The Art of Burying Silver

During their times of glory, the Vikings accumulated a lot of wealth through looting and trading. Since gold was rather scarce in Europe in those days, a majority of the items were made of silver. In most of the Viking treasure discovered, there are silver coins, silver ingots, silver accessories, silver bars, and hacked silver items of various sorts.

Silver coins from the Middle East suggest that the Vikings were active in trading. It has also been recorded that a lot of the silver coins came as tribute money offered by weaker European nations so that the Vikings would not attack them. However, the bulk of those Viking treasures must have come from their raiding activities. The Vikings were also avid explorers. In the period of expansion, the Vikings sailed to regions as far as North America, North Africa, Russia, and Constantinople.

In the Swedish island of Gotland, a lot of Viking silver has been found. Viking hoards have also been discovered in the UK, France, and other European countries as well. The question remains. Why did the Vikings bury so much silver? One of the most obvious reasons was that there were no banks in those days. The Viking Age was also a time of hostility and uncertainty. Thus, it's likely that the Vikings buried their wealth for the purpose of safekeeping. It would not be prudent to keep so much wealth lying around the house. Burying silver in times of danger and retrieving it in times of peace seemed to be a rational thing to do.

However, there's a more romantic reason why the Vikings buried their wealth. Before they became Christians, the Vikings worshipped their pagan gods such as Odin, Thor, Loki, Hel, the Valkyries, and others. There's the great world-tree known as Yggdrasil which transcended time and space. Yggdrasil was constantly besieged by the evil serpent called Nidhogg. Under one of Yggdrasil's roots, there's the fountain of Mimir which was the origin of secret wisdom. Pagan Vikings believed that wealth which was buried could be used in the afterlife as a sort of tribute money to gain access to Valhalla, the home of Odin. This practice was largely abandoned after much of the Vikings converted to Christianity around 1000AD.

If you have some silver, you can either bury the silver or you can sell your silver. Perhaps, the Vikings would have sold their silver if they can find a good silver buyer who would pay the best rates for silver. For sure, they would be happy to get instant cash for silver. Wouldn't you?