Not to bury was, as in Hellas, an insult to the dead, reserved for the
bodies of hated foes. Conquerors sometimes show their magnanimity (like
Harald Godwineson) by offering to bury their dead foes.

The buried "barrow-ghost" was formidable; he could rise and slay and
eat, vampire-like, as in the tale of Asmund and Aswit. He must in such
case be mastered and prevented doing further harm by decapitation and
thigh-forking, or by staking and burning. So criminals' bodies were
often burnt to stop possible haunting.

Witches and wizards could raise corpses by spells to make them prophesy.
The dead also appeared in visions, usually foretelling death to the
person they visited.

OTHER WORLDS.--The "Land of Undeath" is spoken of as a place reached by
an exiled hero in his wanderings. We know it from Eric the traveller's
S., Helge Thoreson's S., Herrand and Bose S., Herwon S., Thorstan
Baearmagn S., and other Icelandic sources. But the voyage to the Other
Worlds are some of the most remarkable of the narratives Saxo has
preserved for us.

"Hadding's Voyage Underground".--(a) A woman bearing in her lap angelica
fresh and green, though it was deep winter, appears to the hero at
supper, raising her head beside the brazier. Hadding wishes to know
where such plants grow.

(b) She takes him with her, under cover of her mantle, underground.

(c) They pierce a mist, get on a road worn by long use, pass nobly-clad