Blood Eagling

[LordUxbridge]

Anyone know what it is??

[Kongamato]

I found several articles mentioning this on Google. About 85% of the results were Viking fiction and stories.

Apparently this is a technique of execution where cuts were made that seperated the ribcage from the spine, and allowed the lungs to flap out, like wings. Do further research, I cant describe it properly as I read many accounts of what it was and some differed.

I also read in an article that this practice was simply the literary invention of Christians as a tale to dehumanize the Vikings. However, I am not the master of history here, so I'll stop talking now and let you find out for yourself and develop your own opinion.

[Portuguese Rebel]

this compared with some of the inquisitions tortures was a day is the park. If you separate the ribs from the spine you will die very fast, you can't inale or exale, therefore...

[LordUxbridge]

Correct That is exactly what it is, i just wanted to know how many others did, and unfortunately i believe the Vikings really did carry it out, apparently on an Northumbrian King (Errad??)

[Hosakawa Tito]

I remember hearing that described as Kongamato has stated. How true it was, who can say ? The Viking conquests were filled with brutality on both sides. There was a program on the Discovery Channel recently on the Vikings. Archeologists found, examined, and verified as Scandinavians, Viking era skeletons buried near York. These were presumably Viking warriors killed in battle. Many of them had horrendous wounds that signified they weren't just ordinary battle casualties, but had been hacked and mutilated by some very pissed off people. Retribution for Viking attrocities on the English communties in the area most likely.

[Brother Derfel]

lol, did you watch Strangest Viking earlier Ux?

[A Nerd]

I read once that hungry vikings would occasionaly take a corpse from a battle (let us presume that he has only been dead briefly) and put him on a spit and roast him till his belly split. Then they would eat meat (which he had eaten the day before) right out of his slit open belly YumM http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shock.gif

[Dukezer0]

Quote[/b] ]this compared with some of the inquisitions tortures was a day is the park.

True.
The blood eagling is grim but as stated, is a fairly quick, albiet blood thirsty execution.

One of the most common forms of "purifycation" used by the inquisitors is to pour loads of water down a wide funnel into the unfortunate until he... well you get the picture. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

I know which way i'd rather go http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[solypsist]

moved

[Tora]

http://www.vanl.freeserve.co.uk/gvlIvarr.html

Interesting programme last night.
I can't find Ivarr in VI. Strange because he seems to be quite promulent(sic)in Viking history and was King of Dublin and Northumbria, but his partner in crime, Olaf the White, is there.

[monkian]

I saw a life size and very graphic model of this form of torture/execution in the York Dungeon.

It also had nosies/smells and lots and lots of spurting 'blood'

The York Dungeon is basically a working wax work model of torture and execution from the Vikign periods up untill the Middle Ages with sounds and animatronics. The worse part is the gag enducing smell of blood and rotting flesh.

Theres also somethign similar in London called suprisingly- the London Dungeon

[DDogwood]

There has been a lot of scholarly debate on the Blood Eagle - it is probably a fabrication or a misinterpretation of Old Norse saga. Here is a link to another discussion on the topic with a good bibliography.

Old Norse Net archives (http://www.hum.gu.se/arkiv/ONN/1999/II/msg00772.html)

Personally I am inclined to agree with Roberta Frank - the vikings were not all pleasant characters, but this particular ritual probably isn't one that they performed.

[monkian]

Well it was a avery promenent feature in the York Dungeon and In Jorvik.

[Michiel de Ruyter]

Well, taken from a Time Team episode handling the refuge site of Alfred the Great:

The Vikings did execute POW's as an offering to the Gods (much like the Aztecs did), using the "Blood Eagle". What they did was cut open the chest at the sternum, and rip the cage open (much like you open a closet with double doors, which open to the outside). Then they took out the lungs and spread them out.

Supposedly it is decsribed in this fashion by local contemporary English monks and chroniclers. They did not mention Norse or Danish saga's.

[Red Peasant]

Quote[/b] (Michiel de Ruyter @ June 13 2003,17:09)]Supposedly it is decsribed in this fashion by local contemporary English monks and chroniclers. They did not mention Norse or Danish saga's.
The contemporary sources are all Christian and so extremely biased, hence unreliable. The case is 'not proven' for this alleged practice. Makes a cracking story though

Norse sources are much later and full of folk tale motifs and conventions, therefore highly unreliable as history. Again, cracking stories but highly dubious as factual sources.

[Demon of Light]

You might say that all these stories of Viking brutality show us who the victor in the conflict was.