Valhǫll is only one among several destinations. Freyja’s Fólkvangr, Hel’s realm, residence with deities, and continued life in a burial mound occur in different texts. Not every dead person was expected to reach Valhalla.
Cremation and inhumation, mounds, chambers, boats, and simple graves coexisted. Grave goods could express rank, relationships, memory, or ritual needs; they are not a straightforward packing list for an afterlife journey.
Spectacular ship burials dominate public imagination although only a small elite could receive them. Most people left more modest or archaeologically elusive burials.
Literature also tells of revenants and dangerous dead. Memory could protect, obligate, or threaten. Regional practice and social rank shaped dealings with the dead as much as mythical narrative.