Friday Fences - Around Viking Burial Mounds

Thought I may as well finish off the week in southern Sweden with a Friday Fence around some Viking burial mounds. Earlier in the week it was the red barns and gorgeous farmland of the area as our tour bus headed south to cross over into Denmark. The night before we had stayed at Toftaholm Manor, an historic lakeside inn. Here it is in the evening light (painted a softy mustard yellow--second most popular color to the Falu red). The manor grounds had its own burial grounds which I'll tell you about in a minute.

When we left Toftaholm manor the next morning it was raining so I was too lazy to get off the tour bus and traipse across the fields but managed to get a few shots of the burial mounds through the bus window.   Notice the steps for climbing over the fence--instead of a gate. In the 5th/6th century A.D., fire and water played important roles in Viking death ceremonies. For the royalty, a ship may be fully equipped with the dead and all they would need to make it to Valhalla and then set adrift on the sea. In another method of burial, pits were dug in the ground and a funeral pyre lit. After the fire ceremony, the site was covered with stones and earth to make these burial mounds. You see them dotting the Swedish farm landscape. Some mounds are marked with huge boulders as in these photos:

Now moving ahead to about 1000 A.D., here's an example of a rune stone, one of the oldest Christian monuments. This stone was on the grounds of Toftaholm Manor and the inscription said something like "in memory of brother Fare, God rest his soul. . ." Fare, or Farelander, was a common Scandinavian male name and meant traveler or one who journeys to England:

For more Friday Fences, check out the growing list of participants at Life According to Jan and Jer.