"The ruined church and monastic buildings that still stand on the island today are not Anglo-Saxon; they are the remains of the new priory built on the island in the late 11th century by the monks of Durham. So where is the original monastery? And what happened to it after the attack?" Source: DigVentures.
"All that is known to survive are some carved stone monuments of Anglo-Saxon date, which were found by archaeologists clearing away some of the collapsed rubble from the priory ruins in the late 19th and early 20th century."
Note: "... a major ... geophysical survey funded by National Geographic was carried out by Durham University in September 2012. This has shown that there is limited archaeological evidence for the monastic boundary that had previously been postulated, but an alternative boundary has been identified, which is associated with an area of possible industrial activity. It also identified a probably infirmary cloister associated with the later priory and a possible structure aligned on the two standing churches." Source: Durham University.
"The blood eagle is a ritualized method of execution, detailed in late skaldic poetry. According to the two instances mentioned in the Sagas, the victim (in both cases a member of a royal family) was placed prone, the ribs severed from the spine with a sharp tool and the lungs pulled through the opening to create a pair of 'wings'. There is a continuing debate about whether the ritual was a literary invention, a mistranslation of the original texts or an authentic historical practice." Source: Wikipedia.
The Blood Eagle was a particularly nasty form of sacrificial execution, but did the Vikings actually put people to death this way? As far as I can tell, the only primary documentary evidence for the practice comes from sources such as the Orkneyinga Saga, the Heimskringla, the Tale of Ragnar's Sons, and a handful of references in other texts.
Note: The Tale of Ragnar's Sons describes (among other things) the execution of King Aella of Northumbria, a scene also depicted in Vikings.
Jarl Borg in Vikings is an entirely fictional character, I believe. Aella, on the other hand, was apparently a real king, though the sources for his life are limited and very little is known about his reign. According to some accounts, he was executed by the Vikings after they invaded Northumbria following the king's execution of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok, another figure who may or may not have actually existed. How Aella died is a matter of conjecture, though, because the sources contradict each other:
"While Norse sources claim that Ragnar's sons tortured Ælla to death with a blood eagle, Anglo-Saxon accounts maintain that he died in battle, at York, on 21 March 867." (Wikipedia)
"Well into the last century, most historians of the Vikings accepted that the blood eagle was deeply unpleasant but very real. According to the eminent medievalist J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, its possible victims were not only Ælla of Northumbria but also Halfdán, the son of Harald Finehair (or Fairhair), king of Norway, and the Irish King Maelgualai [Mael Gualae] of Munster; in some interpretations, it is supposed that even Edmund the Martyr may have suffered the same fate."
One possibility is that the Blood Eagle was a real execution method sensationalized by later writers. For instance, the Welsh scholar and translator, Gwyn Jones, argues in A History of the Vikings (1968) that this "inhuman rite" was "unhappily no fiction ... but owes its eminence in pseudo-lore almost entirely to fiction ..." (footnote pp 119-220, 1968 edition)
It's also possible that the Blood Eagle is entirely fictitious. This seems to be the current consensus, but there's a lot of disagreement. Revisionist historians have challenged the idea that the Vikings were just a mob of cruel barbarians wearing horned helmets, but their depictions of "cuddly" Vikings went too far in the other direction. One of the main problems with our picture of the Vikings is that much of what we know about them was written by their enemies.
If the Blood Eagle is a literary invention, there's a good chance that this grisly method of execution was dreamed up by Christian writers trying to demonize the pagan Vikings. According to Wikipedia, "[t]here is debate about whether the blood eagle was historically practiced, or whether it was a literary device invented by the authors who transcribed the sagas. No contemporary accounts of the ritual exist, and the scant references in the sagas are several hundred years after the Christianization of Scandinavia." Considering the Christians' history of inventing martyr stories set in the Roman Empire, I wouldn't be surprised if they concocted similar atrocity stories about the Vikings.
Video from 2010.
When I first started to research this subject, I assumed there was a high probability that the Blood Eagle was a real thing because the Vikings are thought to have conducted human sacrifices and the Blood Eagle is, in a way, just another form of ritual sacrifice. As it turns out, though, the question of whether the Vikings killed people for religious purposes isn't all that straightforward.
There is some archaeological evidence that the Vikings may have sacrificed humans. For instance, "[a]t Trelleborg [Sweden] a sacrificial site was found from the time before the Viking fortress was erected in 980-81. In five c. 3 metre-deep wells human and animal skeletons were found, together with jewellery and tools. Of the total of five human sacrifices, four were young children aged between 4 and 7. " Source: National Museum of Denmark.
