Ragnar Lodbrok

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Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok with sons Ivar and Ubba, 15th-century miniature in Harley MS 2278 folio 39r
BornUnknown
Possibly Denmark or Sweden
DiedTraditional date: 865
Northumbria, England
Known forLegendary exploits and raids across Europe
TitleLegendary Viking Hero and King
PredecessorSigurd Ring (according to legend)
SuccessorSigurd Snake-in-the-Eye (according to legend)
Parents
  • Sigurd Ring (according to legend) (father)
  • Åsa, daughter of King Harald of the Red Moustache (according to legend) (mother)

Ragnar Lodbrok ("Ragnar hairy-breeches") (

Danish king.[3]

He is known from

Swedes, Sigurd Ring.[5][6]

Accounts

Icelandic sagas

A warrior with shaggy breeches, killing a beast, on one of the Torslunda plates. The man has been identified with Ragnar Lodbrok in an early Swedish version of the legend (Schück). More recently, it has been interpreted as showing a Germanic initiation ritual in which shaggy trousers played a role and which may subsequently have contributed to the legend of Ragnar Lodbrok.[7]

According to the

Bråvalla) on the plains of Östergötland, where Harald and many of his men died. Sigurd then ruled Sweden and Denmark (being sometimes identified with a Danish king Sigfred who ruled from about 770 until his death prior to 804). He sired a son with the princess Alfhild of the petty kingdom of Álfheimr, Ragnar Lodbrok, who succeeded him.[9] Eysteinn Beli, who according to the Hervarar Saga was Harald Wartooth's son, ruled Sweden sometime after Sigurd until he was slain by the sons of Ragnar and Aslaug.[10]

In their accounts of his reign, the Sagas of Scandinavian Prehistory, known as

Erik and Agnar. After Thora died, he discovered Kráka, a woman of outstanding beauty and wisdom living with a poor peasant couple in Norway, and married her. This marriage resulted in the sons Ivar the Boneless, Björn Ironside, Hvitserk, Ragnvald, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.[14] Kráka was later revealed to actually be Aslaug, a secret daughter of the renowned hero Sigurd Fafnesbane. As the sons grew up to become renowned warriors, Ragnar, not wishing to be outdone, resolved to conquer England with merely two ships. He was however defeated by superior English forces and was thrown into a snake pit to die in agony.[15] The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, Tale of Ragnar's Sons, and Heimskringla all tell of the Great Heathen Army that invaded England at around 866, led by the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok to wreak revenge against King Ælla of Northumbria
who is told to have captured and executed Ragnar.

Danish sources

The

Knut, ancestor of the later Danish kings.[17]

Neither of these sources mentions Ragnar Lodbrok as a Danish ruler. The first to do so is

Thora Borgarhjort, a daughter of the Swedish king Herrauðr, after killing two venomous giant snakes that guard Thora's residence. His sons with Thora are Radbard, Dunvat, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Björn Ironside, Agnar and Ivar the Boneless. From a non-marital relationship with an unnamed woman (described only as a daughter of a man named Esbjørn), Ragnar fathered Ubbe. Another, final marriage, to Svanlaug (possibly another name for Aslaug) produces another three sons: Ragnvald, Eric Weatherhat and Hvitserk.[22]

The sons were installed as sub-kings in various conquered territories. Ragnar led a Viking expedition to England and killed its king, Hama, before killing the earls of Scotland and installing Sigurd Snake-in-the Eye and Radbard as governors. Norway was also subjugated, and Fridleif was made ruler there and in

Hellespontian prince Daxon and burnt alive with his own admission. Hearing this, Ragnar led an expedition to Kievan Rus' and captured Daxon who was spared and exiled.[27]

Unlike the Icelandic sources, Saxo's account of Ragnar Lodbrok's reign is largely a catalog of successful Viking invasions over an enormous geographical area. Among the seaborne expeditions was one against the

