The large barrow Borum Eshøj contained 3 coffins with the bodies of 2 men and a woman. The trees of which the coffins were made were felled around 1350 BCE. Amazingly their clothes survived and they carried many objects with them.
Tree Graves
While it was common for the Germanic people to cremate their ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and bury them in either burial mounds or halls, some other traditions were used as well to take care of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. One of these methods was the burial of people in hollowed out trees.
This method of burial has been used since the bronze age. A few examples are, the Egtved bronze age girl from modern day Denmark, the Borum Eshøj graves in modern day Denmark (about which I have written a post before), Tree coffin from Oberflacht, Germany, tree coffin found in Hegebeintum, the Netherlands. There is a legend, described by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century, that the body of king Arthur himself was buried in an oak tree trunk said to be discovered in 1191.
Curiously enough, almost all of these tree coffins were made out of oak. From England to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark these oak coffins have been found. Now why they were all made from oak is unknown but we do know that the oak tree plays a very important role in the Germanic spirituality. The sacred trees in honour of Donar were also all oak trees. Perhaps the Ygdrᴀssil is an oak tree.
The practice of oak coffin burials continued until the medieval ages. The Frisians were one of the last people who still buried their people in oak coffins which is curious since there are hardly any trees in Frisia. Oak does not grow well in these wet lands often claimed by the sea so these trees must have been imported.
The Frisian tree graves date back to the 7th and 8th century, a time during which Christianity spread like wildfire. Christian graves from this time were buried in a certain direction (East-West), these tree graves weren’t buried in a Christian fashion so we can ᴀssume that these people were still pagans.
A reconstruction has been made of the remains found in Hegebeintum, Frisia, the Netherlands. Her grave was found in 1905 in a terp, she still lies inside her hollowed out oak tree. Inside the tree, beads of amber, glᴀss and shells were found as well. Looking at her face gives us an unique insight into the very last pagan Frisians from the 7th and 8th century,
She has been named Beitske. Beitske was about 1,60 meters tall and died at the age of 45. The beads found in her grave indicate that she was a fairly rich lady.
