"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. "There is no possibility that a victim would have remained alive throughout the procedure," the researchers wrote. 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’s prominence within Viking societyboth during the medieval era and as ascribed in the centuries sincestems from its emphasis on ritual and revenge. While dissecting a living human body in this way was within the realm of possibility, surviving such torture was not. "The blood eagle was thus no mere torture: it had meaning," the researchers wrote in the study. Performative displays of social standing and ritualized executions that included "conspicuous mutilation" were common practices in elite circles of Viking society this suggests that written accounts of the blood eagle ritual were describing events that actually happened and were socially significant for leaders celebrating victory over a powerful enemy, the researchers said. 1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed Photos: 10th-century Viking tomb unearthed in Denmark In some cases, the texts suggested that a designated official was on hand to perform the blood eagle act, perhaps because it required highly specialized knowledge of anatomy and butchering. 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. However, ribs could potentially be "unzipped" from the spine with a small, barbed spearhead, and such weapons have also been recovered from Viking burials, the researchers reported.Īrchaeologists have never found human remains that display signs of having endured this ritual. Severing the ribs was a trickier task - particularly if the lungs needed to remain undamaged, as hacking at them with a sword or sawing with a serrated knife would have likely torn or punctured the lung tissue. Such a knife could have been used to cut and peel back the skin and muscle layers for the first part of the blood eagle ritual. He struggled to keep down his midday meal. Single-edged "fighting knives" with rigid handles have been found in elite Viking burials, and some resemble large knives that are used in modern autopsies, according to the study. Eolf, who had wanted so much to see a blood eagle, paled, and his gorge rose in his throat. Certain types of Viking knives, swords and spears may have been wielded for different parts of the blood eagle ritual, and prior archaeological discoveries include examples of weapons that would have been well-suited for this gruesome practice.
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