Vikings: 12 Most Brutal Moments So Far

We all know how brutal blood eagles are, but this is different than Jarl Borg's death.

King Aella was the man that killed Ragnar, so his sons are more ruthless than sacrificial. The punishment has to fit the crime after all.

Also, King Aella is no warrior, as is made clear with him begging for his life and the result is that this blood eagle also just seems more intense, for obvious reasons.

We see Bjorn take a hot knife to Aella's back and slowly slice it open showing all the muscle tissue beneath the skin. Thus, the process of the blood eagle begins, and we see someone else’s blood cover Bjorn's face. Sadly for the watching sadists, Aelle is killed from his wounds during the breaking of his ribs. His screams of pain make this scene far more brutal and more difficult to watch than when Jarl Borg suffered the same fate.

The next morning, Aelle is strung up on a tree with his skin spread open showing the silhouette of an eagle as a final, brutal mark of punishment.