King Ælla is believed to have fallen victim to it. I think the story of his death is my favorite of all that surround the blood eagle. It is also the reason I can read and speak a single sentence of ancient Norse. Ælla executed Ragnar Lodbrok, the man who raided Paris on Easter Sunday and did not leave until he was paid, I believe 700 pounds of silver. Ælla executed him by throwing him into a pit filled with venomous snakes, we're told. As he was dying he yelled "GNUTHJA MUNDU GRISSIR EF GALTAR HAG WISSI!" (You'll have to excuse the lack of proper accent marks). It translates roughly into "How the little pigs will grunt when they learn the suffering of the old boar". The little pigs being his 4 children, who assembled the largest Viking invasion force the world had ever seen and descended upon England to hunt down and execute Ælla. I gave a speech in my class last semester about this series of events and opened with that quote, in ancient Norse. The speech teacher nearly shot out of her seat when I got up there and yelled that.