Stupid Deaths: Sigurd the Mighty

Death calls the next soul from the queue of the recently deceased, and Sigurd the Mighty strides up with a beard, an axe and a high opinion of himself. Death deflates his grand title by pointing out how small Orkney is, then asks how he died. Sigurd boasts about invading the Scottish mainland, winning a battle and hanging his rival's head from his saddle as a trophy, before reluctantly explaining that the dead man's teeth scratched his leg on the ride home and the wound turned septic. Death collapses into fits of laughter, savours the idea of being killed by someone who was already dead, and cheerfully sends the Viking through the gate before calling for the next arrival.

In the Orkneyinga saga the beheaded enemy is Máel Brigte the Buck-Toothed, and the battle Sigurd won was meant to be 40 men a side until he brought 80. Sigurd was said to have been buried in a mound known as Sigurd's Howe, probably near Dornoch in Sutherland.