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Snake pit
Snake pit
Snake pit
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An image stone on Gotland, Sweden, with imagery from the tradition of the Völsunga saga and Nibelungenlied. Note the slain Sigurd with Andvarinaut on the top of the stone, and a lady who puts snakes into a snake pit. This particular execution is described in Atlakviða and Oddrúnargrátr, and the murdered man is Gunnarr, the King of Burgundy.

A snake pit is, in a literal sense, a hole filled with snakes. In idiomatic speech, "snake pits" are places of horror, torture and death in European legends and fairy tales. The Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok is said to have been thrown into a snake pit and died there, after his army had been defeated in battle by King Aelle II of Northumbria. An older legend recorded in Atlakviða and Oddrúnargrátr tells that Attila the Hun murdered Gunnarr, the King of Burgundy, in a snake pit. In a medieval German poem, Dietrich von Bern is thrown into a snake pit by the giant Sigenot – he is protected by a magical jewel that had been given to him earlier by a dwarf.[1][failed verification]

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Snake pit

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A snake pit is a literal enclosure or depression filled with live snakes, often venomous, depicted in legends as a form of execution or punishment in various cultures, such as the Norse sagas depicting the Viking hero being thrown into one by King . Figuratively, the term refers to any chaotic, dangerous, or squalid environment, particularly psychiatric institutions characterized by inhumane conditions, neglect, and brutality, a usage popularized in the mid-20th century. The metaphorical sense of "snake pit" gained prominence through Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel , which vividly portrayed the harrowing experiences of a woman undergoing treatment in a dilapidated state mental hospital, exposing widespread abuses in U.S. psychiatric care and sparking national outrage. The book's success, followed by a 1948 film adaptation starring , catalyzed reforms in several states, including improved standards and oversight in facilities like Wisconsin's asylums. By the and , the phrase had become synonymous with the deplorable state of many American psychiatric hospitals, often called "snake pits" for their overcrowding, understaffing, and experimental treatments that bordered on torture. Notable examples include New York's for the intellectually disabled, which Senator denounced as a "snake pit" in 1965 due to its horrific conditions. This era's exposés contributed to the deinstitutionalization movement, leading to the closure of thousands of such facilities by the late , though the term endures in modern discourse to describe any nightmarish institutional setting.

Definition

Literal Sense

A snake pit, in its literal sense, is a hole, pit, or enclosure filled with live snakes, often venomous, historically used as a form of execution or punishment by throwing victims into the perilous setting, where they faced risks of envenomation, constriction, or attack from agitated snakes.

Figurative Sense

In its figurative sense, a "snake pit" serves as a metaphor for a disordered, treacherous, or hellish environment characterized by chaos, betrayal, and hidden dangers that evoke intense fear and suffering. This idiom portrays situations where individuals feel surrounded by insidious threats, much like venomous serpents lurking in concealment, amplifying sensations of peril and entrapment. The term's earliest recorded use as "snake-pit" dates to 1883 in English, appearing in a of Norse texts to describe a supposed primitive ordeal involving snakes, though its broader figurative application emerged in 1941 to denote chaotic or nightmarish scenarios. By the mid-20th century, the idiom had evolved into common usage in , applied to contexts such as political intrigue, toxic workplaces, or bureaucratic entanglements. Contemporary examples illustrate its versatility: "a snake pit of office politics" captures environments rife with deceit and rivalry, while "navigating the snake pit of " highlights the exhausting peril of convoluted systems. These phrases underscore recurring themes of treachery and survival amid unseen adversaries. The metaphor's resonance stems from deep-seated cultural and psychological associations, where snakes symbolize treachery—as exemplified by the biblical serpent in the , which deceived and introduced into the world. This imagery is further intensified by , a prevalent phobia affecting up to one-third of adults, which heightens the dread of snakes as stealthy, venomous predators and thereby amplifies the idiom's evocation of primal fear. A prominent extension associates the term with inhumane conditions in mid-20th-century psychiatric institutions, popularized by Mary Jane Ward's 1946 novel .

