Writing around the year 1200, the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus recounts a vicious execution, taking place several centuries before his own lifetime in the age of the Vikings:
“they ordered [Ella’s] back to be carved with the figure of an eagle, exultant because at his overthrow they were imprinting the cruelest of birds on their most ferocious enemy. Not satisfied with inflicting wounds, they salted the torn flesh.” (1)
While tantalizingly vague, this execution became known in the later centuries as the “Blood-Eagle,” and has sparked a great deal of controversy with regards to its existence or meaning. However grisly this vision purports to be, it nevertheless proves to be relatively sober-minded in comparison to the later Icelandic account “The Tale of Ragnar’s Sons”, from roughly a century later:
“They now had an eagle cut onto the back of Ella, and then tore the ribs from the back with a sword, so that the lungs were the pulled out.” (2)
Read the rest at CVLT Nation: http://www.cvltnation.com/viking-terror-the-blood-eagle/
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