In the maelstrom of fire, water, and air is the supine figure of a Viking chief, clad in full armour, clutching sword and shield, his body starkly and obdurately outlined against the flaming pyre ( Fig. Coordinating its efforts with obvious strength and skill, a team of bare-chested warriors wades into the surf against crashing breakers, straining rippling muscles to launch the funeral barge. Roiling waves lap the feet of the assembled throng on the right. (2017) “Victorian Imag(in)ing of the Pagan Pyre: Frank Dicksee's Funeral of a Viking”,ġ9: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.(25).Ĭomposed across a dramatic diagonal from lower right to upper left, Victorian Royal Academician Frank Dicksee’s imposing six-by-ten-foot Funeral of a Viking of 1893 features physically powerful men immersed in, even becoming a part of, the elements ( Fig. As the Christian world insisted on the resurrection of the body in a way that clung fiercely to tangibility and bounded form even in the face of belief in the immortality of the saved soul, the modern moment might be seen, in contrast, as characterized by an embrace of an aesthetic of dissolving form or formlessness. I suggest that the Victorian fascination with pagan fire-death allowed for alternate visions of form–matter relationships that in turn might produce new aesthetic possibilities. In fictional accounts such as Paul Du Chaillu’s novel Ivar the Viking (1893), the pyre as a narrative tool similarly forced attention to the body as dematerializing thing and to the language articulating this dissipation. Moreover, the Viking dissolves into pigment itself, mere aesthetic effect taking the place of a recognizable figure. Fire produces metamorphosis in the objects it encounters, and Dicksee’s portrayal underscores the notion of a clearly delineated human body transforming into amorphous flame. I set Frank Dicksee’s oil painting, Funeral of a Viking (1893), against the background of the emergent cremation movement and accounts of the neo-Druid William Price, a proponent for the legalization of cremation in the 1880s, in order to glimpse the work performed by the visualization of the ritualized burning of human beings in the pagan past. Victorians drew on imagery of Druid and Viking funeral pyres as a way of exploring alternative narratives of death and burial, generating a collective attention to what happened to a body after death. |19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth CenturyĪrticle Victorian Imag(in)ing of the Pagan Pyre: Frank Dicksee's Funeral of a VikingĪuthor: Nancy Rose Marshall (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Abstract Interestingly, Bihar is in the forefront of the states which have taken the lead in giving one-third reservation to women in the local self-governing bodies.Ī Bill to enact a national law to give similar reservation to women in all state assemblies of the country and the Parliament has been gathering dust in the Parliament for over seven years due to stiff resistance from many political parties.Marshall | Victorian Imag(in)ing of the Pagan Pyre: Frank Dicksee's Funeral of a Viking I will definitely like to spread the message and encourage women in my area to break the social shackles," S.C. Interestingly, men in and around the village supported this call for change. Even daughters can do anything in the world," Sharmila Devi told a private news channel. "We wanted to send a message to the society that there is no difference between sons and daughters. In some states, Hindu women are allowed to go to the cremation grounds, but they are not supposed to light the funeral pyre. In the longer run it will give women confidence and a sense of belonging," said Vijay Kumar Singh, a Patna-based academician.Įven in families where there are no sons or where they are away, cremation is done by some other male family member. "There is no logic behind this tradition that has been followed for centuries. "It is the kind of beginning of a social revolution that may have far reaching implications. However, backed by a local social organisation called Arjak Sangh, sisters Sharmila Devi and Meena Devi did something women in the state had never done before, even though they have three brothers in the family. Traditionally, women are forbidden from entering cremation grounds. New Delhi: A silent revolution towards the empowerment of women has started in one of the most backward states of the country.īreaking the tradition and an orthodox mindset, two women of a sleepy village in Nawada district in central Bihar not only carried the body of their father to the cremation ground but also lit the pyre.
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