Their Nature and Legacy states that "the hitherto notorious rite of the 'Blood Eagle,' the killing of a defeated warrior by pulling up his ribs and lungs through his back, has been shown to be almost certainly a Christian myth resulting from the misunderstanding of some older verse." While taking no view on the historical authenticity of the ritual, the authors of a 2022 study concluded that the ritual as described was not inconsistent either with physiology or the tools available within the sociocultural context of the Viking era. They further concluded that, were it performed in the most extreme versions depicted in the sagas and the subject of the torture still lived at that point, death would have followed the severing of the ribs from the spine within seconds, due either to exsanguination or asphyxiation. References Sources Torture Execution methods Viking practices Early Germanic law European instruments of torture Human sacrifice