Ask people what kind of funeral they would want, and sooner or later someone will say, “Give me a Viking funeral.”
The image is instantly recognizable: a warrior’s body placed aboard a wooden ship, pushed out to sea, and set ablaze by a flaming arrow. It is dramatic, heroic, and undeniably cinematic.
There’s just one problem.
Most people’s ideas about Viking funerals come from movies rather than history.
Episode Seven of the Mortality Movies TV series explores how Hollywood helped create one of the most enduring funeral myths in popular culture. Host Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death®, speaks with death doula Danielle Slupesky and death educator Jane Westbrook as they examine film clips that feature Viking funeral send-offs, from classic adventure films to family comedies.
Along the way, viewers discover how storytelling shapes our expectations about death rituals—and why the real history may be just as fascinating as the legend.
The Power of Childhood Imagination
One of the earliest cinematic references featured in this episode comes from Beau Geste (1939).
In the opening scenes, a very young Donald O’Connor and his companions play with toy boats while discussing Viking funerals. What begins as a childhood game foreshadows events that will resonate throughout the rest of the story.
Although the Viking funeral itself is not the central focus of the film, the scene demonstrates how deeply the image had already entered popular culture by the early twentieth century.
Long before most people learned about Viking history in school, many encountered these ideas through novels, adventure stories, and movies.
The fascination continues today because the Viking funeral combines two powerful human desires: to be remembered and to leave this world in a dramatic fashion.
The Flaming Arrow Viking Funeral Myth
If there is a single movie responsible for popularizing the modern Viking funeral, it may be The Vikings (1958).
Starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, the film culminates in one of cinema’s most famous funeral scenes. After a climactic sword fight, Douglas’s character receives a send-off aboard a ship that is set aflame by a flaming arrow.
For many viewers, this became the definitive Viking funeral.
The image is visually stunning and has been copied, referenced, and parodied countless times ever since.
Yet historians generally agree that this depiction owes more to Hollywood spectacle than historical reality. While Vikings did use ships in some burial practices, evidence suggests that prominent individuals were typically buried on land in or alongside their vessels, often accompanied by possessions believed to be useful in the next world.
The flaming ship drifting out to sea is largely a cinematic invention—but what an invention it is.
Grandpa Wants a Viking Funeral
The idea resurfaced decades later in Rocket Gibraltar (1988).
Burt Lancaster plays a grandfather who shares stories about Viking funerals with his grandchildren and expresses his wish for a similar farewell. The film explores family relationships, aging, and mortality through the eyes of multiple generations.
What makes the story especially touching is that the grandchildren take his request seriously.
The film captures something many families experience when discussing funeral wishes. Sometimes the specific request is less important than the values behind it.
A person who asks for a Viking funeral may not literally want a burning ship. They may want adventure, celebration, individuality, or a sense that their life story will be honored in a meaningful way.
The film’s emotional climax demonstrates how families can honor the spirit of a person’s wishes, even when the details require some creative interpretation.
When Funeral Plans Become Legally Questionable
The comedy Eulogy (2004) offers another take on the Viking funeral fantasy.
At the reading of a family patriarch’s will, relatives discover unexpected revelations about his life, including the existence of two additional families he had been supporting. And the money the adult children expected to inherit has all been spent. To make matters more complicated, they had promised to provide him with a Viking funeral.
As one family member points out, carrying out that promise could involve more than a few legal challenges.
The humor works because audiences immediately recognize the gap between cinematic funeral fantasies and modern regulations.
Many funeral customs portrayed in movies would be difficult—or impossible—to carry out under contemporary laws governing transportation, cremation, public safety, and disposition of remains.
Still, the scene raises an important question: how can families honor unusual wishes while remaining practical and legal?
Royalty, Knights, and Farewell by Fire
The Viking funeral tradition also makes an appearance in First Knight (1995), starring Sean Connery as King Arthur and Richard Gere as Lancelot.
Although set in Arthurian legend rather than Viking history, the film uses a similar visual language of fire, water, and ceremonial farewell to create a memorable ending.
The enduring popularity of these scenes demonstrates the power of symbolism. Fire represents transformation. Water suggests a journey. Together, they create a dramatic image of passage from one world to another.
Not surprisingly, filmmakers return to this imagery again and again.
Even Mel Brooks found the concept irresistible, satirizing the Viking funeral scene from The Vikings in History of the World, Part I.
The Real Lesson Behind the Viking Funeral Legend
As viewers learned in Episode Five of Mortality Movies on funeral planning, K. Roth Binew in The Living Wake also requested a Viking funeral, and his friend ultimately finds a way to make it happen.
The recurring appearance of Viking funerals across so many films raises an interesting question: Why are people so attracted to the idea?
Perhaps it is because the Viking funeral symbolizes something larger than historical accuracy. It represents a farewell that feels memorable, meaningful, and uniquely personal.
In reality, most high-ranking Vikings were buried on land with their boats and possessions, prepared for what they believed awaited them in the next world. The Hollywood version may not be historically correct, but it captures a universal desire to leave behind a story worth telling.
That may be why the image continues to endure.
Whether portrayed as comedy, adventure, family drama, or epic legend, Viking funerals remind us that funeral rituals are ultimately about meaning. They help the living express love, respect, remembrance, and hope.
And while most people probably won’t be launched into the sunset aboard a flaming longship, there’s nothing wrong with borrowing a little inspiration from the movies.
What movie-inspired funeral would you choose for yourself? Would it be a Viking funeral, a jazz funeral, a Hollywood celebration of life, or something entirely different? Share your thoughts in the comments and help continue the conversation.
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You can also discover a treasure trove of conversation-starting films and TV shows in Gail Rubin’s latest book, 98.6 Mortality Movies to See Before You Die.