Blood sacrifice, including human sacrifice, was an intrinsic part of pagan religions. The historical sources for Viking human sacrifice are questionable, though, because they all seem to come, once again, from Christian accounts:
According to the National Museum of Denmark, "[t]here are several horrifying accounts of human sacrifices from the Viking period. The German bishop, Thietmar of Merseburg, describes how the Vikings met every nine years at Lejre on Zealand [Denmark] in January 'and offer to their gods 99 people and just as many horses, dogs and hens or hawks, for these should serve them in the kingdom of the dead and atone for their evil deeds.'"
A similar ritual (at a different location) is also depicted in Vikings.
"The German monk Adam of Bremen wrote a similar account in 1072 about the sacrificial tradition at [Gamla Uppsala] in Sweden, where the temple was devoted to Thor, Odin and Frey. Here the Vikings also met every 9 years to ensure the goodwill of the gods. 9 males of all kinds of living creatures were sacrificed in a holy grove nearby. According to Adam of Bremen dogs, horses and humans hung from the trees. The number 9 was apparently of magical significance to the Vikings and was involved in a number of rituals." (National Museum of Denmark)
"There has been extensive debate over whether these accounts were real or simply Christian propaganda."
I wouldn't be shocked to learn that the Vikings actually executed royal prisoners using the Blood Eagle. Even if the descriptions in the sagas were written for entertainment, they may have had some basis in fact. At this point, however, it looks like this particular form of execution was a literary invention derived from the skaldic poems and embellished by later Christian writers in yet another attempt to make the pagans look like cruel and bloodthirsty savages:
"One of the features of a skaldic poem is that it’s incredibly convoluted, like a cryptic crossword puzzle. If you have a reference to what appears to be the Blood Eagle in a skaldic verse, it’s quite likely this is a poetic conceit. Roberta Frank, at Yale, argues that the Blood Eagle is just the idea of a carrion bird scratching at the back of the dead. If you create lots of corpses, you are a very good warrior. That’s what is being referred to. But when later writers made prose stories around these skaldic verses, they seem to have interpreted it literally. So it’s quite likely that there was no such thing as this horrible form of torture, but it grew in the telling." Source: National Geographic (2017).
"In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers ... were warriors who purportedly fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word 'berserk' ... Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources, with their name literally rendered as 'bear-coats', along with úlfhéðnar ('wolf-coats')." Source: Wikipedia.
"...It is proposed by some authors that the northern warrior tradition originated in hunting magic. Three main animal cults appeared: the bear, the wolf, and the wild boar." The legend of the werewolf may be related to these ancient stories:
"Old Norse had the cognate varúlfur, but because of the high importance of werewolves in Norse mythology, there were alternative terms such as ulfhéðinn ('one in wolf-skin', referring still to the totemistic or cultic adoption of wolf-nature rather than the superstitious belief in actual shape-shifting). In modern Scandinavian also kveldulf ('evening-wolf'), presumably after the name of Kveldulf Bjalfason, a historical berserker of the 9th century who figures in the Icelandic sagas." (Wikipedia)
Berserkers, like Shieldmaidens, may be completely mythological. According to the National Museum of Denmark, there is little to no archaeological evidence that they ever existed. Assuming that they were real, however, and that the stories about their ultraviolent frenzies are accurate, what could account for their deranged behavior?
The Viking berserkers, we are told, went into battle in a trance-like rage and were supposed to be almost uncontrollable killing machines. Dressed in wolf and bear pelts, they would attack friend and foe alike and their homicidal madness sounds a lot like a drug-induced frenzy of some kind:
"This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its colour. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days." -- Fabing, Howard D. (1956). "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry. (Subscription-access only)
Note: A detailed commentary on berserkers in general and Fabing's paper can be found here.)
The legends suggest that the berserkers might have taken some kind of drug that caused these fits of berserkergang. Whatever it was, it came on with a rush of "shivering, chattering of the teeth and chill in the body," caused a spike in blood-pressure ("the face swelled and changed its color") and body temperature ("a great hot-headedness") and ended with a hangover with could last for days. No one really knows if the berserkers were high on something, but various candidates have been suggested:
"While some researchers believe the Berserkers simply worked themselves up into a self-induced hysteria before fighting, others maintain that it was sorcery, the consumption of drugs or alcohol, or even mental illness, that accounted for their behaviour. Some botanists have claimed that berserker behaviour could have been caused by the ingestion of the plant known as bog myrtle, one of the main spices in Scandinavian alcoholic beverages." Source: Ancient Origins.
