Blood Eagle - Myth, or Fact?

It’s probably one of the more famous incidents in Anglo-Saxon history: An invading Viking king is killed by being thrown into a pit of snakes, and in revenge, his son kills his murderer by employing the method of torture and execution known as the Blood Eagle.

We are told by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that in 867 Northumbria was ruled by Ælle, but we don’t know his origins, and that he was killed when Vikings attacked York. This seems very straightforward and would appear not to warrant inclusion in a book about murder stories.

But legend takes over the story, with the appearance of Ragnar Lothbrok (Hairy Breeches). We only hear about him from the Icelandic sagas, but it does appear that his named sons, at least, were real historical figures.

According to the legend, Ragnar fell foul of Ælle while he was ravaging Northumbria and was flung into a pit full of snakes where he was bitten and died. He swore his sons would wreak vengeance and so, it was said, they did.

Ivar the Boneless, Ragnar’s son, is alleged to have ordered the killing of his father’s murderer by employing the Blood Eagle. In later descriptions this savage method of execution involved cutting the shape of an eagle with outstretched wings into the victim’s back before cutting the ribs open from the spine. The bones and skin were pulled out until they resembled the shape of wings. The victim, still alive at this point, would have salt rubbed into his wounds. Then, his lungs were pulled out and spread over the ‘wings’ to create an image of a ‘fluttering’ as the victim finally died. Most of these details come to us from the nineteenth century.

As with so many stories in my new book, there is a huge discrepancy between the earlier or contemporary sources and the later ones, even those from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. From a much nearer source, we have an eleventh-century poem which, depending on how it’s translated, suggests that Ivar ‘only’ had Ælle’s back cut with a sword, or that the cut represented an eagle.

We should also consider the death of Ragnar which supposedly ignited the incident and must assume that the pit was full of adders, the only snake native to England. Even so, an adder’s bite is rarely fatal. We also cannot verify the existence of Ragnar, though the sagas make much of his life – and death – perhaps as a way of introducing the deeds of such men as Ivar the Boneless. Certainly, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes it clear that there was a straightforward battle, and does not mention the snake pit or the blood eagle.

This grisly legend is in many ways typical of the stories in the book:

In later versions of a tale, an abbess is accused of having her infant brother savagely murdered and punished divinely when her eyeballs fell out, while contemporary sources suggest that even if he existed at all, her brother was almost certainly an adult when he died, and no murder is recorded.

 The wife of King Offa of Mercia is said by later chroniclers to have arranged the killing of a visiting king, whereas the earlier source merely states that Offa had the king beheaded. Most tellingly and convincingly, we also have surviving letters from a contemporary of that queen, who wrote to her son urging him to learn compassion from her, and also wrung his hands at the murderous goings on in his own land (Northumbria) where regicides were frequent. He does not mention that the queen has been involved in murder. There are however, many murder stories in the book which can be corroborated, and among the most chilling of all are the ones which appear to have been either sanctioned by kings, or at the very least condoned by them. And yet there were written laws in place from as early as the seventh century, so this was not literally a lawless society, but one where the rich and powerful felt they were above such laws. Being in the wrong political faction could prove fatal.

There was much to untangle, and much detective work required, to see if the bones of truth could be found underneath the flesh of legend and rumour. And along the way, I noticed that some deaths, not recorded as murder, were decidedly suspicious and timely. How about a king benefiting from the early deaths of two half-brothers and a brother-in-law? Or the timely deaths of two kings in the tenth century, each of whom had agreed to a power-sharing arrangement, only to conveniently die a short time later?

Many of the stories have elements of hearsay, and unreliable witnesses. Where I’ve made accusations of my own, of course I can’t call up any witnesses and because the deaths are not recorded as murder, I can’t prove anything. But, just as we all love a good murder story, we all have our opinions about whodunnit…

Murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge is available in book shops and online: HERE

[Images: 

Blood Eagle: detail from Stora Hammars I, Sweden, showing a man lying on his belly with another man using a weapon on his back.

King Æthelberht of East Anglia, killed by King Offa, Canterbury Cathedral. (SAForrest, Creative Commons 2.0) ]

(This article originally appeared on the publisher's website)