The Blood Eagle was an unimaginably gruesome form of torture and execution practiced by the Vikings. According a Scandinavian document, the ßáttr af Ragnars sonum, it was used on the king of Northumbria after the defeat of his forces during the Viking invasion of 865. Here’s what they did:
‘They caused the bloody eagle to be carved on the back of Ælla, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and then they ripped out his lungs.’
Scholars dispute whether Blood Eagles were ever actually performed; it could be a myth based on misinterpretation or mistranslation of Viking poetry.
Still, it’s pretty disgusting.
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No more so than the Chinese gradual filleting, or the Turkish flaying (skillfully enough for the condemned to live to the end and see their hide nailed on the wall of their house)…
That’s gonna hurt come winter.
The flaying wins I think, keeping you alive it definitely gross
Oh I don’t know. Boiling people alive would rank up there also.
Curious that the vikings, subhuman & bestial in their cruelty , have since become the nicest people in the world. Christianity is credited with that transformation, as well as working to abolish routine crucifixion in Rome. The Chinese were long in abolishing torture & draconian cruelty and still are quick to condemn & execute people on flimsy evidence.
Oww! I remember reading somewhere else that they would pour salt after cutting them open. That’s gotta hurt!
They exposed the lungs by pulling them out through the back. “Freeing” the lung tissue from the confines of the ribcage. They then added salt, so the victim would hyperventilate, providing the “eagle’s wings.”
The salt was also poured into wounds to cause excruciating pain, as if pulling out your ribcage wasn’t brutal enough. Not sure why, as I would imagine that you would be dead by the time you get to the “salting” stage.