Viking Double Feature: The 13th Warrior (1999)

Another film loosely based on the Beowulf epic, this has a pagan bent seen not through the eyes of Christianity, but through the lens of Islam.  This John McTiernan directed film based on a Michael Crichton novel, does have a small hint of true historical fact woven into it...at least at the beginning.  The action in the film is said to take place in the AD year 922.  In the real AD year of 922 an Arab whose actual name was Ibn Fadlan describes a Viking funeral that he was witness to along the Volga; the real funeral of a "Rus" aka Viking chieftain cremated in a Viking ship along with lots of expensive treasures, rich food, strong drink, animals of several varieties and the body of a slave girl, who had volunteered to be killed and cremated with him to accompany him to the afterlife--that is to Valhalla.

Fadlan also described some of their religious practices.  He writes that they had traditional wooden figures of their gods and goddesses and these would be stuck in the ground, and various sacrifices were offered to them.  They often prayed, at least in this part of the world, for the deities to send them lots of traders heavy with silver coins to buy their good and trade for amenities. Another Arab writer who came into contact with Vikings in the same area along the Volga, Ibn Rustah (who, because of his last name could have actually been a Viking convert to Islam, and there were some), wrote of a strong priestly class; "Shamans" that had great power to choose amongst choice animals and even human, what or who would be sacrificed.  Ibn Fadlan also noted that every single Viking convert to Islam complained to him that the thing they missed more than alcoholic beverages, was eating pork.

For more on Vikings in the east click here for loads of info. from Nordic Way.