The primary versions share certain commonalities: the victims are both noblemen (Halfdan Haaleg or "Long-leg" was a prince; lla of Northumbria a king), and both of the executions were in retaliation for the murder of a father. Jarl Borg's character was one of the most popular in the series as he was. "[15] She concludes that the authors of the sagas misunderstood alliterative kennings that alluded to leaving one's foes face down on the battlefield, their backs torn as carrion by scavenging birds. "Contrary to established wisdom, we therefore argue that the blood eagle could very well have taken place in the Viking Age," the authors concluded in their essay. Spectacular executions, displaying of dead bodies, and "deviant burials" did occursuch as the skeleton of a beheaded noblewoman buried with her head tucked under arm and her jawbone replaced by a pig's mandible. Theres nothing about severing the ribs from the spine or pulling the lungs over the exposed ribsthose details would be piled on, one-by-one, over the coming years. Historical evidence for the blood eagle is scant. had Ella's back Set to be published in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies later this month, the article sidesteps the question of whether the ritual actually took place during the Viking Age, instead asking whether the blood eagle could feasibly serve as a torture method. A BRUTAL Viking torture ritual rubbished by researchers may have actually been a thing, according to a new study. Experts have long debated whether the blood eagle was a literary trope or an actual punishment. One would also need to sever the muscles attaching the ribs to the lower back. Mindy Weisberger is a Live Science editor for the channels Animals and Planet Earth. [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]. (The correct answer is: All of the above.). The debate among historians about whether or not the Blood Eagle actually occurred continues. 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. The life span of eagles in the wild is generally around 30 years. Others are more graphic, aligning with the extreme versions depicted in contemporary popular culture. Matthew Gabriele The execution methods recurring appearances in medieval texts, often without extensive explanation, suggests a common understanding among Viking-age readers and listeners, many of whom would have learned the tales through oral tradition. Real Executions Downplayed in Film and TV, Execution and Infamy in 18th Century Britain, Details About The Blood Eagle, One Of History's Most Nightmarish Torture Methods. Lots of people become victims of other people's press, and more than a few have tripped over their own feet and created image problems forever after. According to Saxo, the term eagle was used by men who rejoiced in "[crushing] their most ruthless foe by marking him with the cruellest of birds.". Alfred Smyth argues that it was a historical method of execution but bear in mind he is a specialist in medieval history of the British Isles, not Viking Age Scandinavia. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings. Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. Ragnars legacy and presence could still be felt until the end of the series, and he left behind various memorable moments, both good and violent, and falling into the latter category is the death of Jarl Borg (Thorbjrn Harr). [7], Afterwards, Earl Einarr went up to Halfdan and cut the "blood eagle" on his back, in this fashion that he thrust his sword into his chest by the backbone and severed all the ribs down to the loins, and then pulled out the lungs; and that was Halfdan's death.[8]. Created by Michael Hirst (The Tudors), Vikings premiered on History Channel in 2013 and lived on for a total of six seasons, even though it was originally planned to be a miniseries, and came to an end in 2020. New research reveals the feasibility of the infamous execution method. Ragnar performs theblrn (blood eagle) on Borg, a gruesome process of ritualized torture and execution allegedly carried out during the Viking Age (c. 7501050). Some accounts also mention the pouring of salt on the victim's wounds. at, lt, hinns sat, We're back with another worst punishment in the history of mankind, and The Blood Eagle has to be near the top of the list for most brutal. Blood-Eagle lines on Thy foe shall be flowing.". Photos: 10th-century Viking tomb unearthed in Denmark, 1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed. 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. Has the lore of the Blood Eagle surpassed the historical accuracy of its existence? The lungs would also likely have collapsed by this point into compact tissue about the size of a fist. Updated June 19, 2019 567.2k views5 items The Blood Eagle is one of the most graphic, cruel, and lengthy torture methods ever described. The blood eagle is a punishment where the person is strangled and stabbed with an ax by their tailbone and up towards the rib cage, separating every rib from the backbone. The blood eagle might be nothing more than fiction, but it was definitely one of the most brutal killing methods in the series. | Sign in BLOOD. Founded in 2010, Thought Catalog is owned and operated by The Thought & Expression Company, Inc. For over a decade, we've been at the bleeding edge of media, pioneering an infrastructure for creatives to flourish both artistically and financially. A posterior view of the thorax illustrating the results of detaching or cutting the ribs. They make it look beautiful in the most horrific way possible Two separate episodes of the hit History Channel show Vikings depict an unimaginably grisly and horrific torture method that is known as the "Blood Eagle." In the first, the villain Karl Borg is murdered through the extremely cruel and brutal method; in the second, the corrupt King Ella is tortured to death using the "Blood Eagle" method. David M. Perry is the co-author ofThe Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe. Skaldic