Service resumes soon...

The writer of this blog apologizes for the lack of input/ updates since July 3. He was diagnosed with pneumonia during a visit to his Folks in Devon and was admitted to Exeter hospital for key-hole surgery and a subsequent thoracotomy (lung operation) this summer. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

bloodeagle. The carving of the bloodeagle was a particularly cruel kind of killing during which the ribs were separated from the back-bone, folded-out like eagle's wings and the lungs were pulled out, all done whilst the victim was still alive.
This kind of revenge on an enemy is recorded in both skaldic poetry (Sigvat) and in Eddic Lays (Reginsmal 26) as well as in the sagas and could originally come from a human sacrifice, as performed in the Orkneyingasaga 8, where Jarl Einarr had his opponent killed in such a manner and thus “sacrificed him to Odin for the victory”. A similar account can be found in Saxo, Gesta Danorum IX, 315. Other evidence for this kind of killing suggests, however, that it could originally have been a special kind of revenge directed at the killer of one's father.
- DICTIONARY OF NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. Rudolf Simek (Brewer, Cambridge 1996)