Kids...huh???

Whatever the causes (which we are not going to examine here), the Vikings descended upon Europe like a black plague. Once popular middle age prayer of the time reads: "From the fury of the Norsemen, good Lord deliver us." While history has a way of creating larger-than-life legends, the Viking practices of human sacrifice, battle-enhancing drugs (they were particularly fond of a blood-red psychedelic mushroom that gave them superhuman power and, presumably, wicked-ass visions), pagan rituals and wanton acts of violence and terror were very real. Scandinavian accounts describe the Viking practice of the "blood eagle", where a victim's ribs were hacked on both sides of his spine and his lungs torn out so that he resembled an eagle. This sacrifice to Odin, the one-eyed god of the warriors, was designed to inspire soldiers and terrorize victims and it demonstrates the sophisticated and systematic methods used by these warriors.