The problem with the bog-myrtle theory is that the plant was commonly used to make beer back then and doesn't appear to produce this kind of dramatic effect on people. Maybe I missed something, but I couldn't find any mention of it in The Vaults of Erowid, a site which covers psychotropic plants and herbs in exhaustive detail.
Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale) is a natural insect repellent, among other things. It was used (along with other herbs) to flavor beer in the middle ages until "hops supplanted gruit herbs for political and economic reasons." (Wikipedia). Bog Myrtle itself isn't psychedelic, as far as I can tell, but various mixtures of gruit herbs could act as euphorics and some of them had hallucinogenic or deliriant properties, so the idea that the Berserkers were stoned on some kind of herbal drink when they went into battle isn't all that outlandish.
"Helpful for enhancing lucid dreaming and astral work generally, bog myrtle was a flavoring for a type of European beer known as gruit up until the introduction of hops. The other components of gruit (1) were yarrow and wild rosemary. Some say this brew was behind the Berserkers [sic]. In northern Europe, bog myrtle and yarrow have been ingredients in fermented drinks made from grain, honey, or fruit since the Iron Age, and it is still used in Scandinavia to make a liqueur called 'snaps.'" Source: Alchemy Works.
(1) Medieval brewers used a wide variety of gruit herbs in their beer.
If the berserkers were high on something, the most likely candidate is gruit beer, but if they were that drunk it's hard to see how they could function very effectively. Some sources I've found speculate that they were tripping on the psychedelic amanita muscaria mushroom, but the psychoactive ingredient in the mushroom is muscimol, which is described as a "sedative-hypnotic," i.e., a tranquilizer -- just the opposite of what you would expect. Also, I've never heard of a psychedelic that consistently produces outbursts of violent rage. If the berserkers were taking a drug, it sounds like it was a medieval form of PCP.
Were the berserkers mentally ill? Again, it doesn't sound like it. Their furies seem to have been situation-specific, only occurring during battles or perhaps when they were working in their villages. If they were crazy they would've been prone to go berserk for no reason at all, but none of the sources I've found describe them flipping out at random. So, unless they were elite warriors who ate some plant that drove them into a homicidal rage the most plausible explanation for their reported behavior is that the berserkers are simply characters from Old Norse mythology. In other words, maybe they never actually existed.
"[The castle in Peel on the Isle of Man] was built in the 11th century by the Vikings, under the rule of King Magnus Barefoot. While there were older stone Celticmonastic buildings on the island, the first Viking fortifications were built of wood. The prominent round tower was originally part of the Celtic monastery, but had battlements added at a later date. In the early 14th century, the majority of the walls and towers were built primarily from local red sandstone, which is found abundantly in the area. After the rule of the Vikings, the castle continued to be used by the Church due to the cathedral built there – the see of the diocese of Sodor and Man – but was eventually abandoned in the 18th century." Source: Wikipedia.
"When archaeologists discovered the remains of a woman in a Viking graveyard in Denmark, an axe near her skeleton told them that she may have been a fighter. But closer examination of both the weapon and her burial revealed something unexpected: She was no Viking." Source: Live Science.
"Rather, the woman was Slavic, and likely came from a region in Eastern Europe that is now Poland, representatives of Poland's Ministry of Science and Higher Education said in a statement."
Note: About thirty 9th - 10th century women's graves which contain weapons have been discovered in Scandinavia. According to Science In Poland, these graves "are most often equipped with axes, less frequently arrowheads or spears. In addition to real weapons, in numerous women's graves there are also miniatures of weapons in the form of, for example, small shields, axes or swords. It is a mystery for researchers whether it means that those women were warriors. The old Icelandic texts, especially the so-called legendary sagas, in addition to the warlike and beautiful Valkyries, also mention dragons, trolls and... flying carpets."
Back in May, 2019, Russia Today reported that the Swedish government was "looking into the possibility of forbidding the use of Norse runes ... amid concerns that the ancient symbols have been misappropriated by neo-Nazi groups." According to RT, Justice Minister Morgan Johansson was "investigating whether or not runes should be banned in Sweden as a way to deter hate groups ..."
This proposed ban was absurd, of course, but it was a particularly dumb idea because banning runes would be impossible. Runic inscriptions can be found all over Scandinavia and Europe, for one thing, but even if you destroyed every runestone and medieval artifact in the West, you still couldn't get rid of these "racist" symbols. This ancient writing system is not only the subject of scholarly research, but "runic alphabets were added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0." (Wikipedia) Hundreds of rune-related books and merchandise can be found on Amazon and rune tattoos are very popular (see next video). You'd have to be crazy, not to mention unbelievably arrogant, to think you could actually "forbid" runes.
