How to bury a dead Viking ?
 Danish sport enthusiasts always wear a Viking helmet on the stand. They are proud at their ancestors, in despite how cruel a Viking could be. The answer can be found on campsites in Denmark.
Vikings are well though of here. When on holiday on a campsite in Denmark we noticed an old Viking tomb and took a look inside. Of course there are no dead bodies but it sure made an impression. Also to the children on the Danish campsite , for during the rest of our holidays they were playing Viking games at Danish campsites , wearing their horned toy helmets with pride.
Division of tasks
From the end of the 8 th century the Vikings have ben the first adventurers in the world, as Columbus went for his trips some seven centuries
later. Much later, the Portuguese and Dutch explorers went out for their world journeys. The division of tasks between the several Nordic Viking
groups were clear: the men from present Norway went west, the former Swedes headed east, and the Danish Vikings left their campsites in Denmark
for their discoveries down south. Netherlands, Flanders, England and France. In fact, for the Danes nothing has really changed.
 Hit and run
In the beginning these voyages were nothing but robberies because of over population and shortage of food. As the eldest son inherited all his
father’s possessions, there soon were a lot of young warriors leaving home just to make a living. The plundering of the British monastery
Lindisfarne in the year 793 at the English north east coast is marked as the first official raid. In the beginning the raids went according to
the hit-and-run tactics. After a quick surprise assault the attackers were already gone before the victims could even turn their head – if
they still could, of course. From the year 840 there was more structure in the visits. The raiders became colonists and built Danish campsites,
settlements for trading. So, Vikings were explorers, craftsmen, traders and talented shipbuilders. For building and sailing a seaworthy ship of
just 16 meters long must have been quite a job. If the ship had a frightening dragon’s head or angry snake on its bow it was a battleship,
a ‘drakkar’. The civil version called ‘knarr’ was built for freight and looked less intimidating.
 Ceremonial campsite grave
The word 'Viking’ originates from the old-Norwegian language, and when translated means ‘man who fights at sea’. A leader who was
killed in action with his weapon in his hands was given a much more suitable funeral as the ones in the Viking grave mentioned above or under the
Danish campsites . He was laid on a number of battle shields at the ship’s afterdeck, and the vessel was abandoned. Then, the ship was set
alight by flaming arrows and the dead Viking leader went to the Walhalla (the Viking heaven) in a burning inferno. This story made quite an
impression to the kids at the campsite in Denmark . One of their plastic ‘Action Man’ toys was renamed as a Viking chief killed in
action, probably because he had a weapon in his hands. The children built a ship for him with wooden twigs, and the poor Action Man was laid on a
few coloured beer mats at the ‘afterdeck’. Now came the hardest part of the job: how do you set this thing on fire? After some efforts
with a burning glass, the children finally went for a more modern technique: “dad, can we use your lighter please?” It worked and the
unfortunate Viking, was set to sea from the Danish campsite on his burning vessel.
Next morning, a shrivelled piece of plastic was washed ashore at the Danish campsite beach – the Action Man appeared to be made of immortal
material. On campsites in Denmark real Vikings would never had made mistakes like this.
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