They threw him into a well over 800 years ago. The legendary corpse was pulled out
The Nordic Sverris Saga, telling the story of one of the Norwegian kings, turned out to be extremely connected with reality. Thanks to the story from over 800 years ago, it was possible to identify the remains found in one of the wells.
The saga describes, among other things, a military invasion of Sverresborg Castle, the ruins of which can be found today near the city of Trondheim in the central part of Norway. It was during this event, which took place in 1197 AD, that a body was thrown into the castle well (probably to poison the spring). The latest study published in Cell Press iScience indicates that scientists managed to connect the DNA of the found remains to this event. How was this even possible?
The first such case
This extraordinary cross-disciplinary achievement is a real precedent. It all started in 1938, when the bones of a dead man were discovered in a well at Sverresborg Castle. However, only modern science using radiocarbon dating and gene sequencing technology allowed for an in-depth investigation into the origin of the deceased. Ultimately it was these tools that helped link the remains to the events of the Sverris Saga. It was also indicated that the man was between 30 and 40 years old at the time of his death. He most likely had blue eyes and blond or light brown hair. His ancestors probably came from the southernmost district of Agder.
This is the first time that the person described in these historical texts has actually been found
– says Professor Michael D. Martin from the University Museum of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, quoted by Science Daily.
The study was made possible thanks to reference data in the form of the genomes of modern Norwegians and many thousands of others from the rest of Europe. The researchers received them thanks to cooperation with Professor Agnar Helgason from the biopharmaceutical company deCODE Genetics in Iceland. Norwegian researchers indicate that they are now targeting samples from other skeletons that may turn out to be remains from history. Among them is Saint Olaf, who is important in this Scandinavian country, and whose remains are supposed to rest somewhere in the cathedral in Trondheim.