Scanians to rebel, but was regularly defeated. After the last victory over Harald, Ragnar learned that King Ælla had massacred Ragnar's men on Ireland. Incensed, he attacked the English king with his fleet but was captured and thrown to his death in the snake pit - the fate ascribed by tradition to the early Burgundian king Gunnar, as recounted in the Icelandic sagas. In spite of all his praise for Ragnar Lodbrok, Saxo also considers his fate as God's rightful vengeance for the contempt he had shown the Christian religion.[29]

Poetic and epigraphic sources

While the narrative Norse sources date from the 12th and 13th centuries, there are also many older poems that mention him and his kin. The

Krakumal, put in the mouth of the dying Ragnar in the snake pit, recounts the exploits of Ragnar and mentions battles over a wide geographical area, several relating to the British isles. The poem's name, "Kráka's lay", alludes to Ragnar's wife's Kráka,[33] though modern philologists commonly date it to the 12th century in its present form.[34]

There is one runic inscription mentioning Lodbrok, carved on the prehistorical tumulus of Maeshowe on Orkney in the early 12th century. It reads: "This howe was built a long time before Lodbrok's. Her sons, they were bold; scarcely ever were there such tall men of their hands".[35] The expression "her sons" has given rise to the theory that Lodbrok was originally thought of as a woman,[36] mother of the historically known sons.[32]

Frankish accounts of a 9th-century Viking leader

The

Norse god Odin, as well as to incite terror in the remaining Frankish forces.[37][39] Ragnar's fleet made it back to his overlord, the Danish King Horik I, but Ragnar soon died from a violent illness that also spread in Denmark.[43]

Later continental accounts

Among the oldest texts to mention the name Lodbrok is the Norman history of

Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen contains many traditions about Viking Age Scandinavia. In a passage referring to the Viking raids of the late 9th century, he mentions the Danish or Norse pirates Horich, Orwig, Gotafrid, Rudolf and Inguar (Ivar). This Ivar is in particular seen as a cruel persecutor of Christians, and a son of Lodbrok (Inguar, filius Lodparchi).[45]

Anglo-Saxon and Irish accounts of the father of Ivar and Halfdan

According to the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of Alfred, in 878 the "brother of Hingwar and Healfden", with a naval fleet, a contingent of the Great Heathen Army invaded Devon in England and fought the Battle of Cynwit. There the Vikings lost, their king slain and many dead, with few escaping to their ships. After the battle the Saxons took great plunder, and among other things the banner called "Raven".[46] The early 12th century Annals of St Neots further state that "they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodebroch (Lodbrok), wove that flag and got it ready in one day. They say, moreover, that in every battle, wherever the flag went before them, if they were to gain the victory a live crow would appear flying on the middle of the flag; but if they were doomed to be defeated it would hang down motionless, and this was often proved to be so."[47] This is among the earlier references to the legendary hero Ragnar Lodbrok.

The Irish

Orkney islands with his three sons and settled there. Two of the sons later raided the English and Franks, proceeding to plunder in the Mediterranean. One of them learnt from a vision that Ragnall had fought a battle where the third son had been slain and in which he himself had most likely perished. The two Viking sons then returned home with a lot of dark-skinned captives.[50] It has been hypothesized that this is an Irish version of Ragnar Lodbrok's saga, the Mediterranean expedition being a historical event taking place in 859-61.[51]

Ragnar's sons

Norstedts
in a large-size illustrated version (1880).

The Great Heathen Army is said to have been led by the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, to wreak revenge against King Ælla of Northumbria who had previously executed Ragnar by casting him into a pit full of venomous snakes.[52] Among the organizers were at least some of the brothers: Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, Halfdan, Björn Ironside, Hvitserk, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, all of whom are known as historical figures, save the slightly more dubious Hvitserk.[53] Ivar the Boneless was the leader of the Great Heathen Army from 865 to 870, but he disappears from English historical accounts after 870.[54] The Anglo-Saxon chronicler Æthelweard records Ivar's death as 870.[55] Halfdan Ragnarsson became the leader of the Great Heathen Army in about 870 and he led it in an invasion of Wessex.[56] A great number of Viking warriors arrived from Scandinavia, as part of the Great Summer Army, led by King Bagsecg of Denmark, bolstering the ranks of Halfdan's army.[57]

