Paper short abstract:

The study aims at answering the following research questions: What types of popular beliefs can be traced in the pre-industrial society? What types of beliefs appear in the present-day society? Which differences and similarities can be found in belief narratives of these periods?

Paper long abstract:

My aim is to examine beliefs regarding dwelling in afterlife in Sweden, partly from the late 1800s on, partly from the 2000s. The data from two different periods are not analysed in terms of a diachronic study of developments but in a contrastive perspective.

The study aims at answering the following questions:

What types of popular beliefs can be traced in the pre-industrial society?

What types of beliefs appear in the present-day society, presented on memorial websites on the Internet?

Which differences and similarities can be found between belief narratives of these periods?

The data analysed here includes: the 1800s narratives collected in folklore archives, inscriptions on grave memorials, and memorial websites on the Internet.

The Swedish folklore archives contain much information about beliefs related to death. The majority of respondents were born in the latter part of the 1800s.

The records evidence a widespread belief that there was a double exit from the earthly life; one could acquire either a good or evil existence.

The concept that the deceased come to heaven is common on the memorial websites. A new fellowship is believed to take place after death.

In older times the folk belief always differentiated between a blessed and an unblessed exit from this life. This, however, cannot be observed in the present-day internet messages. The older beliefs have been replaced by exclusively positive ideas about afterlife existence.

The most obvious similarity between these two periods is the common belief in a continued existence after death.