Sophie Hull-Brown
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 206
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This thesis examines the impact of religious conversion on traditions of death and burial in England, Iceland, and Scandinavia circa 550-1100. It is a commonplace that burial traditions are particularly tenacious, surviving across periods of conversion. Yet this is not always so. Burial traditions exist to fulfil certain needs. These needs are communal, familial, and individual; they are social, practical, emotional, and religious. When burial traditions change during conversion periods, they do so as a result of two factors: either the new religion brings with it traditions that fulfil those same needs, or new beliefs resolve the old needs and produce new ones. The needs I focus on are belief, remembrance, and socio-political expression. Elements of difference in how burial traditions changed across the region suggest the influencing factor of migration, and illustrate how beliefs regarding ancestry, land spirits and the afterlife may play into decisions regarding burial. Chapter one defines the terms in use and introduces concepts of religion, conversion, community, and death. I discuss the sources used and their limitations. Chapter two focuses on the needs created by belief, how they changed across conversion periods, and how these changes impacted burial traditions. Chapter three discusses the importance of remembrance in burial tradition, and how the impact of literacy allowed communities to move away from traditions such as grave goods. The final chapter examines the importance of socio-political expression. Through burial practices, rulers proclaimed their political alliances or independence, social status was asserted and re-negotiated, and personal identity was expressed.