Helskór

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In Norse paganism, helskór ("hel-shoes") were put on the dead so that they could go to Valhöll.

The only evidence for this custom is found in Gísla saga Súrssonar (14) when Vésteinn is buried:

And when they had heaped up the howe, and were going to lay the body in it, Thorgrim the priest goes up to Gisli, and says, “’Tis the custom, brother-in-law, to bind the hellshoe on men, so that they may walk on them to Valhalla, and I will now do that by Vestein.”

—The story of Gisli the Outlaw, Dasent's translation

[edit] Reference

• Dasent, George Webbe. The story of Gisli the Outlaw. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1866.