verse, a common medium of Norse poets, was meant to be cryptic and allusive, and the idiomatic nature of Sighvatr's poem as a description of what has become known as the blood eagle is a matter of historical contention, particularly since in Norse imagery the eagle was strongly associated with blood and death. NY 10036. s er fold rr, Related: Fierce fighters: 7 secrets of Viking seamen. The longest that any Bald Eagle has been known to live in the wild is 39 years. Then, the person seeking vengeance stabbed the victim by his tailbone and up towards the rib cage. Her videos about dinosaurs, astrophysics, biodiversity and evolution appear in museums and science centers worldwide, earning awards such as the CINE Golden Eagle and the Communicator Award of Excellence. See more at profgabriele.com. Jennifer Ouellette Viking historian Luke John Murphy of the University of Iceland decided to enlist the aid of actual anatomical specialists to assess whether performing the blood eagle would even be feasible. According to Saxo Grammaticus'sGesta Danorum, after the previously detailed mutilation, the flesh was rubbed with salt. Set to be published inSpeculum: A Journal of Medieval Studieslater this month, the article sidesteps the question of whether the ritual actually took place during the Viking Age, instead asking whether the blood eagle could feasibly serve as a torture method. Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies and chair of the Department of Religion & Culture at Virginia Tech. In the paper, the authors move methodically through the medieval sources before discussing what would happen to the human body if the fullest version of the procedure was carried out (in short, nothing good). In popular lore, few images are as synonymous with Viking brutality as the " blood eagle ," a practice that allegedly found torturers separating the victim's ribs from their spine, pulling. TheSagagoes on to explain thatthe Earl Einarsubjected Hdlfddnto the Blood Eaglebecause he had killed the Earl's father. Captors would cut and open large flaps of skin and muscle from their living victim's back and then sever the ribs from the spine, opening the ribs out to the sides to form "wings." The Vikings may have performed the "Blood Eagle" or "Butterfly Cut" cracking the victim's ribs from the back and pulling out his lungs, and spreading them out like wings behind him. The sources are often vague, referencing legendary figures of dubious veracity or mixing up accepted historical chronology. The value of this new scholarship lies in its imagination, in the way it manages to take something conceptual and make it more concrete. Few were better Nec vulnus impressisse contenti, laceratam salivere carnem. 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. Her writing has also appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post and How It Works Magazine. Next, take an axe there's nothing about sharpening it first and use the axe to hew the victim's ribs from the spine. They used anatomical modeling software to effectively recreate extreme versions of the blood eagle, simulating the effect of each step of the torture on the human body. 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. The Norse god Odin was traditionally the recipient of Blood Eagle sacrifices before and after battles. Viking warriors were known to go to extreme lengths to protect their reputations, and the blood eagle appears to have been reserved for exacting revenge for the dishonorable killing of a father (or other male relative). She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Borg later attacked Kattegat when Horik excluded him from their raids and battled Ragnar and his men. cut with [an] eagle. Review: AP Program Undermines Humanities, Devalues College, and Cheats Students of Learning, SCOTUS's Stay of Mifepristone Ruling a Win for Abortion Rights, but Shows Dangerous Power of "Shadow Docket", How the Reagan Administration Used "A Nation at Risk" to Push for School Privatization, Ned Blackhawk Unmakes the American Origin Story. According to sometranslations of the Viking saga, a less invasive Blood Eagle could be performed by simply carving an eagle with outstretched wings on the victim's naked body; however,for added cruelty, the eviscerating method could be performed from the front. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Jarl Borg was aleader from Gtaland who was introduced in Vikings season 1, and it was clear from the beginning that he was going to bring a lot of trouble to Ragnar and Kattegat. cut with [an] eagle.[1]. Early in the series, a rival leader named Jarl Borg (Thorbjrn Harr) of nearby Gtaland leads an attack on Ragnar's men and even convinces Ragnar's brother to betray him. 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. "The blood eagle was thus no mere torture: it had meaning," the researchers wrote in the study. This they did at the appointed time; and when they had captured him, they ordered the figure of an eagle to be cut in his back, rejoicing to crush their most ruthless foe by marking him with the cruellest of birds. Some precision is called for here, since . All of those things can be, and are, true. [16] Frank's paper sparked a "lively debate". It consists of having the ribs severed from the spine and the lungs pulled through the opening to simulate a pair of wings. Gruesome Viking "blood eagle" ritual is anatomically possible, study finds But victims would have died long before the torturous execution concluded. had Ellas back All of that exposed tissue then gets salt rubbed into it, which certainly puts "lemon juice on a paper cut" into perspective, doesn't it? His latest book, co-authored with David M. Perry, isThe Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe(Harper, December 2021). They then looked at weapons from that era, to see how diverse blades might have been used for a task so laborious and grisly. No contemporary accounts of the rite exist, and the scant