That's not what this proposal was about, of course. The Swedish government would just use a ban as a legal tool to persecute political groups they don't approve of. This kind of thing is SOP for the modern left. Attacks on national symbols have been taking place all over Europe and the US. For example, the Union Jack is now considered to be "racist" in Britain. So is the Betsy Ross flag in the United States.
Evil Nazi girl gets rune tattoos, including the notorious Tyr rune (2017).
The proposed criminalization of runes was typical of the current Swedish government. Malicious little creatures like Justice Minister Johansson are actively hostile to the culture and heritage of their own country, and they'll end up destroying Sweden completely if they aren't driven out of office. But even if these idiots were all purged tomorrow, it may be too late to turn the situation around. Sweden is dying. The level of violence there is soaring and the country is rapidly becoming Islamified thanks to its self-destructive immigration policies. The truly insane thing about all of this is that Sweden's "feminist government" has been bending over backwards to import an alien culture which treats women like chattel, but that's typical of the clown world we live in today.
Sweden is a classic example of cultural decay. It's hard to believe that its people are descended from the Vikings.
Video from 2015.
UPDATE: Surprisingly, the idiotic Swedish government decided not to ban runes. According to The Local (May 30, 2019), "an inquiry in Sweden has recommended against bringing in a ban on racist symbols such as the Tyr or Tiwaz rune used by the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement ... The inquiry, led by Charlotte Brokelind, President of the Göta Court of Appeal, found in its conclusions that existing ethnic hate laws were sufficient, and did not need to be supplemented by additional bans on specific symbols."
The Local is a left-wing rag. Note the ridiculous assertion that the Tyr or Tiwaz rune is a "racist symbol."
"In Germanic mythology, Týr (Old Norse), Tíw (Old English), and Ziu (Old High German) is a god. Stemming from the Proto-Germanic deity *Tīwaz and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus, little information about the god survives beyond Old Norse sources. Due to the etymology of the god's name and the shadowy presence of the god in the extant Germanic corpus, some scholars propose that Týr may have once held a more central place among the deities of early Germanic mythology" (Wikipedia)
The Tyr rune is a symbol of national identity. That's why the Nordic Resistance Front adopted it. If they had used a Nordic Cross instead, the Swedish government would probably hold an inquiry into banning the Swedish flag.
"Stone ships were a burial form used in the bronze- and –iron ages and during the Viking period. They were shaped like acute oval stone circles, and might frame a grave established within the sides of the ship, but they could also function as memorials for the deceased. It is not really known why rich Vikings were buried in this way, but it is believed that the stone ship symbolizes a boat which was to carry the deceased to the kingdom of the dead." Source: Fortidens Jelling.
"Such a stone circle has existed in Jelling [Denmark], a gigantic stone ship 354 metres long. The stone ship is the oldest of the memorials in Jelling from the Viking Age."
Note: "Uppland ... is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital." (Wikipedia) I'm not sure where this grave field is located exactly.
Broborg, the fort, is "a hillfort located around 10 km east of Knivsta [south-central Uppland]. It overlooks an ancient major waterway ... leading to the interior of Uppland, as well as a road. The location thus suggests that, in prehistoric times (and before too much elevation of the land), Broborg could have controlled access for trade as well as any military activities." Source: The Mystery Of The Vitrified Hillfort. (PDF)
Broborg was a vitrified fort, i.e., its stones were apparently cemented together by a kind of glass formed by subjecting stones to extreme heat. The article quoted above mentions that the vitrification process used at Broborg is being studied by modern scientists for its possible application in nuclear-waste disposal. The idea is to seal the waste inside a vitrified matrix to prevent it from escaping into the environment.
According to the description for the first video above, there is a legend about Grimsa, "a Viking queen who was burned alive in the fort," but I haven't been able to find any further information about her.
"There are several excavations of Iron Age settlements around Tissø [Denmark] and in 1976 a large golden ornamental ring manufactured in the 10th century, was unearthed during a regular field-plowing. The Tissø Ring is a neck-ring with a diameter of 30 cm and at 1.83 kg (originally 2 kg), it is one of the largest gold finds in Denmark. This led to professional investigations and remains of a Viking estate was discovered at the site now known as 'Kalmargården', near Fugledegård on the western lakebrink. In 1995-2003 large scale excavations revealed, that the total settlement covered c. 500,000 m2 (50 ha), centered around a 12 x 48 m hall and with several buildings and structures believed to have ritualistic purposes. In 2012 remains of another large hall measuring 8 x 35 m was discovered. The magnates residence of Kalmargården, greatly resemble the residences excavated at 'Old Lejre' in central Zealand and at Järrestad in Scania. It has been suggested that Kalmargården served as a seasonal residence for the royal family based in Old Lejre." Source: Wikipedia.
