Among these the cremation ceremonies are especially conspicuous.
Cremation took the place of burial of the dead.
In Beowulf cremation is represented as the prevailing custom.
One or two vases are found in each barrow, ornamented with finger-imprints, string decoration, &c. The later period is characterized by the practice of cremation, though the remains are still placed in harrows.
But after cremation came in a mourning procession of servants and chiefs carrying the body to the funeral pyre to be burnt by the demondressed priests, after which the crowd of wives and slaves were exhorted to serve their lord faithfully in the next world, were sacrificed and their bodies burnt.