According to the

Skåne and the lesser Danish Isles.[64] Sigfred-Sigurd possibly succeeded his brother Halfdan as King of entire Denmark in about 877, and may be the Viking king Sigfred who was killed in West Francia in 887.[65]

Sources and historical accuracy

Ragnar receives Kráka (Aslaug), as imagined by August Malmström.
19th-century artist's impression of Ælla of Northumbria's execution of Ragnar Lodbrok

Whereas Ragnar's sons Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Björn Ironside, Ubba and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye are historical figures, opinion regarding their father is divided. Contemporary academia regards most of the stories about him to be fiction. According to Hilda Ellis Davidson, writing in 1979,

Certain scholars in recent years have come to accept at least part of Ragnar's story as based on historical fact.[66]

The most significant medieval sources that mention Ragnar include:

In her commentary on Saxo's Gesta Danorum, Davidson notes that Saxo's coverage of Ragnar's legend in book IX of the Gesta appears to be an attempt to consolidate many of the confusing and contradictory events and stories known to the chronicler into the reign of one king, Ragnar. That is why many acts ascribed to Ragnar in the Gesta can be associated, through other sources, with various figures, some of whom are more historically tenable.[66]

The candidates scholars like to associate with the "historical Ragnar" include:

  • the Reginherus or Ragnar who besieged Paris in 845
  • the Danish King Horik I (d. 854)
  • King Reginfrid (d. 814), a king who ruled part of Denmark in tandem with his brother Harald Klak, but was expelled by Horik I and his brothers and later fell in a battle against them
  • possibly the
    Irish Annals[67]

Attempts to reliably associate the legendary Ragnar with one or several of those men have failed because of the difficulty in reconciling the various accounts and their chronology. But the tradition of a Viking hero named Ragnar (or similar) who wreaked havoc in mid-9th-century Europe and who fathered many famous sons is remarkably persistent, and some aspects of it are strengthened by relatively reliable sources, such as Irish historical tradition and, indirectly, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[25]

In literature and media

Ragnar Lodbrok features prominently in the following works:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Ragnar" (meaning Raven) and "Lodbrok" (meaning "leather trousers" or "hairy breeches").[1]

