The Viking Earl Killed by the Severed Head of His Defeated Enemy in 892
Sigurd the Mighty was the first Norse Earl of Orkney. He defeated and beheaded the Pictish ruler Máel Brigte in 892, tied the severed head to his saddle as a trophy, and died on the ride home when one of Máel Brigte's protruding teeth scratched his leg and infected the wound. The story comes from the 13th-century *Orkneyinga Saga*.
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