Historical and Legendary Accounts

Norse Sagas and Legends

In Norse sagas, the snake pit emerges as a vivid motif of execution and heroic defiance, particularly in accounts of legendary figures facing betrayal. The Ragnars saga loðbrókar recounts the death of the 9th-century Viking leader , who, after raiding , is captured by King Ælla and thrown into a pit filled with venomous snakes as an act of vengeful retribution. Despite the agony, Ragnar maintains composure, reciting his death song () to reflect on his life's exploits and mock his captors, embodying stoic heroism until the snakes overwhelm him. This narrative, set amid 9th-century events but composed in the 13th century, underscores themes of revenge and unyielding valor in Viking lore. A parallel tale appears in the , where the Burgundian king Gunnarr—corresponding to the historical —suffers a similar fate at the hands of Atli ( the Hun) in the poems Atlakviða and Oddrúnargrátr. Betrayed during a visit to Atli's court over disputes involving treasure and kinship ties, Gunnarr is bound and cast into a snake-infested after his brother Hǫgni's heart is gruesomely extracted. To ward off the serpents, Gunnarr plays a with his toes, its temporarily lulling the creatures and symbolizing his extraordinary endurance and artistic prowess amid torment; only Atli's monstrous mother, disguised as the deadliest snake, ultimately strikes fatally at his heart. In Oddrúnargrátr, Oddrún—atli's sister and Gunnarr's secret lover—laments hearing the harp's strains from afar but arriving too late to aid him, highlighting the personal tragedy woven into . These stories employ the snake pit as a form of poetic justice, meted out for perceived treacheries in cycles of familial and royal conflict, drawing on motifs that blend historical echoes from the 5th-century Hunnic-Burgundian wars with mythic embellishment. The recurring role of music, whether song or harp, serves not merely as a practical delay of death but as a emblem of cultural heroism, allowing the victim to assert agency and legacy against inevitable doom. Though framed in 5th- to 9th-century settings, the accounts are largely fictional, composed in 9th- to 13th-century Iceland, where the scarcity of highly venomous snakes—limited primarily to the mild European adder (Vipera berus), the region's sole venomous species—suggests the pits' dramatic exaggeration for narrative effect rather than historical practice.

Other Traditions

In medieval German folklore, particularly within the cycle, the motif of a snake pit appears in the 13th-century anonymous poem Sigenot, where the hero Dietrich is thrown into a pit filled with venomous snakes by the giant antagonist Sigenot as a means of execution. Unlike the fatal outcomes in Norse sagas, which served as a primary European influence on such tales, Dietrich survives due to a magical jewel gifted by the dwarf Baldung, which repels the reptiles and allows his eventual rescue by his companion . Broader European legends extend the snake pit motif into hagiography and fairy tales, often portraying survival as a divine miracle rather than heroic intervention. For instance, in the medieval legend of Saint Erasmus (also known as Saint Elmo), the 3rd-century martyr is tortured by being cast into a pit of snakes and worms doused with boiling oil and sulfur, yet emerges unscathed after an angel slays the creatures, symbolizing steadfast faith amid persecution. Such accounts in saints' lives draw possible influences from biblical imagery of serpents as agents of temptation or divine judgment, as well as classical motifs like the Trojan priest Laocoön's entanglement with sea serpents, adapting the pit as a site of miraculous deliverance in Christian narratives. Global parallels to the snake pit are sparse and typically involve ordeals with snakes rather than enclosed pits, reflecting cultural reverence or fear of reptiles without direct equivalents to European execution motifs. In and Roman traditions, rare claims suggest snake-filled enclosures at healing sanctuaries like the Asclepieion, where non-venomous snakes were used in therapeutic rituals rather than punishment, though no verified evidence confirms punitive snake pits. Historians express regarding snake pits as actual historical execution methods, citing a complete lack of archaeological evidence across or elsewhere. Practical challenges further undermine their feasibility, including the unreliability of snakes as killers—particularly in colder northern climates where reptiles become dormant and less aggressive, reducing the method's effectiveness compared to more direct forms of .

