The corpse referenced in the 800-year-old Norse book Sverris Saga may have been proven to be a real person.
The story went that a body was thrown into a well to pollute the water supply of a castle which was under siege in Norway.
Researchers discovered the skeletal remains of a man in his 30s or 40s found in a well outside Sverresborg Castle, near Trondheim in central Norway, in 1938.
However, radiocarbon dating has found that the body found was likely the body written about in the Saga.
The research found that the skeleton dates from roughly 900 years ago, which means it falls within the same time period as the storming of Sverresborg Castle in 1197AD.
Professor Michael Martin of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum in Trondheim said: “This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found.
“There are a lot of these mediaeval and ancient remains all around Europe, and they’re increasingly being studied using genomic methods.”
Now researchers want to try and prove the existence of other historical figures.
“The important Norwegian Saint Olaf is thought to be buried somewhere in Trondheim Cathedral,” said Prof Martin.
“I think that if eventually his remains are uncovered, there could be some effort to describe him physically and trace his ancestry using genetic sequencing.”
