Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — A Viking ritual seen as one of the worst punishments in the history of mankind but dismissed as a legend due to lack of archaeological evidence is anatomically possible, according to a Journal of the Medieval Academy of America study.
The ‘blood eagle’ ritual allegedly involved carving the victim’s back open, cutting their ribs away from their spine, and pulling the lungs through the wounds.
The study describes how barbed or lugged Viking spearheads could have been used to pierce the most superficial layer of back muscles and a series of underlying muscles.
The erector spinae muscles and the diaphragm would then also have been cut into in order to access the ribs, while the shoulder blades would have had to be displaced.
Finally, detaching the ribs directly from the spine was found not to be possible, so instead they would be detached near the angles, on top of second breaks near the midaxillary line.
The lungs would then be splayed out on top of the ribs, which were spread out like wings.
Scientists involved in the study wrote in The Conversation that the blood eagle would have been conducted in exceptional circumstances, on a prisoner of war who had subjected the ritual-doer’s male relative to a shameful death.
SOURCES: Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, The Conversation
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/717332
theconversation.com/brutal-viking-blood-eagle-ritual-execution-was-anatomically-possible-new-research-173519
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — A Viking ritual seen as one of the worst punishments in the history of mankind but dismissed as a legend due to lack of archaeological evidence is anatomically possible, according to a Journal of the Medieval Academy of America study.
The ‘blood eagle’ ritual allegedly involved carving the victim’s back open, cutting their ribs away from their spine, and pulling the lungs through the wounds.
The study describes how barbed or lugged Viking spearheads could have been used to pierce the most superficial layer of back muscles and a series of underlying muscles.
The erector spinae muscles and the diaphragm would then also have been cut into in order to access the ribs, while the shoulder blades would have had to be displaced.
Finally, detaching the ribs directly from the spine was found not to be possible, so instead they would be detached near the angles, on top of second breaks near the midaxillary line.
The lungs would then be splayed out on top of the ribs, which were spread out like wings.
Scientists involved in the study wrote in The Conversation that the blood eagle would have been conducted in exceptional circumstances, on a prisoner of war who had subjected the ritual-doer’s male relative to a shameful death.
SOURCES: Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, The Conversation
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/717332
theconversation.com/brutal-viking-blood-eagle-ritual-execution-was-anatomically-possible-new-research-173519
