Aella murdering Ragnar Lodbrok.
'Ragnar Lodbrok' (Ragnar "Hairy-Breeks",
Old Norse: ''Ragnarr Loðbrók'') was a
Norse king, who ruled the early kingdoms of
Sweden and
Denmark for some time in the 8th or 9th century.
Background
Paris at the time of Ragnar's attack.
Both Danish and Icelandic sources describe him as the son of
Sigurd Ring, a king who united southern Scandinavia under his rule.
The historic Ragnar Lodbrok was an
Earl at the court of the Danish king
Hårek who participated in the
Viking plunderings of
Paris in
845. The warriors belonging to the army of
Charles the Bald, were placed to guard the monastery in
St. Denis, but fled when the Danish Vikings executed their prisoners ferociously in front of their eyes. After the "
danegeld" which contained 7000 pounds of
silver, Ragnar went back to
Denmark. By mysterious circumstances, many men in Ragnar's army died during the journey and Ragnar died soon after his arrival in Denmark. In later traditions, Ragnar is the king of Denmark and he meets with fabulous adventures all around the world. Among others, he met the wonderful
Kraka in
Norway, who became Ragnar's wife and the mother of his four sons.
Although he is something of a hero in his native
Scandinavia, reliable accounts of his life are very sketchy and heavily based on ancient Viking sagas. Even the dating of his reign is not certain; there are sources that date it from
750–
794, and others from
860–
865. Neither really matches with what is known of him, though he may perhaps have held power as a warlord from approximately
835 to his death in
865, perhaps only being recognized as king in the last five years of his life.
Raids
Ragnar apparently spent most of his life as a
pirate and raider, invading one country after another. One of his favorite strategies was to attack
Christian cities on church
feast days, knowing that many soldiers would be in church. He would generally accept a huge payment to leave his victims alone, only to come back later and demand more riches in exchange for leaving. But as the extent of his supposed realm shows, he was also a gifted military leader. By
845, he was a powerful man and most likely a contemporary of the first ruler of
Russia, the Viking
Rurik. It is said he was always seeking new adventures because he was worried that his freebooting sons would do things that would outshine his own achievements.
France
It was in 845 that he is said to have sailed southward, looking for new worlds to conquer. With 120 ships and 5,000 Viking warriors, he landed in modern
France, probably at the
Seine estuary, and ravaged West Francia, as the westernmost part of the
Frankish Empire was then known.
Paris was also captured in this year and held ransom by a Viking raider, whom the sagas say was Ragnar Lodbrok. The traditional date for this is
March 28, which is today referred to as Ragnar Lodbrok Day by certain followers of the
Asatru religion. The King of West Francia,
Charlemagne's grandson
Charles the Bald, paid him a fantastic amount of money not to destroy the city. Ragnar Lodbrok, according to Viking sources, was satisfied with no less than 7,000 pounds of
silver in exchange for sparing the city. However, that did not stop Ragnar from attacking other parts of France, and it took a long time for the
Franks to drive him out. Later Ragnar's sons were to return for more booty. Among their feats was destroying the city of
Rouen several times. Ultimately, many of them settled there permanently, in a land that became known as
Normandy (for "Northmen", as the Franks called the Scandinavians or the Norrmän as the Norwegians called themselves (which is much more likely)).
England
After he was done with France, he turned his attention to
England. In
865, he landed in
Northumbria on the north-east coast of England. It is claimed that here he was defeated in battle for the only time, by King
Aelle II of Northumbria. Aelle's men captured Ragnar, and the King ordered him thrown into a pit filled with poisonous snakes. As he was slowly being bitten to death, he is alleged to have exclaimed "How the little pigs would grunt if they knew the situation of the old boar!", referring to the vengeance he hoped his sons would wreak when they heard of his death. Alternative versions of the story say that he landed by accident in
East Anglia and there befriended
King Edmund before being killed by a jealous courtier. The murderer escaped to Denmark and blamed Edmund for Lodbrok's demise.
Legacy
One Viking saga states that when his four sons heard the manner of his death, they all reacted in great sorrow.
Hvitserk, who was playing
tafl, gripped the piece so hard that he bled from his fingernails.
Björn Ironside grabbed a spear so tightly that he left an impression in it, and
Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, who was trimming his nails, cut straight through to the bone.
Although these stories may not be accurate, like virtually all tales concerning Ragnar Lodbrok, his death had serious consequences. His other sons,
Ivar the Boneless (alias ''Hingwar'') and
Ubbe soon learned the details of their father's death and swore that they would avenge his killing, in time-honoured Viking tradition. In
866, Ivar and Ubbe crossed the
North Sea with a large army (The
Great Heathen Army), sacked
York, met King Aelle in battle, and captured him. He sentenced him to die according to the custom of
Rista Blodörn (Blood eagle), an exceedingly painful death. They then moved south to East Anglia, on the way attacking the monasteries of
Bardney,
Croyland and
Medeshampstede where, according to tradition, their army slew 80 monks. Eventually they captured King Edmund and had him shot by archers and beheaded. These wars were a prelude to the long struggle of the
Saxons of
Alfred the Great against the
Danes a generation later.
Mythology
Bragi Boddason is said to have composed the
Ragnarsdrápa for the Swedish king
Björn at Hauge. However, this does not correspond to what we know about the historical Ragnar. It is consequently said that in the
Norse sagas, he was identified with a Swedish king Ragnar (
770-
785), the son of
Sigurd Ring. According to legend, he married
Aslaug and became the son-in-law of
Sigurd the Völsung.
In Popular Culture
Harry Harrison's
Hammer and Cross series includes the death of Ragnar and the subsequent responses of his sons.
In the
1958 film ''
The Vikings'', Ragnar is played by
Ernest Borgnine.
Ragnar Lodbrok is a leader of the Viking Empire in the expansion pack for the game
Civilization IV.
See also
★
Raven banner
References
★ Forte, Angelo, Richard Oram, and Frederik Pedersen. ''Viking Empires.'' Cambridge University Press, 2005.
★ Schlauch, Margaret, ''trans.'' ''The Saga of the
Volsungs: the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok together with the Lay of Kraka.'' New York: American Scandinavian Fndn., 1964.
External links
★
Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda and
Ragnars saga loðbrókar in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
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