Viking treasure

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565331/Human-sacrifice-female-angel-death-Vikings-savage-thought-As-British-Museum-unveils-treasures-ferocious-invaders.html

    

Hope LL isn't going to choose one of us for this task.      

Believe it or not, I saw a TV programme about this:

Defeated by the Anglo-Saxon King Aelle in Northumbria, he was not executed cleanly, but thrown alive into a pit of poisonous snakes.
As vipers crawled over him and he died a lingering death in terrible agony, he sang a song of defiance and revenge.


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The rather large hole in the saga was pointed out - where the Hell did King Aelle find a pit of poisonous snakes in Northumbria?

I don't much fancy the going into battle bit, I'm allergic to North Sea fog. I could stay in the tent and do the magic stuff, though.   

Snakes in the British Isles:

Adder Vipera berus
grass snake Natrix natrix
Smooth snake Coronella austriaca
Aesculapian snake Elaphe longissima (naturalized)

Adders are a bit poisonous, but rarely fatal, and are terrified of humans. And small.

So, I think the snake pit story is an early example of Viking Spinning.

I too wondered that, Bonny.

Your magic didn't turn LL's supply of cabers into snakes did it?        

If not, I will join you in the tent.   

 

Several Adders might do the trick, although singularly not much to worry about.

I can't imagine where they'd get enough adders from. No, I don't think this one actually happened....

Good morning!   Re the snake pit story, it was more likely starved wolves - Kirk Douglas in his film 'The Vikings' reenacted this story when Aella had Ragnar thrown to the wolves and then had Einar and his men invade Northumberland and chuck Aella into the same pit.   I would take quite a lot of this description of the death rites of a warrior with a pinch of salt, rather like the stories of a hunchbacked king slaughtering his way to the throne or a Romanian voivode eating breakfast in a forest of impaled enemies - it was the propoganda of the times, make your enemy look bad so you could appear to be a nice guy.   Yes, Vikings could be brutal but then so could their enemies; it was a dog eat dog time.   As for turning ma caber intae a snake, who do you think I am, Moses?  LL  

Yes, wolves make sense. Maybe wolves didn't sound Evil and Sneaky enough?

What's this, though? You mean Vlad didn't impale enemies while he ate breakfast?

bb1 wrote:Yes, wolves make sense. Maybe wolves didn't sound Evil and Sneaky enough?

What's this, though? You mean Vlad didn't impale enemies while he ate breakfast?

Vlad wa subject to the same adverse publicity as Richard was (they were actually contemporaries); in his case it was the Saxons who published the woodcuts of his 'atrocities'.   There is a good book on the subject of Vlad - In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires by Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally - well worth a read.  LL
ETA For impalement woodcuts, equate non-existent lichen and up or down shutters! LL    

I should think that if there was one place ten times worse than England in the 15th century, it was Central Europe in the 15th century....

I've seen one or two documentaries about Vlad; the modern view seems to be that Vlad didn't do it for fun, but for military and political reasons. As he appears to have scared the living daylights out of most people, it clearly worked.

Vlad lived in Wallachiea which is Eastern not Central Europe.  In fact, if Vlad hadn't fought and nearly defeated the Ottomans, Europe would probably now be Muslim.  Re the impalement issue, this was an Ottoman punishment; Vlad spent his formative years as a hostage in the hands of the Sultan - his younger brother Radu became the Sultan's catamite, and would later be Vlad's replacement as voivode after the Ottomans killed him in battle.   Life under Vlad may have been rough, but life under Radu and his Ottoman masters must have been dreadful as the Ottomans would take the yoiung men to fight in their own armies, or castrate them to be used as eunuchs.   The Romanians today consider Vlad as a hero not just because they can use him as a tourist attraction but because he fought the Ottomans.  LL.

ETA. Actually the Basarab family, of which Vlad was a member, were very like the Plantaganets, with branches of the family fighting for the title of Voivode of Wallachia and rival factions murdering each other.