Ragnar Lodbrok

Ragnar Lodbrok
Lothbrocus and his sons Hyngwar and Ubba. 15th century miniature in Harley MS 2278, folio 39r.

Ragnar acquires Kráka (Aslaug), as imagined by August Malmström.

19th century artist's impression of Ælla of Northumbria's execution of Ragnar Lodbrok

Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbrok (Old Norse: Ragnarr Loðbrók, "Ragnar Shaggy-Breeches") was a legendary^[1][2] Viking ruler, king, and hero from the Viking Age described in Old Norse poetry and several sagas. In this tradition, Ragnar was the scourge of France and England in the 9th century and the father of many renowned sons, including Ivar the Boneless, Björn Ironside, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Ubba. While these men are historical figures, it is uncertain whether Ragnar himself existed or really fathered them. Many of the tales about him appear to conflate the deeds of several historical Viking heroes and rulers.

According to legend, Ragnar was married three times: to the shieldmaiden Lagertha, to the noblewoman Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr, and to Aslaug. Said to have been a relative of the Danish king Gudfred and son of the Swedish king Sigurd Hring, he became king himself and distinguished himself by many raids and conquests. There are two different accounts of his death. One is that he was 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.^[3] The other was that Ragnar died from a combination of cholera and wounds he sustained from trying to invade Paris.

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 Rognvald of the Irish Annals, and
• the father of the Viking leaders who invaded England with the Great Heathen Army in 865.^[4]

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".^[4] 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."^[3]

Sources

The medieval sources that cover Ragnar include:

• 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

• Ragnar Lothbrok is featured in Edison Marshall's 1951 novel The Viking.
• Richard Parker's 1957 historical novel The Sword of Ganelon explores the character of Ragnar, his sons, and Viking raiding culture.
• In The Vikings, a film of 1958, Ragnar, played by Ernest Borgnine, is captured by King Ælla and cast into a pit of wolves. His son Einar (presumably a variation of the historical Ivar), played by Kirk Douglas, vows revenge and conquers Northumbria. The script is based on Marshall's novel.
• Ragnar's shipwreck, capture, and execution, as well as his sons' revenge, are portrayed in Harry Harrison's 1993 alternative history novel The Hammer and the Cross.
• Ragnar features in various strategy video games with a historical setting, including Civilization III: Play the World, Medieval: Total War, Civilization IV: Warlords and Crusader Kings II.
• Played by Travis Fimmel, Ragnar is the protagonist of the History Channel's historical drama television series Vikings that debuted in 2013.
• Ragnar's sons Ivar the Boneless and Ubba are among the principal opponents of Uhtred Uhtredsson, fictional protagonist of Bernard Cornwell's Ten-part novel series that commences with The Last Kingdom.

References

Footnotes

1. The Vikings: Voyagers of Discovery and Plunder. Osprey Publishing. 18 March 2008. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-84603-340-7.
2. Mark Harrison (29 July 1993). Viking Hersir 793-1066 AD. Osprey Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-85532-318-6.
3. Holman 2003, p. 220.
4. Davidson 1980, p. 277.

Bibliography

• Saxo Grammaticus (1980) [1979]. Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis, ed. Gesta Danorum [Saxo Grammaticus: The history of the Danes: books I–IX]. 1 & 2. Translated by Peter Fisher. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. Chapter introduction commentaries. ISBN 978-0-85991-502-1.
• Holman, Katherine (July 2003). Historical dictionary of the Vikings. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4859-7.

Further reading

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