Bury Your Gays: Queer Readings of Viking Age Material Culture

In this chapter the evidence and literature around the tenth-century cremation burials of mounds 59:2 and 59:3 in Klinta, Köpings sn., Öland will be examined using a queer theoretical framework based on Jack Halberstam’s (1998) “scavenger theory” as a queer theoretical approach. The importance of applying queer theory in to study the Viking Age and how this can deconstruct restrictive patriarchal, heteronormative and cisgender assumptions of the period as well as the need for reparative scholarship for queer scholars and queer communities will be the underlying principle of this chapter. The remains under examination are Viking Age cremation burials in two mounds close together, originally identified in 1957 as the remains of one male and one female with grave goods suggestive of a high status and have been theorised in previous scholarship to be the result of a complex burial ritual for practitioners of magic. A discussion on the challenges of building on early scholarship as well as heteronormative bias in scholarship will form a part of this reinterpretation of these burials. The grave goods contained in both mounds have nonetheless traditionally been associated with the opposing gender and therefore raise many questions about the original identity and gender expression of these individuals. Through this chapter the available evidence of the identity of these individuals will be examined and an alternative queer interpretation offered, suggesting they occupied a more fluid place in gender whilst linking to text sources on the nature of magical practice and gender expression. This chapter will also highlight the importance of a long, cross-cultural past for modern queer communities to see themselves reflected in and connect with.