population density on the farms, and the number of recorded burials, some scholars estimate that up to 50 percent of the population are ‘missing’ from the funerary record in this way. It is similarly unknown whether these people were of low status, or enslaved, or if there was some other factor that determined their particular manner of disposal in death. Snorri’s Saga of the Ynglingas makes a rather muddled attempt at explaining the funerary customs of the pagan past, but there he actually says that many of the dead were cremated and their ashes thrown into water—perhaps he should simply be taken at his word, as this would certainly explain what is (not) seen in the archaeology. Children’s burials are also under-represented.
Only a small, sometimes very small, portion of the original burnt corpse was placed in the ground. A modern, professional cremation will reduce an adult male to about seven or eight litres of ashes and bone material, and slightly less for an adult female. The Viking-Age cremations rarely contain more than a litre of remains. Nobody knows what this means. Did the funeral involve a partition of the ashes—some to the family or onlookers and mourners, some for the earth, and so on? Maybe the dead were stored at home, although not in a permanent way that can be traced.