Vikings! Snakes!

Why can't I lay off my fondness for logic ... I ain't no Vulcan anyway ... and enjoy myself? I'm watching the current "Vikings" episode wherein Ragnar, I believe, is executed by throwing him into a pit of vipers after an days-long elaborate traveling ceremony. Ghastly; the Vikings were little more than roving homicidal thugs, never mind history's reputation-cleansing.

Rather than reveling in watching the carnage like a true 'Murrican I'm wondering where they got the vipers in venomous-snake-deprived England (Northumberland, no less). Only one species in Merrie Olde. That's why it was merrie, Vikings notwithstanding.

Using technology available in 900 AD, how did they locate and safely catch and warehouse 500, say, venomous snakes? How did they find 5,000, say, mice to feed them while waiting for the condemned to be brought to the pit? The trip appears to have taken days.

I mean, no thick snake-handling gloves. No suitable cages. No climate/ controlled housing. Further, ever try to run down a mouse? Five thousand mice?

Moreover, where'd they get the civic will to tie up a few dozen men who otherwise would be sacking Portugal? What did they tell them? Sorry, boys, no silver and gold this trip. Snakes and mice.

Hard to enjoy violence on teevee these day. Damned fake media.