Any idea why there's a cremation in the current Robin Hood movie? (boxed spoiler)

Cafe Society
1

In the current Robin Hood movie one of the characters, Walter Loxley, portrayed by Max von Sydow is, without explanation, cremated after he is killed- honorably- in battle. This would have been extremely unlikely for England at the dawn of the 13th century for several reasons, not least of which being that it requires a lot of wood to destroy a human body and it’s easier and quicker just to bury them. Also, the fact that he’s laid to rest holding his sword- the sword will be ruined by the flames but it’s not going to burn seemed a bit odd.

Generally I liked the movie and I didn’t expect it to have any great historical accuracy- in fact I was actually surprised by how much history they did use and how good looking the medieval London sets were. But did I miss something that explained why the character was cremated rather than buried? And for those who know more about medieval England than I do- cremations were indeed rare, weren’t they? (It was my understanding- though I’ve never researched it- that the church disapproved of cremations due to belief in physical resurrection.)

2

Was the guy supposed to be of Scandinavian descent or something? There’s a Scandinavian cremation cemetery at Ingleby in Derbyshire where English Danes were burnt (yes, with their weapons) as late as the 9th-10th century, possibly even after the start of Christianization.

But yes, the Church did frown on cremation in general, and yes, AFAICT the start of the 13th century would have been very late for any tradition of cremation to persist in England itself. Although I suppose the English could well be aware of the custom in other lands.

3

You watched that anachronism stew and the funeral pyre is what bothered you?

Okay…

4

No, I gotta admit, that’s what stuck out to me, too. I never had the idea that Westerners cremated much at all.

5

The main inaccuracy that bothered me was the reverse Normandy invasion complete with steampunk amphibious landing crafts, but that advanced the plot. The cremation was just kind of odd and didn’t advance it.

I wasn’t expecting historical accuracy- this is Hollywood after all- but you have to admit that compared to the Kevin Costner version this one was a doctoral thesis.