Ælle was subjected to the horrific ‘blood eagle’, in which the victim’s lungs were removed from his broken ribcage and draped around his neck, so they resembled an eagle’s folded wings. Those who like such grisly history will be disappointed to learn that there is no contemporary evidence for the practice. It seems to be a flight of imagination based on a debatable line of eleventh-century verse, which might have meant nothing more than Ælle’s body was left to be eaten by eagles.
