The association of Viking Age females with the undead, as evidenced by the account of Ibn Fadlan, also manifest within several other textual sources—notably, the Völsungakviða in forna or Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane). This Old Norse poem is contained within the Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous Old Norse poems.
Within the poem, the male character Helgi is killed by his brother Dagr. At the end of the poem, Helgi’s wife, Sigrun, visits Helgi’s body in a grave-mound:
Sigrun arranged a bed in the grave-mound.
“Here in the barrow we’ll go to bed,
released from sorrow, my royal lord.
I will sleep, Helgi, safe in your arms
The way I used to when you were alive.”
Helgi said:
“Now I know that nothing again
will seem a wonder in Sefafells,
since you can sleep in a dead man’s arms,
white Sigrun, here in Helgi’s grave,
and you aren’t dead, O king’s daughter!” (trans. Terry 1990)
While obviously different from the account of Ibn Fadlan, this passage allows us to observe a female figure participating in mortuary theatre—Sigrun engages in physical intimacy with the body of her dead husband, which in turn is situated in a funerary site. Therefore, we can see a supernatural understanding of the Viking Age female, who takes part in the practices associated with the dead.
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