroyed most of the existing writings that described Scandinavian pagan rituals and/or contained pagan prayers. Over the centuries, therefore, these and many other elements of the older faith were lost and forgotten. But thanks to the tireless work of archaeologists, modern experts have been able to put together an approximate picture of pagan Viking worship.
First, rituals took place mostly in private settings. For instance, a few worshipers congregating in a barn on a farm belonging to one of them would have been quite common. Also, some special holy places, called ve, were located in the countryside, mainly in forests. There, people carved wooden figures of gods and prayed to them.
They also took part in the ritual of sacrifice (blota, which was also the word for worship in general). This involved the slaughter of goats, cattle, and other animals, whose blood and hides were thought to please the gods. Sometimes a worshiper placed the head, or even the whole carcass, of a dead beast above the door of his or her house. This act was intended as a way of giving thanks to one or more gods for some beneficial aid, for example an abundant harvest or success in a raid or battle. Such good fortune, the Norse believed, might also result from the worshiper's wearing or carrying an amulet, an object that people thought held various magical properties. Viking amulets were often composed of wood or metal and shaped like gods or the weapons or symbols of those deities.
Archaeologists have found both amulets and the remains of sacrificed animals in excavated Norse gravesites. Some pagan Vikings placed not only animals, but also food, weapons, and other goods in their graves because they believed in an afterlife. It was thought that the deceased person would require these items in the world beyond. However, not all Vikings accepted the notion of the afterlife. According to a number of surviving accounts, an unknown percentage of the population thought that one's earthly life was all there was and that
These stone grave markers were set in place more than nine centuries ago in a Danish Viking burial ground
No soul or other spark of that life survived death.
Whatever their beliefs about life after death, all Vikings followed certain rituals when someone died. The custom was for family members or close friends to prepare the body for cremation or burial. As one modern expert puts it:
The first act was usually to close the nostrils, mouth, and eyes. Often, the body was washed and the head wrapped in a cloth. If the death occurred at home, the body was sometimes carried away by a special route to the place of burial. The latter was a precaution taken if it was feared that the dead person would become an evil dead walker [zombie], who might return and harm the living. Although the dead were generally regarded as guardians watching [out for] the family. . . persons who had disgraced themselves in death became outcast ancestors and would typically roam as ghosts.58
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