"The Odendisa Runestone ... sometimes called the Hassmyra Runestone, is a Viking Age runestone erected at Hassmyra, Västmanland, Sweden, that is a memorial to a woman." Source: Wikipedia. This area also contains Viking stone ship burials of women.
"The runic text carved on the serpent of the Odendisa Runestone contains a poem in fornyrðislag and is one of few runestones raised for a woman, and the only one in Sweden with a verse commemorating a woman ... The theophoric name Odendisa .., which means 'Goddess of Odin,' is a unique name and is not known from any other source."
Swedish Politician Suggests Banning "Nazi" Runes (UPDATE)
Evil Nazi runes!
Back in May, 2019, Russia Today reported that the Swedish government was "looking into the possibility of forbidding the use of Norse runes ... amid concerns that the ancient symbols have been misappropriated by neo-Nazi groups." According to RT, Justice Minister Morgan Johansson was "investigating whether or not runes should be banned in Sweden as a way to deter hate groups ..."
This proposed ban was absurd, of course, but it was a particularly dumb idea because banning runes would be impossible. Runic inscriptions can be found all over Scandinavia and Europe, for one thing, but even if you destroyed every runestone and medieval artifact in the West, you still couldn't get rid of these "racist" symbols. This ancient writing system is not only the subject of scholarly research, but "runic alphabets were added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0." (Wikipedia) Hundreds of rune-related books and merchandise can be found on Amazon and rune tattoos are very popular (see next video). You'd have to be crazy, not to mention unbelievably arrogant, to think you could actually "forbid" runes.
That's not what this proposal was about, of course. The Swedish government would just use a ban as a legal tool to persecute political groups they don't approve of. This kind of thing is SOP for the modern left. Attacks on national symbols have been taking place all over Europe and the US. For example, the Union Jack is now considered to be "racist" in Britain. So is the Betsy Ross flag in the United States.
Also see: Sweden Investigating Criminalizing Runes, Thor's Hammer & Other Norse Symbols.
Evil Nazi girl gets rune tattoos, including the notorious Tyr rune (2017).
The proposed criminalization of runes was typical of the current Swedish government. Malicious little creatures like Justice Minister Johansson are actively hostile to the culture and heritage of their own country, and they'll end up destroying Sweden completely if they aren't driven out of office. But even if these idiots were all purged tomorrow, it may be too late to turn the situation around. Sweden is dying. The level of violence there is soaring and the country is rapidly becoming Islamified thanks to its self-destructive immigration policies. The truly insane thing about all of this is that Sweden's "feminist government" has been bending over backwards to import an alien culture which treats women like chattel, but that's typical of the clown world we live in today.
Sweden is a classic example of cultural decay. It's hard to believe that its people are descended from the Vikings.
Video from 2015.
UPDATE: Surprisingly, the idiotic Swedish government decided not to ban runes. According to The Local (May 30, 2019), "an inquiry in Sweden has recommended against bringing in a ban on racist symbols such as the Tyr or Tiwaz rune used by the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement ... The inquiry, led by Charlotte Brokelind, President of the Göta Court of Appeal, found in its conclusions that existing ethnic hate laws were sufficient, and did not need to be supplemented by additional bans on specific symbols."
The Local is a left-wing rag. Note the ridiculous assertion that the Tyr or Tiwaz rune is a "racist symbol."
"In Germanic mythology, Týr (Old Norse), Tíw (Old English), and Ziu (Old High German) is a god. Stemming from the Proto-Germanic deity *Tīwaz and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus, little information about the god survives beyond Old Norse sources. Due to the etymology of the god's name and the shadowy presence of the god in the extant Germanic corpus, some scholars propose that Týr may have once held a more central place among the deities of early Germanic mythology" (Wikipedia)
The Tyr rune is a symbol of national identity. That's why the Nordic Resistance Front adopted it. If they had used a Nordic Cross instead, the Swedish government would probably hold an inquiry into banning the Swedish flag.
Posted at 07:00 AM in Ancient Writing, Collapse, Commentary, Culture, Current Affairs, Medieval, Scandinavia, Videos, Vikings | Permalink