Page "Norse funeral" Paragraph 17

Meanwhile, the thrall girl went from one tent to the other and had sexual intercourse with the men.

Every man told her " tell your master that I did this because of my love to him ".

While in the afternoon, they moved the thrall girl to something that looked like a door frame, where she was lifted on the palms of the men three times.

Every time, the girl told of what she saw.

The first time, she saw her father and mother, the second time, she saw all her relatives, and the third time she saw her master in the afterworld.

There, it was green and beautiful and together with him, she saw men and young boys.

She saw that her master beckoned for her.

By using intoxicating drinks, they thought to put the thrall girl in an ecstatic trance that made her psychic and through the symbolic action with the door frame, she would then see into the realm of the dead.

The same ritual also appears in the Icelandic short story Völsa þáttr where two pagan Norwegian men lift the lady of the household over a door frame to help her look into the otherworld.