Metaphor in Language and Society

Evolution of the Idiom

The motif of the snake pit first appears in medieval Norse literature as a literal element of and execution, prominently featured in 13th-century Eddic poems such as Atlakviða, where the hero Gunnarr is bound and cast into a pit filled with venomous snakes by his treacherous brother-in-law Atli. This narrative device draws from earlier oral traditions, symbolizing betrayal and heroic defiance, as Gunnarr plays a with his toes to lull the serpents to sleep—all but one fatal adder. Similar accounts appear in the and the poem , where the Viking meets his end in a snake pit orchestrated by King Ælla of Northumbria, reciting defiant verses amid the torment. These depictions transitioned from saga prose to symbolic horror in , such as church carvings in , where the snake pit evoked themes of martyrdom and moral peril, influencing broader European legendary motifs without evolving into idiomatic use at the time. In the late 19th century, the compound term "snake-pit" entered English lexicon in 1883, recorded in the Corpus Poeticum Boreale by Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell as a translation of the ormagryfja (serpent pit), initially denoting a primitive ordeal for testing truth or courage rooted in saga lore. This marked a shift from purely narrative horror to a conceptual image, amplified during the 19th-century Romantic nationalist revival across Europe, where scholars and poets like translated Norse sagas, romanticizing Viking heroism and embedding motifs like in cultural imagination as emblems of barbaric peril and stoic endurance. In , this era saw artistic evocations of Ragnar's snake-pit death in sculptures and , fostering national pride in ancient lore and spreading the image through popular histories. The idiom's figurative adoption in English emerged in the , with the first recorded metaphorical sense appearing in to describe a scene of chaos or danger, evolving from the saga's visceral imagery into for treacherous environments like political intrigue or battlefields. By 1946, documented its idiomatic use for disorderly or hazardous situations, coinciding with Mary Jane Ward's novel , which applied the term to institutional squalor and further popularized it. This linguistic spread extended to variations in other European languages, such as German Schlangengrube (snake pit) for nests of deceit, reflecting shared Indo-European serpent symbolism akin to the biblical tempter, though without direct etymological ties. The idiom's role in proverbs and underscored perilous social arenas, from courtly betrayals to modern war zones, perpetuated by the enduring allure of Norse legends in and .

Association with Mental Health Institutions

The term "snake pit" gained prominence as a metaphor for psychiatric institutions in the post-World War II era, particularly in the 1940s, when exposés revealed the dire conditions in underfunded and overcrowded state asylums across the . Journalists like Mike Gorman highlighted the chaos, neglect, and hidden dangers—such as experimental treatments without consent and severe staffing shortages—that characterized these facilities, evoking images of treacherous, uncontrollable environments. Gorman's 1946 investigative series in the Daily Oklahoman on Oklahoma's mental hospitals, for instance, prompted immediate state-level reforms, including increased funding and new commitment laws in 1947. This metaphorical usage was further amplified by Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel , which drew from her own experiences in psychiatric care to depict the dehumanizing realities of institutionalization, and its 1948 directed by . The novel and film galvanized public outrage, contributing to widespread advocacy for reform by exposing systemic abuses and fostering a national dialogue on patient rights. Their impact extended to policy changes, including state initiatives like Wisconsin's 1949 mental hospital reforms, and played a role in the passage of the 1955 Mental Health Study Act, which established the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health to investigate and recommend improvements in psychiatric care. By the and , "snake pit" had evolved into a common term specifically for state mental hospitals, underscoring their reputation for brutality and isolation amid ongoing exposés of facilities like New York's , which Senator described as bordering on a "snake pit" during his 1965 visit. The term's usage declined with the deinstitutionalization movement, accelerated by the 1963 , which shifted care toward community-based services and reduced reliance on large institutions. However, it persists in contemporary critiques of under-resourced modern facilities, where similar issues of overcrowding and inadequate treatment evoke the original metaphor's sense of peril. Beyond its literal depiction of institutional horrors, metaphor reinforced the stigma surrounding mental illness by associating patients with environments of primal danger and entrapment, amplifying societal fears. This imagery also paralleled psychological concepts, such as —the innate human fear of snakes—as a symbol for the anxieties and phobias often experienced by those in psychiatric care, contrasting with emerging progressive views that sought to humanize treatment.

