Blood brother

[citation needed] In the mythology of Northern Europe, Gunther and Högni became the blood brothers of Sigurd when he married their sister Gudrun.

[citation needed] In Asian cultures, the act and the ceremony of becoming blood brothers is generally seen as a tribal relationship for bringing about alliance between tribes.

[5] Other blood oaths involving animal sacrifice were characteristic of rebel groups, such as the uprising led by Deng Maoqi in the 1440s, of criminal organizations, such as the triads or the pirates of Lin Daoqian, and other East Asians such as the Mongols and the Manchu.

The most well-known version of the ritual from the Visayan people involves mixing a drop of blood from both parties into a single cup of wine that is then drunk.

Other versions also exist, like in Palawan which describes a ritual involving making a cut on the chest and then daubing the blood on the tongue and forehead.

The British colonial administrator Lord Lugard is famous for having become blood brothers with numerous African chiefs as part of his political policy in Africa.

Blood brotherhoods were common in what is today Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia.