In 922 a.d wrapped in so many clothes that he could barely move
a Muslim Arab envoy from Baghdad an ambassador
encountered a party of viking traders on the upper reaches of the volga river in today's Russia
reporting on his diplomatic mission Ibn Fadlan offered a detailed description of viking customs,
dress, religion, and sexual practices as well as the only surviving witness account we have
of a ship cremation I'm going to read to you his account of this cremations absolutely fascinating
and very disturbing a shocking ritual involving the haunting figure of the angel of death humane
inquisitive and written without any moral judgment despite the often alarming nature of what he saw
eben account is one of the earliest we have of the viking way of life and a fascinating record
of the one of the first encounters between northern europe and the muslim world
and I'm going to be reading from the penguin classics edition of his writings there we are it's
called Ibn Fadlan and the land of darkness and it actually contains other essays by other very
early Arab traders and explorers all very very interesting and on page 49 as I say he describes
in great detail uh this um the burial and the burning of the viking nobleman and just a warning
uh some of these details are very disturbing some of them are almost pornographic so if that's going
to be an issue please don't listen any further but it is a dispassionate account of what he saw
so it is a great benefit to us much much later to see how the very earliest muslim explorers
and diplomats saw the rest of the world around them so on page 49 he writes and the heading here
there's little sub chapters headings by penguin I think the burial of a great man it says and our
author writes they say that when their great men die they do all kinds of things to them of which
burning is the least I wanted to have certain knowledge of this but did not until one day
I learned of the death of one of their great men they placed him in his grave that is in the ground
and which they covered with a roof and they left him there for 10 days
waiting while they finished cutting and sewing his garments the burial of a poor man
if the dead man was poor they built him a small boat and place him in it and set it on fire
if he was wealthy they gather together his fortune and divide it into three parts one for his
family one to have his clothes cut out for him and another to have the wine prepared that they will
drink on the day that his slave girl kills herself and is burned with her master now a lot of this
account which I'm going to read is taken up with the preparation and selection of this slave girl
what happens to her and her terrible end and that's where it gets very very disturbing I think
for they for they drink wine unrestrainedly night and day so that sometimes one of them dies with
his wine cup in his hand funeral of a noble when a great man dies the members of his family say
to his slave girls and young slave boys which of you will die with him one of them replies i will
once they have spoken it is irreversible and there is no turning back if they wanted to change their
mind they would not be allowed to usually it is the slave girls who offer to die it's interesting
why should it be the slave girls normally not the slave boys we're not told when the man whom i
mentioned above died they said to his slave girls who will die with him one of them says I will
then they appointed two young slave girls to watch over her
and follow her everywhere she went sometimes even washing her feet with their own hands
everyone busies himself about the dead man cutting out clothes for him and preparing everything that
he will need it's interesting he will need things even though he's dead meanwhile the
slave girl spends each day drinking and singing happily and joyfully so why would she be happy
and joy full of joy well it becomes clearer towards the end just before she's killed why
apparently she is joyful and happy when the day came that the man was to be burned
and the girl with him I went to the river where his boat was anchored
I saw that they had drawn his boat up onto the shore and that four posts of birch
or other wood had been driven into the ground and round these posts a framework of wood had been
erected next they drew up the boat until it rested on this wooden construction then they came forward
coming and going pronouncing words which I did not understand while the man was still in his grave
not yet taken out by this is the only account we have in the world of a viking burial where the
the body was burned the next sub-heading is the angel of death this is where it gets a bit grim
then they brought a bed and placed it on the boat and covered it with a mattress
and cushions of byzantine silk brocade that's very nice then came an old woman
whom they called the angel of death and she spread the bed with coverings we have just mentioned she
is in charge of sewing and arranging all these things and it is she who killed the slave girls i
saw that she was a witch thick-bodied and sinister this is the arab muslim ambassador witnessing this
when they came to the tomb of the dead man they removed the earth from the top of the wood
and then the wood itself and they took out the dead man wrapped in the garment in which he died
i saw that he had turned black because of the coldness of the country they had put wine in the
tomb with him and fruit and a drum not sure why but they took all this out the dead men did not
the dead man did not smell bad and nothing about him had changed except his color they dressed
him in trousers socks socks boots a tunic and a brocade caftan with gold buttons on his head
they placed a brocade cap covered with sable it's kind of a black color then they bore him into the
pavilion on the boat and sat him on the mattress supported by cushions then they brought wine
fruit and basil which they placed near him next they carried him bread meat onions which they laid
before him i'm quite sure why but hey that's what they did the next section is uh entitled sacrifice
animals sacrificial animals after that they brought in a dog which they cut into and threw
into the boat then they placed his weapons beside him next they took two horses and made them run
until they were in lather in other words they were foaming at the mouth from exhaustion
before hacking them to pieces with swords and throwing their flesh onto the boat
then they brought two cows and guess what happened to them which they also cut into pieces and threw
them onto the boat finally they brought a [ __ ] and a hen killed them and threw them onto the boat
as well now the next section is where it gets pornographic but i say this is a almost scientific
academic description of what he saw for the caliph back in baghdad you know who were these people
and this is what they did so this is a kind of diplomatic report uh for uh the islamic empire
and the section is entitled the slave girl has sex with those present
meanwhile the slave girl who wanted to be killed came and went entering in turn each
of the pavilions that had been built and the master of each pavilion had
intercourse with her saying tell your master the dead man that i only did this for your love of him
next section the slave girl gazes on paradise so this is why now she's so full of joy allegedly
on friday when the time had come for the evening prayer i'm not sure if he means
magrib or he's talking about the viking prayer i don't know they they led the slave girl towards
something that they had constructed and which looked like the frame of a door
they placed her feet on the palms of the hands of the men until she could look over the frame
she said some words and they let her down they then raised her a second time and she
did as she had the first and then they set her down again and the third time she did as she
had done the other two then they brought her a chicken she cut off its head and tossed it away
then they took the chicken and threw it onto the boat i asked the interpreter this is the
arab ambassador i asked the interpreter what she had been doing was very mysterious he replied
the first time they lifted her up she said i see my my father and my mother
the second time she said there i see all my dead relatives sitting and the third time she
said there i see my master the dead guy sitting in paradise and paradise is green and beautiful there
are men with him and young people and sh and he is calling me take me to him and quote so that's why
she's happy she's expecting to be reunited with her dead master and joining other people as well
our author continues they went off with her towards the boat she took off the two bracelets
that she was wearing and gave them both to the old woman who was known as the angel of death
she who was to kill her then she stripped off her two anklets kind of ankle bracelets and gave them
to the two young girls the slaves who had served her they were the daughters of the woman called
the angel of death then the men lifted her onto the boat but did not let her enter the pavilion
next men came with shields and staves this is getting really heated up now
they handed the girl a cup of wine she sang a song over it and drank the interpreter translated what
she was saying and explained that she was bidding all her female companions farewell
then they gave her another cup i keep on playing it with alcohol you see she took it and continued
singing for a long time while the old woman you know the angel of death encouraged her to drink
and then urged her to enter the pavilion and join her master she's getting sinister now i saw
that the girl did not know what she was doing well she's obviously completely drunk by this point she
wanted to enter the pavilion but she put her head between it and the boat then the old woman seized
her head made her enter the pavilion and went in with her the men began to bang on their shields
with staves to drown her cries so that the other slave girls would not be frightened and try to
avoid dying with their masters how thoughtful next six men entered the pavilion and lay with the girl
one after another after which they laid her beside her masters in other words they had intercourse
with her two seized her feet and two others her hands the old woman called the angel of death came
and put a cord around her neck in such a way that the two ends went in opposite directions
she gave the ends to two of the men so that they could pull on them then she herself approached the
girl holding in her hand a dagger with a broad blade and plunged it again and
again between the girl's ribs while the two men strangled her with the cord until she was dead
and then the next uh section is uh entitled the burning of the boat this is the famous burning of
the viking boats with the deceased and a slave and the horses and the cows and everything else all on
board next the closest male relative of the dead man came forward and took a piece of wood which
he lit at a fire he then walked backwards towards the boat his face turned towards the people who
were there one hand holding the piece of flaming wood the other covering his anus for he was naked
very odd point there thus he set fire to the wood that had been or set already under the boat
after they had placed the slave guard beside her master then the people came with wood and logs to
burn each holding a piece of a wood a light at one end which they threw on the wood the fire
enveloped the wood then the boat then the tent then the man the girl and all that there was on
the boat a violent and frightening wind began to blow the flames grew in strength and the heat of
the fire intensified now this is the last section uh which i think is particularly interesting
it's entitled why the rus burn the dead russ's in other words the russians the russian vikings why
do they burn the dead one of the rus was standing beside me and i heard him speak to my interpreter
i asked the latter what he had said he replied you arabs are fools why is that i asked him
he said because you put the men you love most and the most noble among you
into the earth and the earth and the worms and the insects eat them but we burn them in the fire
in an instant so that at once and without delay they enter paradise
then he began to laugh in a very excessive way i asked him why he was laughing and he said
his lord for love of him has sent a wind that will bear him heads within the hour and indeed
not an hour had passed before the ship would girl and master were no more than ashes and dust
so there we are that's the end of the quote and he goes on to talk about the uh the grave mound that
was then made and so on so it's fascinating account but what i like at the end there
are the cultural differences between the vikings and the muslims the muslims of course
bury their dead like the jews and the christians do as a mark of respect but from the viking point
of view this is barbaric you know you're allowing your loved ones your nobles to be eaten by insects
and worms you see they the vikings they burn them but i'm not terribly convinced because this
burning goes along with human sacrifice the wanton destruction of animals cows horses dogs and so on
the killing of a slave girl you know it's clearly um from a muslim point of view in
a christian point of view completely unacceptable um so absolutely that's the only account we have
first person account of someone who was there who witnessed this ritual this burial this sacrifice
the whole thing and uh so there we are just thought i'd share that with you this is the
book as i say well worth reading if you haven't read it before till next time