Depictions in Culture

Literature

In medieval Norse literature, the snake pit serves as a dramatic climax in the heroic legends of the cycle. In the Eddic poem Atlakviða, Atli (the Hunnish king) imprisons and demands the location of the Niflung treasure; upon Gunnar's refusal, Atli casts him into a pit filled with venomous snakes, where Gunnar plays a with his toes to soothe the serpents, only to be fatally bitten in the liver by a great . The companion poem Oddrúnargrátr recounts the same ordeal, emphasizing Oddrún's lament as she witnesses Gunnar's torment from afar, highlighting themes of familial betrayal and unyielding defiance. These depictions draw from oral traditions possibly dating to the , portraying the snake pit as a of endurance where the hero's music symbolizes his against inevitable doom. The prose retelling in (13th century) expands this motif, detailing how Atli binds and lowers him into the snake-filled pit after extracting Högn's heart; Gudrún aids by sending a , which he strums with his feet to charm the reptiles, until a serpent strikes his heart, underscoring the saga's exploration of fate and vengeance in the Volsung clan's downfall. In continental Germanic variants of the Nibelung legend, such as those diverging from the core (c. 1200), the snake pit appears as an alternative execution for (or equivalents like Siegfried's kin), often without the , emphasizing raw confrontation with treachery rather than heroic artistry. Shifting to 20th-century prose, Mary Jane Ward's (1946) employs the snake pit as a for the dehumanizing chaos of psychiatric institutions. Drawing from Ward's own experiences with and treatment at , the semi-autobiographical novel follows protagonist Virginia Cunningham's descent into mental breakdown and institutionalization, where the "snake pit" ward represents a writhing mass of untreated patients, bureaucratic indifference, and psychological torment, critiquing the era's system's failures. Ward's narrative blends dark humor with horror to expose the isolation and loss of agency in such environments, influencing public discourse on asylum reforms. Beyond these, snake pits feature in modern fantasy and adventure genres as echoes of Norse lore or perilous traps. J.R.R. Tolkien, deeply influenced by the Völsung cycle, retells the Gunnar episode in his 2010 poetic work The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, where the hero faces serpents in a pit amid , integrating the motif into his mythic framework of doomed heroism. Symbolically, the snake pit in literature evolves from a test of heroic fate and in medieval epics—where Gunnar's defiance affirms amid kin-slaying treachery—to a representation of psychological descent in modern works, evoking existential dread and institutional entrapment as in Ward's novel. This progression reflects broader literary shifts from physical valor to inner turmoil, with serpents embodying and inevitable downfall across traditions.

Film and Other Media

The Snake Pit is a 1948 American psychological drama film directed by and starring as Virginia Cunningham, a young woman grappling with mental illness. Adapted from Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel, the film depicts Virginia's descent into a state , where the institution's overcrowding, outdated treatments, and emotional turmoil are likened to a writhing snake pit of human suffering. This portrayal exposed the era's harsh realities of care, contributing to public awareness and reforms, while earning the film six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and for de Havilland. Its unflinching approach influenced Hollywood's wave of social-issue dramas in the late 1940s and 1950s, such as and , by blending entertainment with advocacy for institutional change. In cinema, the snake pit serves as a visceral trope for imminent danger and , often symbolizing entrapment amid slithering threats. A seminal example appears in the 1981 , directed by , where archaeologist () discovers the Well of Souls—a buried Egyptian chamber teeming with thousands of asps, cobras, and other snakes—heightening the scene's tension through his character's . This sequence, involving over 7,000 real and rubber snakes for authenticity, exemplifies the device's role in amplifying peril in action narratives. Animated media has adapted the motif for lighter, yet still tense, encounters; in Disney's 1990 film , a frisky () named Joanna disrupts a pivotal romantic proposal between mouse protagonists Bernard and Miss Bianca, injecting comic chaos into the adventure. Television has leveraged snake pit imagery to evoke historical brutality and mythic vengeance, particularly in depictions drawing from Norse legends. In the series (2013–2020), season 4, episode 15 ("All His Angels"), the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) is executed by being thrown into a pit of venomous snakes by King , a scene that mirrors saga accounts of his death and underscores themes of sacrifice and retribution. This graphic portrayal, filmed with real snakes under controlled conditions, reinforced the motif's association with Viking lore while driving the series' narrative toward the Great Heathen Army's invasion. Contemporary media extends the snake pit's legacy to live events and , framing it as a for exhilarating disorder. Since 2010, the has hosted the Indy 500 , an annual festival in the track's infield during weekend, drawing up to 20,000 attendees for high-energy performances by DJs like and [Martin Garrix](/page/Martin Garrix); the name nods to the historic "madness" of rowdy infield parties dating back to the . In wrestling and audio media, Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts launched the The in October 2021, co-hosted with Marcus DeAngelo, which ran until November 2025, where episodes explore his career highlights, including his signature entrance with a python, transforming the term into a platform for raw, unfiltered storytelling. Video games have integrated snake pits for immersive historical simulations, allowing players to engage with legendary executions. In Ubisoft's (2020), the "Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok" mystery quest recreates Ælla's snake pit in ninth-century , where players battle drengir warriors, clear venomous snakes, and descend into the execution site to claim the dagger Drengiligr, blending with open-world exploration to contextualize Ragnar's fabled demise. This interactive depiction highlights the motif's enduring appeal in digital media for conveying betrayal and survival amid chaos.

