Ragnar Lodbrok

Ælla of Northumbria's murder of Ragnar Lodbrok

Ragnar Lodbrok (Ragnar "Hairy-Breeches", Old Norse: Ragnarr Loðbrók) was a legendary Norse ruler and hero from the Viking Age who became known as the scourge of France and England and as the father of many renowned sons, including Ivar the Boneless, Björn Ironside, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ubba.

According to legend, Ragnar was thrice married: to the shieldmaiden Lagertha, to the noblewoman Thora Town-Hart and to the warrior queen Aslaug. Said to have been a relative of the Danish king Gudfred or a son of king Sigurd Hring, he became king himself and distinguished himself by many raids and conquests until he was eventually seized by his foe, King Ælla of Northumbria, and killed by being thrown into a pit of snakes. His sons bloodily avenged him by invading England with the Great Heathen Army.

Ragnar is the subject of Old Norse poetry and several legendary sagas. While his sons are historical figures, it is uncertain whether Ragnar himself existed. Many of the tales told about him appear to originate with the deeds of a variety of historical Viking heroes and rulers.

Historicity

As a figure of legend whose life only partially took place in times and places covered by written sources, the extent of Ragnar's historicity is not quite clear.

In her commentary on Saxo's Gesta Danorum, Hilda Ellis 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 which are more historically certain. These candidates for the "historical Ragnar" include:

• King Horik I (d. 854),
• King Reginfrid (d. 814),
• a king who ruled part of Denmark and came into conflict with Harald Klak,
• one Reginherus who attacked Paris in the middle of the ninth century,
• possibly the Reghnall of the Irish Annals, and
• the Viking leader whose death caused his sons to invade England with the Great Heathen Army in 865.

So far, attempts to firmly link the legendary Ragnar with one or several of those men have failed because of the difficulty in reconciling the various accounts and their chronology. Nonetheless, the core tradition of a Viking hero named Ragnar (or similar) who wreaked havoc in mid-ninth-century Europe and who fathered many famous sons is remarkably persistent, and some aspects of it are covered by relatively reliable sources, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. According to 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". Katherine Holman, on the other hand, concludes that "although his sons are historical figures, there is no evidence that Ragnar himself ever lived, and he seems to be an amalgam of several different historical figures and pure literary invention."

Sources

The medieval sources that cover Ragnar include:

• the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of 9th-century annals,
• book IX of the Gesta Danorum, a 12th-century work by the Christian chronicler Saxo Grammaticus,
• the Tale of Ragnar's sons (Ragnarssona þáttr), a legendary saga,
• the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, another saga, a sequel to the Völsunga saga,
• the Ragnarsdrápa, a skaldic poem of which only fragments remain, attributed to the 9th century poet Bragi Boddason,
• the Krákumál, Ragnar's death-song, a 12th-century Scottish skaldic poem.

In popular culture

Film and television

• In The Vikings, a film of 1958, Ragnar, played by Ernest Borgnine, is captured by King Ælla of Northumbria and cast into a pit of ferocious wolves. His son Einar (presumably a variation of the historical Ivar), played by Kirk Douglas, vows revenge and conquers Northumbria.
• Ragnar Lodbrok (played by Travis Fimmel) is the protagonist of the History Channel's 2013 historical drama series Vikings.

Video games

• The Play the World expansion pack for the 2001 video game Civilization III added Scandinavia as a playable civilization, with Ragnar as the leader.
• The Viking Invasion expansion pack for 2002's Medieval: Total War also included Ragnar as the first king of the Vikings, reigning during the late 8th and early 9th century.
• The Warlords expansion pack for 2005's Civilization IV included a playable Viking civilization with Ragnar as the leader.
• Ragnar is the name of the Nord king in the video game Mount & Blade: Warband, released in 2010
• In Paradox's Crusader Kings 2 it is possible to play as one of Ragnar's 4 sons, in their conquest and revenge in England.

Literature

• Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, features a modern-day Scandinavian pirate named Ragnar Danneskjöld.
• Ragnar Lothbrok's shipwreck, capture, and execution, as well as his sons' revenge, are portrayed in Harry Harrison's alternative history novel The Hammer and the Cross, first of a trilogy.

Music

• "Lodbrok" is the eighth song on Grand Magus's self-titled debut album, released in 2001.
• The story of Ragnar Lodbrok and his son, Halfdan, is the theme of the song "Heathen Assault" by Doomsword from the 2003 album Let Battle Commence.

Sport

• Ragnar is the mascot of the NFL team Minnesota Vikings.
• The Ragnar Relay Series is a series of long distance relay races.

Further reading

• Davidson, Hilda Ellis (1979/1980). Saxo Grammaticus: The history of the Danes: books I - IX (Repr. in one vol., repr. in paperback. ed.). Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer. ISBN 0859915026. 
• McTurk, Rory (1991), Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues, Medium Aevum Monographs 15, Oxford, ISBN 0-907570-08-9 
• Strerath-Bolz, Ulrike (1993). Review of Rory McTurk, Studies in "Ragnars saga loðbrókar" and Its Major Scandinavian Analogues, Alvíssmál 2: 118–19.
• Forte, Angelo, Richard Oram, and Frederik Pedersen (2005). Viking Empires. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-82992-5.
• Schlauch, Margaret (transl.) (1964). The Saga of the Volsungs: the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok Together with the Lay of Kraka. New York: American Scandinavian Foundation.
• Sprague, Martina (2007), Norse Warfare: the Unconventional Battle Strategies of the Ancient Vikings, New York: Hippocrene Books, ISBN 0-7818-1176-7 
• Waggoner, Ben (2009), The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok, The Troth, ISBN 978-0-578-02138-6 

Legendary titles
Preceded by Sigurd Ring	King of Sweden in West Norse tradition	Succeeded by Eysteinn Beli
Preceded by Harald Greyhide	King of Denmark	Succeeded by Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye
Preceded by Siwardus Ring	King of Denmark in Gesta Danorum	Succeeded by Siwardus III