From the Volga to Norway, from the Shetlands to Washington, it glows -timelessly, powerfully - within the soul of people.

The author starts out examining the historicity of burning viking funeral ships at sea, then ends on a note of rediscovered religious feelings.

It seems clear to me, that in this world of lost religious feelings, anything substantial enough to pass for reality, in the place of our traditional and dominant Christiantiy, is going to appeal to the restless soul.

But emotional responses (especially unexpected responses) do not constitute a sound basis for true religion. You can like the panoply of a well-appointed Roman Catholic church; you can enjoy the sight of a burning viking funeral ship. But all the rest of it must be considered too: in the case of the RCC, perhaps the indulgences and other man-made interpolations will put you off: in the case of viking funerals, perhaps the inclusion of all that wasted loot, and the execution and inclusion of a few buxom slave girls aboard the ship, will be a good enough reason to pause (before reinstituting real paganism).

We were supposed to have gotten beyond wanting to feel these sorts of (religious) things, a long time ago. But we have not. And when we want to feel religious, and the dominant religions current today fail us, then we are at risk of turning to a bond with the long-departed ancestors of our ancient and frozen northern homelands. But this expedient is nothing more than a few scraps of information left, tacked on to our own imaginations.

Burning boats as part of a traditional seasonal festival is one thing: attaching religious significance to it quite another.