Mindy studied film at Columbia University; prior to Live Science she produced, wrote and directed media for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. But in the nine known written accounts of the blood eagle ritual, the people who ordered the torture and their victims were men of elevated social status, and most of them were royal, according to the study. "It is clear that a victim undergoing a 'full' blood eagle would have died long before their ribs could have been formed into the shape of wings and their lungs externalized.". Next, take an axe there's nothing about sharpening it first and use the axe to hew the victim's ribs from the spine. Victims likely lost consciousness early in the process as flesh was removed from their backs; the quantity of blood loss and subsequent lung collapse would have killed them long before the grisly ordeal was finished, and "much of the procedure would have been performed on a corpse," the scientists reported. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. [19][20], Ragnar Lodbrok's sons and King lla of Northumbria. The answer is complex. Whats more, its spectacular brutality would have ensured that everybody who heard about it would be keen to tell the story in all its gory detailsjust as were still telling them today.". [5], Einarr made them carve an eagle on his back with a sword, and cut the ribs all from the backbone, and draw the lungs there out, and gave him to Odin for the victory he had won.[6]. NY 10036. She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. | In fact, he might have survived the first stage, although probably not in silence, since the removal of the soft tissue from the back would have been excruciating. And varr, the one The blood eagle purportedly involved carving open the victim's back, cutting the ribs away from the spine, and then pulling out the lungs through the opening to display them on the outspread ribs. [17], Ronald Hutton's The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy states that "the hitherto notorious rite of the 'Blood Eagle,' the killing of a defeated warrior by pulling up his ribs and lungs through his back, has been shown to be almost certainly a Christian myth resulting from the misunderstanding of some older verse. The series prides itself on being as historically accurate as possible, which is a challenge, given that much of what we know about the Viking Age comes from epic poems telling of their achievements in spoken form, finally written down centuries later. I watched midsommar last night, and it is full of nordic tropes. Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. "Such a weapon might even be depicted on a stone monument found on the Swedish island of Gotland, where a scene carved into the stone depicts something that could have been a blood eagle or other execution.". varr, with eagle, The blood eagle was a method of ritually executing a chosen member as detailed in late skaldic poetry.According to the two instances mentioned in the Sagas, the victims (in both cases members of royal families) were placed in a prone position, their ribs severed from the spine with a sharp tool, and their lungs pulled through the opening to create a pair of "wings". Many historians suggest that even the earliest literary references to the Blood Eagle were in poems rather than in historical accounts, which may mean they were merely intended for entertainment and not to be taken literally. Vikings' 'blood eagle' torture was horrific - Live Science Who's Really to Blame for America's Lousy Transit Systems? by Vikings explained: Who was Jarl Borg? What happened to him? - Express Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round. The blood eagle is a method of execution detailed in late skaldic poetry. The ritual was only known about from sagas until the University of Iceland team discovered that it 'could have' been performed with Viking weapons . The execution method shows up twice in the popular History Channel drama series Vikings as a ritual reserved for the protagonists worst enemies, Jarl Borg and King lla, a fictionalized counterpart to the actual Northumbrian ruler. Select from premium Blood Eagle of the highest quality. Haralds Saga, from the Orkney Islands, states that Viking Earl Torf-Einar had his enemys ribs cut from the spine with a sword and the lungs pulled out through the slits in his back. It wouldnt be until the early 1200smore than 300 years after the alleged participants had diedthat a very detailed and graphic description of the method appeared in the Orkeyinga Saga: Einarr made them carve an eagle on his back with a sword, and cut the ribs all from the backbone, and draw the lungs there out, and gave him to Odin for the victory he had won. "The 'blood eagle' plays a prominent role in our early 21st-century constructions of 'Vikings,' which generally favor an [understanding that] violence was commonplace in the Iron Age Nordic region. So, the Vikings were ocean-going, artistic, sadistic, and consistent. Unless archaeologists find a corpse bearing clear evidence of the torture, well likely never know. But What is it, Really. A posterior view of the thorax, illustrating some deeper structures encountered while exposing the ribs. While dissecting a living human body in this way was within the realm of possibility, surviving such torture was not. Historical evidence for the blood eagle is scant. Around 1300 AD in the saga Norna-Gests, another reference appears, but it, too, is vague: Now the blood eagle Terms of Use Gruesome Viking "blood eagle" ritual is anatomically possible, study The conventional term for this ancient form of persecutionrefers to eagles, though it has also been historicallyassociated with owls. The conventional interpretation of the Blood Eagle stipulates that the shape of an eagle was carved onto the victim's back, after which the skin was pulled back and the ribs were detached from the spine. The answer is complex. Unless performed very carefully, the victim would have died quickly from suffocation or blood loss; even if the ritual was conducted with care, the subject wouldve almost certainly died before the full blood eagle could be completed.