References

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  2. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/snake-pit
  3. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/snake-pit
  4. https://usso.uk/research/when-a-novel-changes-a-social-system-mary-jane-wards-the-snake-pit-1946-and-the-us-state-psychiatric-hospital/
  5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19633958/
  6. https://www.npr.org/2008/03/07/87975196/remembering-an-infamous-new-york-institution
  7. https://www.newscientist.com/gallery/history-of-asylums/
  8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259429813_Gunnarr_and_the_Snake_Pit_in_Medieval_Art_and_Legend
  9. https://www.etymonline.com/word/snake
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  11. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=81&v=intro
  12. https://reynolds-news.com/2021/06/20/ragnar-lodbrok-death-song-stephen-basdeo/
  13. https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3082&context=mythlore
  14. http://www.voluspa.org/atlakvida.htm
  15. https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0308/ch27.xhtml
  16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0038713412003144
  17. https://www.academia.edu/4659344/Gunnarr_and_the_Snake_Pit_in_Medieval_Art_and_Legend
  18. https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-bulletin/issue-number-156-summer-2021-1/3329-14-very-long-northern-vipers-i-vipera-berus-i-from-norway/file
  19. https://academic.oup.com/book/41213/chapter/350681157
  20. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/dailystory/permalink/miracles-torments-and-steadfast-faith-shone-in-the-life-of-st-erasmus
  21. https://www.the-athenian.com/site/1975/08/01/snake-pits-and-drama/
  22. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1020
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  25. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/snake-pit_n
  26. http://morrisarchive.lib.uiowa.edu/translations-old-icelandic-introduction
  27. https://scandinavism.com/2020/03/28/in-the-snake-pit/
  28. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2014/05/01/tearing-down-the-walls-in-mental-health-care/
  29. https://www.academia.edu/67541647/The_Snake_Pit_Mary_Jane_Ward_s_Asylum_Fiction_and_Mental_Health_Advocacy
  30. https://www.aclu.org/news/disability-rights/cleaning-up-the-snake-pit
  31. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8556941/
  32. https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/volsungsaga.html
  33. https://lithub.com/the-story-behind-the-snake-pit-mary-jane-wards-dark-comic-masterpiece/
  34. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mary-jane-ward/the-snake-pit/
  35. https://cburrell.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/tolkien-the-legend-of-sigurd-and-gudrun/
  36. https://fiveable.me/key-terms/english-9/snakes-representing-deception
  37. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040806/
  38. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52803.The_Snake_Pit
  39. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90607/the-snake-pit
  40. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snake_pit
  41. https://www.snopes.com/articles/348134/indiana-jones-snakes/
  42. https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/04/freezing-rain-tears-real-snakes-vikings-director-ciaran-donnelly-takes-us-inside-ragnars-violent-snake-pit-death-scene-9775228/
  43. https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/events/snakepit
  44. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-snake-pit/id1602250827
  45. https://www.pcgamer.com/ac-valhalla-ragnar-lothbrok-snake-pit-reconstruct/
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