Viking Age Burial Customs

Viking Age burial customs lecture: Thursday 29 October 2026, 19:00–21:00, Kirke Hyllinge Bibliotek, Kirke Hyllinge.

On 29 October 2026, Jens Ulriksen, museum inspector at the Viking Ship Museum, will give a lecture on Viking Age burial customs in the local area. The event is a collaboration between Lejre Archive, Lejre Historical Society, Historical Society for Bramsnæs and Hvalsø, and the journal Lethrica.

Compared to modern Christian burial traditions, Viking Age burial customs were surprisingly varied. Written sources from the period are scarce, so it is archaeological excavations that provide our knowledge. Burial customs were neither purely chronological nor regionally determined - even within the same burial ground and the same era, the dead were treated very differently. Behind this variation lay the Viking Age worldview and beliefs.

The lecture is based on two specific burial sites: Kirke Hyllinge Kirkebakke and Trekroner-Grydehøj near Roskilde, both of which were excavated 20-25 years ago.