references in the sagas are several hundred years after the Christianization of Scandinavia. The Vikings rubbed salt on the wound to make things more painful and pulled the victim's lungs over their shoulders. In the 1970s Alfred Smyth supported the historicity of the rite, stating that it is clearly human sacrifice to the Norse god Odin. "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.". Now is the bloody eagle Gillis observation builds on the earlier work of scholar Valentin Groebner, who wrote in 2004 that terror tends to disorient. Violence (and how that violence was portrayed) in the European Middle Ages was a way of making meaning, of rendering visible important ideas that had previously remained unseen. Find Blood Eagle stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. As this new article helps demonstrate, perhaps the pendulum needs to stop. Heimskringla/Harald Harfager's Saga#Halfdan Haleg's Death. Saxo, who wrote duringthe late 12th and early 13thcenturies, recorded oral traditions and history as well as events from his own time. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. "The victims hands and legs were tied to prevent escape or sudden movements. Download Blood Eagle stock photos. However, many historians believe the blood eagle wasnt real, and thus Vikings got those two deaths wrong, even if the sagas described one of them (and the sagas are considered fiction by many, with Ragnars existence also being debated). Either way, the rituals appearance in these texts is intended to send a message tied to honor and revenge. The History Channel series Vikings is a fictional account of legendary Norse hero Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), who was born a farmer and became a Scandinavian king. The blood eagles prominence within Viking societyboth during the medieval era and as ascribed in the centuries sincestems from its emphasis on ritual and revenge. The Real Housewives of Atlanta The Bachelor Sister Wives 90 Day Fiance Wife Swap The Amazing Race Australia Married at First Sight The Real Housewives of Dallas My 600-lb Life Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. 2012, Sigvatr rarson. Free or royalty-free photos and images. The blood-eagle ritual-killing rite appears in just two instances in Norse literature, plus oblique references some have interpreted as referring to the same practice. Some scholars believe that the Blood Eagle was connected to earlier human sacrifices made to Odin, although whether or not those sacrifices every took placeremains controversial. Why Did Madison Write the Second Amendment? Instead,"We suspect that a particular type of Viking spearhead could have been used as a makeshift tool to 'unzip' the rib cage quickly from the back," the authors wrote in an accompanying essay for The Conversation. According to descriptions of the blood eagle in poems and prose dating from the 11th century to the 13th century, victims were typically captured in battle. The use of salt was later adopted by writers; they described the process as a "saline stimulant" intended to inflict additional pain and suffering, usually applied before the lungs were spread. This was included in the show, as Aelle was killed through this ritual, though he didnt go through it as Jarl Borg did, who didnt make a sound and thus earned his place in Valhalla. Guillermo del Toro said hi to her once. We wouldnt wish the Blood Eagle upon our worst enemyOK, except for maybe that one guy who did that one thing one time. DOI: Speculum, 2021. Historians are divided as to whether the Blood Eagle was a real practice or simply a myth that originated from misinterpretation of ancient Nordic sagas. He characterized St. Dunstan's description of lla's killing as an "accurate account of a body subjected to the ritual of the blood eagle". While dissecting a living human body in this way was within the realm of possibility, surviving such torture was not. David M. Perry Borg doesn't get an easy death when his schemes ultimately fail and he is captured. In the paper, the authors move methodically through the medieval sources before discussing what would happen to the human body if the fullest version of the procedure was carried out (in short, nothing good). Jennifer Ouellette / Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Vikings: Jarl Borg Created A Major Location Mistake In The Show, Vikings: Why Ragnar Doesn't Speak In The Season 2 Finale, What Matsson Tweeted In Succession S4 Episode 6: Translation & Meaning, Worf's Enterprise-E Disaster In Picard Confirms Sisko's DS9 Warning, "Whole New Lease Of Life": Amy Pond Star Responds To Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who Era. Borg distracted Ragnar with the supposed real Yggdrasil (the tree of life) while he manipulated Ragnars brother, Rollo (Clive Standen), into betraying him. Cookie Policy The conventional term for this ancient form of persecutionrefers to eagles, though it has also been historicallyassociated with owls. This would be sufficient if the ritual was merely the carving of an eagle into the victim's back, then folding back large flaps of skin and muscle to either side of the body to make "wings." But he likely would have died of shock, suffocation, and/or exsanguination within seconds of the blade being thrust into his back to cut the ribs. Jennifer Ouellette - 1/10/2022, 11:22 AM. A common element in the medieval sources, according to the authors of the new study, is that the aggressors perform the ritual on enemies who killed one of their family members. In 1984, historian Roberta Frank published Viking atrocity and Skaldic verse: the rite of the Blood Eagle, in which she suggests that the earliest references may have only meant that Vikings would allow birds to peck away at the backs of people that theyd already murdered: The blood-eagling procedure varies from text to text, becoming more lurid, pagan, and time-consuming with each passing century.
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