Quote Originally Posted by matteus the inbred
the nastier sections of Viking society used to practice both death by archery (the subject was tied to a tree and shot full of arrows, but only hitting non-vital bits at first, i think an Anglo-Saxon king died like this and was considered a martyr...hence the 'faction leader executed' graphic in Viking Invasion) and 'blood-eagling', a supremely nasty method by which the victim's ribs were cut and pulled outwards to form 'wings', exposing the innards...
The 'Blood Eagle'... It is even worse than this, in some cases at least. When the ribcage had been opened the person could live quite long afterwards, long enough to be boring in the end. But if you were clever you would slap the lungs onto the back of the victim. The lungs would still be able to breathe somewhat (but the oxygen would soon run out) making it a gruesome spectacle.
But I wouldn't call that torture, 'merely' a nasty way of killing. Like cutting off arms and legs and letting the stump stand on the ground until he died.

The 1000 cuts is also pretty nasty and I would consider it a torture. Skindeep and rather long cuts, akin to papercuts, but continually for hours until you died of bloodloss or even a stroke (caused by pain).