.:the art of viking torture:.
i’m reading a book right now called “the last light of the sun” by guy gavriel kay. it’s pretty cool, and based on the norse culture. it’s the first time i’ve read stuff about the vikings.
one term has been repeatedly used, and that term is ‘blood eagling’, or ‘blood eagled’. it is used as a verb. so in a sentence, it would be something like:
“the other day i was hopping up on to the longship with some buddies of mine and this moron ran into me without saying ‘excuse me’. so i turned around and knocked him unconscious with my warhammer. then i pinned him to the ground and blood eagled the poor guy. that’ll teach anyone to run into me without an apology.”
by the context that i had seen this term used, i determined that this was probably a fairly painful thing to do…most likely some kind of neat torture. but just guessing wasn’t good enough for this guy…no, my friends…i thirst for useless factual knowledge.
like a good choose your own adventure, i’m going to give you some choices. you can either:
1) click here for the official wikipedia definition of it
or
2. read below for my own special description
good choice…my description is far superior to stupid wikipedia.
when the vikings defeated someone in battle and wanted to send a message of conquering to any who would oppose them, they would decide to blood eagle their opponents. sometimes this would take place after they were dead. and sometimes it would happen if they had captured or wounded the opponent and they were still conscious/alive. i’ll tell you now that being dead and having this happen is much preferable to being alive and having this happen…so, if given the option…………………
anyway…
they would take the opponent and lay them face down on the ground. they would strip them naked. then, they would slice them vertically down the the center of the back with a knife or sword and pull away the skin to expose your ribcage. they would then proceed to crack the ribs away from your spine and splay them out in the form of ‘wings’. and then, as if that weren’t humilating/embarrassing/painful/whatever enough, they would grab your lungs, and drape those over your newly exposed, wing-shaped ribs and leave you there. of course, sometime during the rib-cracking part, if you weren’t dead, you would most likely die. however, those norsemen were, if anything, a hardy bunch of fellas…and some of the hardier ones were even said to live all the way up to the whole lung thing.
…and that concludes our first session of useless knowledge with me, your host, andrew. have a swell day!
