Ragnar Lodbrock

  General Notes:

Marriage: Aslaug Sigurdsdottir
Died: Cir 865
Other names for Ragnar were Regnar, Regner, Lodbrog, Lodbrok and Lothbrok.
General Notes:
Flourished in the 9th century Viking whose life passed into legend in medieval European literature.In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ragnar was said to be the father of three sons, Halfdan, Inwaer (Ivar the Boneless), and Hubba (Ubbe), who led a Viking invasion of East Anglia in 865 seeking to avenge Ragnar's murder. In the European literature of the several centuries following Ragnar's death, his name is surrounded with considerable legend. In the Gesta Danorum (c. 1185) of the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, he was a 9th-century Danish king whose campaigns included a battle with the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne. According to Saxo's legendary history, Ragnar was eventually captured by the Anglo-Saxon king Aella of Northumbria and thrown into a snake pit to die. This story is also recounted in the later Icelandic works Ragnars saga lodbrókar and Tháttr af Ragnarssonum. The 12th-century Icelandic poem Krákumál provides a romanticized description of Ragnar's death and links him in marriage with a daughter of Sigurd (Siegfried) and Brynhild (Brunhild), figures from the heroic literature of the ancient Teutons. The actions of Ragnar and his sons are also recounted in the Orkney Islands' poem Háttalykill.____________________________________Ragnarr Loðbrók or Ragnar Lodbrok was a semi-legendary King of Denmark and Sweden who reigned sometime in the eighth or ninth centuries. 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 matches with what we know of him, and he probably 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.LifeRagnar was a pagan who claimed to be a direct descendant of the god Odin. One of his favorite strategies was to attack Christian cities on holy feast days, knowing that many soldiers would be in church.RaidsHe spent most of his life as a pirate and raider, invading one country after another. 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 realm shows, he was also a gifted military leader.FranceBy 845, he was a powerful ruler, 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 outshined his own achievements.In that year, he 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.Also in 845, Paris was captured 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 many Scandinavians. The King of West Francia, Charlemagne’s son Charles II "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.EnglandAfter he was done with France, he turned his attention to England. In 865, he landed in Northumbria on the northeast coast of England. It is claimed that here he was defeated in battle for the only time, by King Aelle of Northumbria. Ella’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 was alleged to have exclaimed "How the little pigs would grunt if they knew the situation of the old boar!"LegacyOne Viking saga states that when his four sons heard the manner of his death, they all reacted in great sorrow. Hvitserk, who was playing chess, 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-Eye, who was trimming his nails, cut straight through to the bone.Ragnar’s fourth son, Ivar the Boneless soon learned the details of his father’s death and swore that he would avenge his father’s killing, in time-honored Viking tradition. In 866, Ivar crossed the North Sea with a large army, met King Ella in battle, and captured him. He sentenced him to die according to the custom of Rista Blodörn, an exceedingly painful death. Although this story may not be accurate, like virtually all tales concerning Ragnar Lodbrok, his death had serious consequences. Ivor was the mastermind behind the attacks on the English mainland in the final quarter of the ninth century. He invaded East Anglia, and the following year attacked York. He was aided by the internal struggle for power in Northumbria—which he was of course responsible for by killing Ella. These wars were a prelude to the long struggle of the Saxons of Alfred the Great against the "Danes" a generation later.Meanwhile, in France, the Vikings kept coming back 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 Vikings).
Ragnar married Aslaug Sigurdsdottir, daughter of Sigurd Wolsung and Unknown.

Ragnar married Aslaug Sigurdsdottir, daughter of Sigurd Wolsung and Unknown.