Citations

  1. ISBN 978-0-7884-4490-6
    .
  2. ^ Harrison 1993, p. 16.
  3. ISBN 978-0599543584. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2020. Gutenberg Project version Archived 28 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine
    , published 13 December 2017.
  4. ^ Sögubrot 1200.
  5. ISBN 978-9175453705. Archived
    from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  6. ^ Butler, Josh "The Real Ragnar Lothbrok." Archived 20 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine Historic UK. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  7. ^ McTurk (1991) Studies in 'Ragnar's Saga Lodbrokar' and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues. Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages Lit. p. 10, 15, 36, 37
  8. ^ Tolkien, Christopher; Turville-Petre, G., eds. (1956). "Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks" (PDF). Viking Society for Northern Research. London: 68–9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  9. ^ "Sögubrot, Chapter 10". Archived from the original on 8 September 2010.
  10. ^ "The Tale of Ragnar's Sons, Chapter 2". Germanicmythology.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  11. ^ "Stories for all time: The Icelandic fornaldarsögur". Fasnl.ku.dk. Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  12. ^ "fornaldarsögur, chapter 25". Researchgate.net.
  13. ^ " Sögubrot, Chapter 10". Archived from the original on 8 September 2010.
  14. ^ "Ragnars Saga Lodbrokar, Chapters 4 and 7". Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Ragnars Saga Lodbrokar, Chapter 15". Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  16. ^ "Chronicon Roskildense, p. 16". 1917.
  17. ^ "Sven Aggeson, p. 106". 1917.
  18. ^ "Storm (1877), p. 387-9". 1871. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Storm (1877), p. 399". Historisk Tidskrift. 1871. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  20. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 539–41". 1905.
  21. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 542-3". 1905.
  22. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 545, 550". 1905.
  23. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 551". 1905.
  24. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 557". 1905.
  25. ^ a b Smyth (1977).
  26. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 560-1". 1905.
  27. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 558-9". 1905.
  28. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 558-9". 1905.
  29. ^ "Saxo Grammaticus, Book 9, p. 562-3". 1905.
  30. ^ "Ragnarsdrápa", Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Vol. 24, p. 115.
  31. ^ Smyth (1977), p. 193–4.
  32. ^ a b "Kings and kingship in Viking Northumbria". 26 September 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  33. ^ "Krákumál", Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Vol. 17 (2001), p. 299-300.
  34. ^ Smyth (1977), p. 73-80.
  35. ^ Smyth (1977), p. 81.
  36. ^ Gustav Storm (1877). "Ragnar Lodbrok og Lodbrokssønnerne; studie i dansk oldhistorie og nordisk sagnhistorie". Historisk Tidskrift. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  37. ^ a b Kohn 2006, p. 588.
  38. ^ Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Vol. 24, p. 111, 113, 116.
  39. ^ a b c Jones 2001, p. 212.
  40. ^ Sprague 2007, p. 225.
  41. ^ Sawyer 2001, p. 40.
  42. ^ Duckett 1988, p. 181.
  43. ^ "Storm (1877), p. 438". Historisk Tidskrift. 1871. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  44. ^ Guillaume de Jumièges, Histoire des ducs de Normandie, p. 11-3. Chez Mancel. 1826. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  45. ^ "Adam von Bremen, Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte, p. 39-40". Hannover, Hahn. 1917.
  46. ^ Garmonsway, G.N. (1972), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: Dent, p. 75-7.
  47. ^ Garmonsway, G.N. (1972), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. London: Dent, p. 77.
  48. ^ Todd, James Henthorn (28 February 1867). "Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh = The war of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, or, The invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen : the original Irish text, edited, with translation and introduction". London : Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. Retrieved 28 February 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  49. ^ Smyth, Alfred P. (1977) Scandinavian kings in the British Isles 850–880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 263 & 279
  50. ^ Smyth, Alfred P. (1977) Scandinavian kings in the British Isles 850–880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 62
  51. ^ Smyth, Alfred P. (1977) Scandinavian kings in the British Isles 850–880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 64-5.
  52. Norstedts
    , Stockholm 1880 pp. 82 ff
  53. ^ Holman 2003, p. 220.
  54. ISBN 978-0521829922
  55. ISBN 978-1163125991
  56. ISBN 978-0-521-82992-2
    . p. 72
  57. ISBN 0-521-44049-1
    . p. 22
  58. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49260
  59. ISBN 978-0-521-82992-2
    . pp. 72–73
  60. ^ "Die Jahrbücher von Fulda und Xanten, p. 62". Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  61. ^ Carl Bernadotte et al. (1956), Sveriges hundra konungar. Stockholm: Biblioteksböcker, p. 81.
  62. ^ Tolkien, Christopher; Turville-Petre, G., eds. (1956). "Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks" (PDF). Viking Society for Northern Research. London: 69. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  63. ^ Kings and kingship in Viking Northumbria, by Rory McTurk (University of Leeds) Archived 26 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  64. ^ "The Tale of Ragnar's Sons, Chapter 3". Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  65. ^ P.A. Munch (1852), Det norske Folks Historie, Vol. I: 1. Christiania: Tonsberg, pp. 642–48.
  66. ^ a b Davidson p. 277
  67. ^ Davidson 1980, p. 277.
  68. ^ "Viking". Historicalnovels.info. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  69. ^ "Ragnar dans Vaillant/Pif". Bdoubliees.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  70. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  71. ^ "Fiction Book Review: The Hammer and the Cross by Harry Harrison, Author Tor Books $23.95 (415p) ISBN 978-0-312-85439-3". Publishersweekly.com. September 1993. Archived from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  72. ^ "The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok – Assassin's Creed Valhalla Wiki Guide". IGN. 30 April 2020. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.

References

Further reading

Legendary titles
Preceded by King of Sweden
in West Norse tradition 		Succeeded by
Preceded by King of Denmark Succeeded by
Preceded by King of Denmark
in Gesta Danorum 		Succeeded by
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