Learnings: Ships: Between Two Worlds

Bronze Age stone ship from Gnisvard, Gotland, Sweden / Late Bronze Age

Ancient Scandinavians believed that ships straddled two different worlds, for they were built on land but lived at sea. Symbolically, to sail was to have a foot in two worlds; not just land and sea, but also life and death. To be on a ship was made to be in a liminal, in-between space between life and afterlife. Ships, whether wooden or stone, symbolized transition; this is likely why they had figured heavily in Scandinavian burial rituals since the Bronze Age.