{"id":6861,"date":"2014-11-11T10:09:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T17:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6861"},"modified":"2014-11-12T10:34:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T17:34:15","slug":"the-viking-blood-eagle-never-happened-says-historian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6861","title":{"rendered":"The Viking “Blood Eagle” Never Happened, Says Historian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ageofthevikings\"<\/a>A Swedish archaeologist reviews a new book, Anders Winroth’s\u00a0<\/a>The Age of the Vikings<\/a>,<\/em> and makes this observation:<\/p>\n

Myself, I was intrigued to learn that the infamous, messy and impractical \u201cblood eagle\u201d murder method may just be the fruit of High Medieval writers misunderstanding one of the countless references in Viking Period poetry to carrion birds munching on the slain (p. 37). There is to my knowledge no osteological evidence for it. Also interesting to me, I can\u2019t recall reading about the Spanish Moor Al-Tartushi\u2019s report on life in Hedeby before (p. 197). But that may just be because I\u2019m not an historian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Funny thing, I had been thinking of that alleged method of torture\/execution a couple of days before.<\/p>\n

Read the rest at his blog: “New Popular Book on the Viking Period<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Swedish archaeologist reviews a new book, Anders Winroth’s\u00a0The Age of the Vikings, and makes this observation: Myself, I was intrigued to learn that the infamous, messy and impractical \u201cblood eagle\u201d murder method may just be the fruit of High Medieval writers misunderstanding one of the countless references in Viking Period poetry to carrion birds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,100,134],"class_list":["post-6861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology","tag-history","tag-norse"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1MF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12885,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12885","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":0},"title":"Talking about Robert Eggers’ “The Northman”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the spring of 2018, M. and I were preparing for a week in Salem, Mass., so we watched several movies about Salem, witch trials, etc. One of them was The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers. At the time, I had more to say about Three Sovereigns for Sarah, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Denmark\"","block_context":{"text":"Denmark","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=denmark"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12637,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12637","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":1},"title":"No Amanita \u2013 Some Berserkers Were Even Christian","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"With the assistance\u00a0of Roderick Dale, \"doctor of berserkers,\" YouTube military historian Lindybeige offers an entertaining and enlightening video on the literary legend of the Norse berserker. From Dale's blog post, It is interesting to note how even those who accept the idea of berserksgangr as performance will often say something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Norse\"","block_context":{"text":"Norse","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=norse"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9843,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9843","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":2},"title":"Coming Soon \u2014 Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What do I like about Being Viking beyond Mark Lee's arresting cover design? It is that author Jefferson Calico can move beyond rehashing the folkish-universalist issue and look at some things not normally talked about, such as social class. Americans will talk you to death about race and ethnicity, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/being-viking-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5086,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5086","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":3},"title":"Death and the Viking Mind","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A short piece from Heritage Daily summarizes research by Neil Price of Aberdeen University into Viking-period burials. Aside from these literary work [sagas], Professor Price suggests that the grave assemblages of the Viking Age may be used to tell stories and provide an insight into the Viking conscious. There is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.heritagedaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/viking111.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.heritagedaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/viking111.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.heritagedaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/viking111.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1315,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1315","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":4},"title":"Slavery, Vikings, and Charlemagne","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a little bit of synchronicity in my historical reading. I am not sure if it \"proves\" anything, other than the fact that it is difficult to sort people into \"good guys\" and \"bad guys.\" 1. At the library, I recently picked up The Long Morning of Medieval Europe:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"France\"","block_context":{"text":"France","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=france"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0754662543","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3375,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3375","url_meta":{"origin":6861,"position":5},"title":"Viking “Sunstones” Were Icelandic?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Now everyone will want a \"Viking sunstone.\" This bit of information about the polarizing rocks has been around for a while. As far as I can tell, the \"news hook\" is just that a specific Icelandic source is suggested. Expect a Llewellyn book on how to use them in about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/56405000\/jpg\/_56405353_e4250436.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6861"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6873,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6861\/revisions\/6873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}