THE SCENE: A captured viking whose hair was “long and golden yellow like silk” has one last request before he is executed.
THE ACTION: He said: “I have had the best part of my life; and I am not interested in living longer than those who have just fallen. Yet I don’t want to be led by thralls to my death, but rather by a warrior who is of no less account than you are; and it won’t be difficult to find someone. Let him hold the hair from the head and pull the head sharply so that the hair does not become blood-stained.” A hirdman came forward, took hold of the hair and twisted it round its hands. Thorkell made a blow with a sword. At that very moment he pulled his head away sharply so that the blow fell on the man who was holding the hair and cut off both arm at the elbows. The other sprang up and said: “Whose hands are in my hair?”
– Saga of the Jomsvikings, 13th Century AD
