One may think words like law and order do not apply to scruffy barbarians of the north
who murdered, plundered and pillaged the rest of Europe without any conscience in the Middle Ages.
Hard to believe but, Vikings did have an intricate and sophisticated law system back in the day. But
beware, for the Viking punishment was all one can imagine as their justice could be
unforgiving. Welcome to Nutty History, and today let’s find out what were the merciless
and cruel punishments that Vikings used in their time. In modern times, humans have well-defined
distinctions when it comes to the act of killing such as premeditated murder, intentional murder,
and manslaughter. But back in the Viking Age, the line wasn’t drawn so impeccably clear.
According to the Viking law, killing somebody covertly and without fair warning was considered
a despicable and monstrous act while killing someone in a duel after challenging them in
public was considered honorable. Even in the case of manslaughter or accidental killings, one had
to take responsibility for the killing and not flee. Obey the council and pay the compensation
imposed on you. The same applied to homicides resulting from fights or similar situations.
However, if one was caught murdering someone in their sleep, by surprise, or without fair warning,
chances were high they might be asked to do, The Fatal Walk. This punishment was reserved mostly
for high-profile murders, as was the case in Broðir in Njals saga. In the fatal walk,
the executioner would slice the prisoner’s belly open and the prisoner would be asked to walk to
the spot of his execution with their guts spilling out. Even if guts or intestines are removed from
the body of a person, they somehow manage to stay alive for hours albeit in a very agonizing way.
On arriving at the spot of execution which was commonly a tree, the spilling guts of
the prisoner would be pulled out to tie them around the tree. If the prisoner was fortunate,
they might die during this ordeal or else more agony awaited as death may take its sweet time.
Medieval Nordic people or more commonly referred to as Vikings in pop culture.
They do not have a very sophisticated and civilized image in present times.
Often depicted as savages, Scandinavians were quite a complex society with a nearly
well-defined judiciary system. There was no police system but they did have “THE THING”.
The thing or a thing was the governing assembly at the local level to sort out disputes, punish
crimes, and maintain peace… err… or shall we say keep control over violence. During the thing,
which was held periodically, all free men of the Vikings would gather in their
communities to enforce law. Each Thing had a law speaker who would recite the law from memory.
The law speaker and the local chieftain would judge and settle the cases of dispute they heard,
although all free men of the community had a say. However, things were most likely dominated
by a local, powerful family or families. So, the more influence you had in the community, the more
weight your words had during “The Thing”. Also, the thing led by the king was called Althing.
Now before talking about how a thing functioned, it is important to understand that in the Viking
age, taking responsibility for one’s own actions was considered supreme. If one did something
wrong, they had to admit to the deed. Only one could defend themselves at the Thing, which was
the honorable way in Nordic society. This was the reason why theft was considered a more heinous
crime than say, murder which is considered one of the biggest law violations in modern times.
In their customs, theft was considered a dishonorable offense with treacherous and
conspicuous intentions while killing somebody in the open was an honorable thing. So technically,
one had a better chance of getting away with cutting a throat rather than cutting a purse.
Unfortunately, as Vikings considered any form of writing except runes lame,
their records of social and political conduct are based on “sagas”. The oral
literature is based on events that were passed on from generation to generation.
So, consider taking these punishments with a pinch of skepticism. According to these sagas,
if one was caught stealing, he better hope to be killed for it, it was less painful than being
punished the other way. There was no uniform code for capital punishments among the Vikings.
Sometimes things would work like a kangaroo court and villagers would raise the gallows to
hang the guilty until death or simply just chop one’s head off. Executions in Nordic law were
used in the rarest of cases but hanging was more common than beheading which was mostly considered
as a means of execution for slaves. But these were more like guidelines than law. These were
quick ways to kill the culprit but were also regarded as the most embarrassing way to die.
It was so because of the Nordic belief about Valhalla and how one should always die in a battle
with a weapon in hand to get an honorable seat on Odin’s table in the afterlife. A thief would
never get to see Valhalla at the end of the tunnel and most possibly end up in Niflheim, the realm
of evil and death ruled by Hel. However, if The Thing decided to punish the thief the other way,
one might get to experience Niflheim while being alive itself. Introducing “THE HUNG MEAT”! As
Mentioned in the Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoda, “the hung meat” can be considered to have the greatest
plausibility as a physical act of vengeance. Pretty sure, you the audience, even if you are
a vegan, must have visited a butcher’s shop in your life or at least seen inside through the
window passing by. Now you may be able to picture why this punishment was called the hung meat. It’s
exactly what it sounds like, the meat is hung by its rear tendons using hooks in a butcher shop.
Like it was in the frocking kills case would be hung by a rope upside down. The only difference
is that the carcasses of dead animals in butcher shops are dead while the culprits who suffered
this punishment in Scandinavia were still alive and mostly lived through this ordeal. Instead of
tying their ankles with the rope, administrators of punishment would use the knives to pierce holes
through the victim’s heels behind their tendons to pass the rope and then pull it over a beam to
string them up. After the duration of punishment, the guilty would be cut down and declared an
outlaw by The Thing. All of their property would be forfeited and divided into the community.
Even though the punishments mentioned in this video were used by Vikings in the rarest of cases,
they had a special punishment reserved for the rarest of the rarest case,
THE BLOOD EAGLE. The most known instance of blood eagle execution is related to famed Viking king
Ragnar Lodbrok. After Ragnar was captured and killed by King Aella of NorthUmbria, England, his
sons invaded NorthUmbria seeking revenge. After NorthUmbria fell, Ragnar’s son, Ivar the Boneless,
condemned Aella to the horrible fate of the blood eagle. Today, modern scholars debate how Vikings
performed this ritual torture and some don’t even want to believe that the gruesome method of
the ritual was even preferred at all. You can’t blame them for the process of the blood eagle,
it is indeed so cruel and grisly that one would like to doubt its occurrence. But whether fiction
or repulsive reality, the blood eagle ritual was a fate you would not even hope for your enemies.
The victim’s hands and legs were strangled to prevent escape or sudden movements.
The person seeking vengeance would then stab the victim with an ax by their tailbone and up towards
the rib cage, meticulously separating every rib from the backbone. The victim would be left having
their internal organs on full display. The process was carried out while making sure the victim
stays alive to endure the pain. To make it worse, Vikings would then rub salt on the gaping wound.
No, that was not a metaphor, actual saline simulant would be applied to the wound to
enhance the torment. Then the detached ribs would be spread out like giant fingers so that the
vengeance seeker will have access to the victim’s organs so that they can pull the lungs out
and make the victim appear as if they had a pair of wings spread out on their back. Therefore,
the name, BLOOD EAGLE. There were two main reasons Vikings used the blood eagle on their victims.
First, they believed it was a sacrifice to Odin, father of the Norse pantheon of gods and the god
of war. Second, and more plausibly, was that the blood eagle was done as a punishment to honor
lacking individuals. According to the Orkneyinga saga of the Vikings, Halfdan was defeated
in battle at the hands of Earl Einar who then tortured him with a blood eagle as he conquered
Halfdan’s kingdom. Similarly, Ayela was tortured in vengeance. So, we leave you with the question,
do you think blood eagle and other such Viking punishments were works of fiction,
or do the scrupulous details in the description have a shred of truth behind them?
Let us know in the comments. And if you would like to watch more cruel punishments in history,
check out these videos on the screen. And as always, thanks for watching Nutty History.