Vikings: The Blood Eagle Death Explained (& What It Gets Wrong)

Vikings aimed to be as historically accurate as possible, which wasn’t easy given the few historical records about the Viking Age, but there’s one big mistake when it comes to the most brutal death in the series: the blood eagle, and here’s what happened. Created by Michael Hirst (The Tudors), Vikings premiered on History Channel in 2013 and lived on for a total of six seasons, even though it was originally planned to be a miniseries, and came to an end in 2020.

Vikings told the story of legendary Norse figure Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his travels and raid alongside his Viking brothers, from the beginning of the Viking Age (marked by the Lindisfarne raid, as seen in season 1) onward. As the story progressed, Vikings shifted its focus to Ragnar’s sons and their own journeys, with them taking over the series after Ragnar’s death in season 4. Ragnar’s legacy and presence could still be felt until the end of the series, and he left behind various memorable moments, both good and violent, and falling into the latter category is the death of Jarl Borg (Thorbjørn Harr).

Related: Vikings: Jarl Borg Created A Major Location Mistake In The Show

Jarl Borg was a leader from Götaland who was introduced in Vikings season 1, and it was clear from the beginning that he was going to bring a lot of trouble to Ragnar and Kattegat. Borg’s involvement in Vikings was through his conflict with King Horik, as they both wanted control over mineral-rich lands and Horik sent Ragnar as his emissary. Borg distracted Ragnar with the supposed real Yggdrasil (the tree of life) while he manipulated Ragnar’s brother, Rollo (Clive Standen), into betraying him. Borg later attacked Kattegat when Horik excluded him from their raids and battled Ragnar and his men. Horik then told Ragnar to reestablish their alliance with Borg, and after the latter accepted the offer, Ragnar captured him and sentenced him to death by “blood eagle” (in season 2’s episode appropriately titled “Blood Eagle”).

The blood eagle is a method of execution detailed in late skaldic poetry. It consists of having the ribs severed from the spine and the lungs pulled through the opening to simulate a pair of wings. This “ritual” appears in two instances in Norse literature and they coincide in the victims being noblemen, just like Jarl Borg, though in these cases the executions were in retaliation for the murder of a father. However, there’s a lot of debate on whether the blood eagle was real, a literary invention, or a mistake in the translation of the original texts. This method is mentioned in “The Tale of Ragnar’s sons”, in which Ivar the Boneless captured King Aelle and sentenced him to die by blood eagle as he was responsible for Ragnar’s death. This was included in the show, as Aelle was killed through this ritual, though he didn’t go through it as Jarl Borg did, who didn’t make a sound and thus earned his place in Valhalla.

However, many historians believe the blood eagle wasn’t real, and thus Vikings got those two deaths wrong, even if the sagas described one of them (and the sagas are considered fiction by many, with Ragnar’s existence also being debated). In his personal blog, Howard M. R. Williams, professor in Medieval archeology, explained (via Looper) that the blood eagle execution, as legendary as it is, has “no historical or archeological correlate”, and enduring it in silence is “truly implausible". It’s important to remember that historical records on Vikings and their way of living are scarce and most information is based on sagas, poems, tales, and more, so there were going to be elements that would have to be changed, embellished, or created in order to tell a cohesive story in Vikings. The blood eagle might be nothing more than fiction, but it was definitely one of the most brutal killing methods in the series.

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Next: Vikings: Why Ragnar Doesn't Speak In The Season 2 Finale