Did the Vikings Really Shoot Fiery Arrows at Funeral Boats?

The notion of Vikings firing arrows with burning tips at funeral boats is widespread. Yet, there is no evidence that such a practice ever took place.

Film and television often show a dead Viking being set upon a boat, which an archer from the shore then ignites with a flaming arrow. This scene appears in the 1958 film “The Vikings,” the History Channel show “Vikings”, and fantasy series such as “Game of Thrones.”. Yet archaeologists and historians say there is little evidence to support it.

What the Archaeological Record Shows

Archaeologists say burial practices leave little trace. “Practices would leave little trace, and they are unverified by archaeological sources,” Howard Williams, an archaeology professor at the University of Chester in the U.K., said.

Professor Erin McGuire of the University of Victoria in Canada concurred. From an archaeological perspective, there is no evidence for this very common motif, McGuire told Live Science. Shipwrecks containing human remains are rare worldwide, and preserving them requires specific circumstances, “It takes particular kinds of environmental conditions for them to be preserved and I know of none from the Viking Age,” she observed.

We do have archaeological evidence that Vikings burned their dead, McGuire said. Ships and parts of ships were burnt during funerary practices while still on land, then buried after being burned. One example is the ninth-century Myklebust ship, a burnt Viking ship found in a burial mound in Norway built for a rich person, possibly a king.

The Closest Historical Account

The closest evidence comes from Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a 10th-century Arab traveler who went to the Volga River in what is now Russia and spent time with Viking groups there. In his account, a Viking chieftain is placed on a boat, which is set ablaze.

The major distinction is that there was no flaming arrow involved in the boat’s destruction. Instead, a chief mourner set the vessel ablaze. The boat and its deceased chieftain were on land, not in the water.

There are also legendary accounts from medieval literature. In the epic poem “Beowulf,” the funeral of the Danish king Scyld Scefing sees the dead king placed on a ship that drifts off to sea. In the 13th-century Scandinavian book “Heimskringla,” by Snorri Sturluson of Iceland, the “sea-king Haki [was] set adrift and set alight so that his body burned with those of his slain retinue.” In another story by Sturluson, “the god Baldr is set adrift and his ship set alight by his brother Thor.”

McGuire pointed out that the funeral of Baldr stood out, noting that it was the inspiration behind a similar funeral scene in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books.

Why the Arrow Probably Wouldn’t Work

According to experts, setting a ship on fire from the shore with flaming arrows is an unlikely scenario. Matthias Toplak, head of the archaeology department at the Viking Museum Haithabu in Germany, told Live Science that cremation at sea using a ship set alight from the shore with flaming arrows is rather unrealistic.

Toplak said that for a cremation to be fully effective, fire must burn at a high temperature for several hours. A ship at sea would most likely sink before the body had been sufficiently cremated. There’s also the risk that a ship ablaze and drifting could collide with other vessels or harbour facilities.

McGuire noted another practical problem. “if you send a burning boat out onto the water, how do you stop it from drifting ashore with rather grisly contents?”

What Experts Think

The experts we consulted were doubtful that Vikings used fire arrows for funeral boats. “However romantic the idea of such a funeral scene may be, I unfortunately consider it highly unlikely,” Toplak said.

Williams suspects 20th-century Hollywood movies played a major role in creating the idea. “I strongly suspect this specific trope owes its origin to the 1958 film The Vikings and the concluding scene of Einar’s funeral,” Williams said.

“it says little about how ‘Vikings’ treated their dead,” Williams added. “but tells us a lot about our valorised ideals of fate, honour and death linked to both fantasy and historical ‘Vikings.'”

Key Facts Box

• The Myklebust ship burned on land, buried after
• The Volga account is from 10th-century Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan
• The “Heimskringla” was written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson
• The 1958 film “The Vikings” is the likely origin of the trope
• No archaeological evidence of burning boats at sea

Ranking the Evidence

1. The Myklebust ship — actual burnt remains on land
2. Ibn Fadlan’s account — closest historical description, no arrow
3. Beowulf and Heimskringla — legendary accounts, possibly inspired by real events

There is considerable reason to believe that the fire-arrow scene is a creation of Hollywood rather than something that actually happened. The closest description involves a boat set ablaze on land by a mourner, not an archer on a hilltop. Toplak’s experiments and conclusions likewise point toward the scene being unrealistic.

The question has no clear answer, and the scene before us is a work of imagination rather than something true to life.

Source material: “Did the Vikings really shoot fiery arrows at funeral boats?,” Live Science.

Ancient History · burial practices · funeral boats · historical archaeology · Vikings