However, one thing Vikings are known for through folklore and history is a particularly brutal form of execution — the Blood Eagle. In this execution, people had their ribs ripped open from their spine and their lungs stabbed through.
One extremely gruesome method of Viking execution is the stuff of legend, said to be a uniquely bloody form of punishment reserved as a vengeance by sons on their father's killers. This is the dreaded 'blood eagle', or 'blood-red eagle'.
It literally turned victims inside out. A brutal, ritualized method of torture and execution that was allegedly practiced by Nordic people during the Viking Age was so gruesome that some scholars questioned whether it was even possible to perform on a human body.
What was the worse way to die, Blood Eagle by the Vikings or Crucifixion by the Romans? Crucifixion was definitely much, much worse for the victim.
Few aspects of Viking and medieval Scandinavian history have been as contentious as the blóðǫrn (“blood eagle”), a process of ritualized torture and execution allegedly carried out during the Viking Age (c.
Victims would have never been able to survive that long with such an extreme amount of blood loss, so the crowd surrounding Ragnar would have not seen his nemesis Jarl Borg suffer much.
Particularly famous is the so-called “blood eagle”, a gory and brutal ritual these warriors are said to have performed on their most hated enemies. The ritual allegedly involved carving the victim's back open and cutting their ribs away from their spine, before the lungs were pulled out through the resulting wounds.
Crucifixion was invented by the Persians between 300-400 B.C. It is quite possibly the most painful death ever invented by humankind. The English language derives the word “excruciating” from crucifixion, acknowledging it as a form of slow, painful suffering.
"The weight of the body pulling down on the arms makes breathing extremely difficult," says Jeremy Ward, a physiologist at King's College London. In addition, the heart and lungs would stop working as blood drained through wounds.
The Brutal Nature of the Vikings
Vikings murdered slaves and prisoners at will and historians say that they did not even regard non-vikings as humans. Every male was also expected to prove themselves on the battlefield and so entire wars were started just so leaders could demonstrate their worth.
Vikings (TV Series 2013–2020) - Karen Connell as Angel of Death - IMDb.
Since Ivar's presence has been so prominent this season, fans are wondering, did Ivar The Boneless really exist? It turns out that the physically fragile, yet brutal Vikings character is based on a real-life person. According to Britannica, Ivar the Boneless was a Viking chieftain who lived in Ireland in the 800's.
Ragnar Lodbrok's sons and King Ælla of Northumbria
The blood eagle is referred to by the 11th-century poet Sigvatr Þórðarson, who, some time between 1020 and 1038, wrote a skaldic verse named Knútsdrápa that recounts and establishes Ivar the Boneless as having killed Ælla and subsequently cutting his back.
The cruel and seemingly indestructible Ivar ultimately does make it past the Vikings series finale, unlike his brothers Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø). Ivar dies in battle after seeing Hvitserk exhausted and injured and struggling to keep fighting.
As the oldest son of Ragnar and the only surviving child of Ragnar and the famous shield-maiden Lagertha, Bjorn already has the makings of a great warrior. Both of his parents are well-known for their actions during battle, and their leadership outside it.
At the battle of Ashdown in 871, Alfred routed the Viking army in a fiercely fought uphill assault.
Crucifixion was used as a punishment for prisoners of war during World War II. Ringer Edwards, an Australian prisoner of war, was crucified for killing cattle, along with two others. He survived 63 hours before being let down.
He may have stood about 5-ft.-5-in. (166 cm) tall, the average man's height at the time.
Foremost among all the unanswered questions is why Jesus uttered his heart-rending cry on the cross. “About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? '” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (ESV, Matthew 27:46).
Death, usually after 6 hours--4 days, was due to multifactorial pathology: after-effects of compulsory scourging and maiming, haemorrhage and dehydration causing hypovolaemic shock and pain, but the most important factor was progressive asphyxia caused by impairment of respiratory movement.
Added to what Jesus had already suffered from being beaten and flogged, the crown of thorns would have caused an almost indescribable pain as Jesus labored, with a heavy cross on His back and crown of thorns on His head, through the streets of Jerusalem to the place where He was ultimately crucified.
The evidence to suggest Ragnar ever lived is scarce, but, crucially, it does exist. Two references to a particularly eminent Viking raider in 840 AD appear in the generally reliable Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which speaks of 'Ragnall' and 'Reginherus'.
The fatal walk was another gruesome testament to torture. A victim's abdomen was sliced open and a bit of intestine was pulled out. Then the torturer held the victim's intestines as the victim walked around a tree. Eventually, the entirety of the victim's intestinal tract would wrap around the tree.
So did the Vikings share a common blood type? Research suggests that most ancient populations had a similar composition to the current population in Northern Europe, with Type A being the most common, followed by Type O and then B. This indicates that Viking blood may have shared these same three types.