Nine paces from Hel: time and motion in Old Norse ritual performance

Abstract

Recent research on burial ritual and cultic practice among the Scandinavian peoples during the Viking Age (c. ad 750–1100) has generated an increasing interest in the notion of performance as one of their integral components. Building on earlier studies that have addressed the issue in principle, this paper focuses on the practical ways in which evidence for funerary and cultic drama can be recovered from the archaeological record. With an emphasis on the reconstruction of participatory movement and the time frame of ritual, a series of case studies is explored, drawing on both excavated graves and the archaeology of sacred space.