The Saga of Ragnar Lođbrök part 2

This is a transcript of an episode of the We're all Stories podcast! I to hear the episode in all it's glory check https://www.buzzsprout.com/1685008/8438136

Thanks for coming back to hear more about the saga of Ragnar hairy-pants and his sons. So where we left it last episode, Ragnar had just talked Kráka (Krow-ka) into leaving the mean old people and running away with him. We'll get back to them in a minute but first i wanted to clear something up.

What/who even is a viking anyway? The short answer is: we don’t know. There are many theories out there and each proponent of a given theory likes to give their opinion as absolute fact. The theory I was told by a professor on the subject is that Viking refers to a person from Vík, a town in Norway. So only people from Vík (veek) are truly vikings. One problem with this is that people from Vík were called Vík-verjar, (Veek ver-yar) not víkings, or vikings. Another is that it derives from 'vika' a sea mile. This was a period of time with two rotations of rowers on which distance could be tracked by time traveled. So the idea is that the journey itself came to be called viking because of this and vikings are people who participated in said journey.

Another theory is that it is connected to the word 'king' but this seems to have no actual place in fact as the old Norse for king is konungr. Another possibility is that it comes from 'vikja' to go or turn.

The most popular theory that I find popping up is that víking refers to the old Norse 'vík' meaning inlet or small bay and 'víking' is someone who hangs about in or utilizes víks, say for raiding.

In my old Norse Icelandic dictionary viking is defined as "freebooting voyage or piracy" and víkingr (a viking) is a "freebooter, sea-rover, pirate, viking." So maybe it is just that, it is what it is and there is no further meaning. Whatever the case, we will likely never know. But back to Ragnar.

Clothes? Check. Hair brush? Check. Creepy revenge curse on the old couple she lived with? Check. With everything packed, Kráka goes to meet Ragnar.

She gets on the ship and the two sail away into the sunset. That night the men prepare a bed for the couple and Ragnar says 'it's business time.' She tells him 'no ding ding without a wedding ring. Ragnar grumbles about things turning blue but acquiesces to her request. The two sleep apart on the loooong sea voyage back to Ragnar’s place.

The people of Ragnar’s kingdom had been planning a big welcome home party for their king. Ragnar says cool. Cool, cool, cool. This welcome home party, is now also gonna be a wedding party. I'm marrying this girl right now. So let's just skip the 'I dos' and get right down to it. So they get married and there is much rejoicing. That night Ragnar goes to her and tells her ok, we're married, we brushed our teeth and took out the recycling, it's business time. ‘Hold your horses. If we do it now, I'll get pregnant but the boy will be born boneless’. So Ragnar asks her ‘OK, how long do we have to wait?’ She tells him three days and then they will have to make a sacrifice to the gods then she has spin class on Thursday and… but Ragnar had had enough waiting. One deformed child seemed worth it just then. Besides, how often are these fortune tellers right anyway?

It is said they had a good and loving marriage but just as she had predicted, nine months later out came little baby Ivar (Ee-var) and just as she had said he was borne boneless. As it says in the saga "it was as if there was gristle where his bones should be.” So they gave him the cute, very original nickname Ivar "Boneless". Kinda like calling a guy with no arms and no legs "torso boy" but anyway…

Despite being boneless this boy is said to have been bigger and stronger than anyone around and he was the handsomest boy in all the land. Or so his mother tells him. Though the sagas agree so maybe there was something there. He was also said to be wise. How wise was he? "So wise that it wasn't certain there had ever been a wiser man than him."

Ragnar had three more sons with his new wife. Bjorn, (bee-yorn) Hvitserk (h-vit-serk) it means 'white shirts don't ask, I don't know. And Rognvald. (Rogue-in-vald) All of them are bigger and stronger than normal men. Ivar, not to be left out, made his younger brothers carry him around everywhere on poles and being the oldest and the smartest, he always makes the plans for them all and tells the younger boys what to do.

While the boys are playing their games, Eirek (Eye-rick) and Agnar, (Ag-ner)the sons from Ragnar's first marriage, were not sitting idly by. They are both mighty warriors and would lead their men on raids every summer, earning much renown.

Word of the brothers' exploits reach back home and Ivar and co start asking themselves when they are going to stop playing viking and actually go out raiding themselves. The brothers all look to Ivar and he says let's go for it. So they ask daddy for ships and a crew "that were experienced in raiding and well prepared for anything. " Ragnar gives them what they ask for and they set off.

The brothers, led by Ivar, are like Rockstars of raiding. They amass all sorts of booty and have all sorts of fighting men fighting to be part of their club.

Ivar becomes bored with this and wants a real challenge. So he sets his sights on Hvitabaer. (h-veet-a-beer) many had tried there, including Ragnar himself incidentally (though probably not coincidentally) apparently the place was well defended with many men and was "a great place for sacrifices." Between the large army and the sorcery of the inhabitants, no one had ever made any headway there. Ivar was determined they would be the first.

When they get there they decide they should leave a guard behind with the ships. Rognvald was still a youngling so they have him take guard duty, feeling he was too young for war.

As they are preparing to set out, Ivar begins briefing them on what to expect. He tells them the city is defended by a pair of magic cows. When they come out, they will start bellowing so ferociously that men run in terror. But they shouldn't worry, because nothing would hurt them. So they show up at the town and the townspeople send out the cows.

Ivar is carried into battle on a shield when he sees his men are getting really freaked out by these magic cows so he calls for his bow. He casually shoots and kills the cows like it was nothing. Seeing the scary cows dead the men rush in.

Back at the ships Rognvald is sulking at being left behind. They just want all the glory for themselves, he thinks. So he leaves the ships and charges in. He is said to have fought fiercely but in the end he is killed. The remaining brothers push through with their men into the city, routing the inhabitants. They take all the treasure they can find then burn every house and tear down every wall, leaving nothing but rubble and Ash behind them as they make their way to the ships.

Back to Ragnar. Eystein (ay-stine) was king in Sweden. He is described as quick tempered but wise. He has a daughter, Ingibjörg (in-gee-byurg) who is said to be the fairest of them all. He also had a magic cow. This cow bellowed so scarily that men didn't just run away like the last ones, rather, they went crazy and started killing each other so all the armies of Sweden had to do was sit back and watch. So about all these magic cows. All it says in the saga is that they were sacrificed to and worshipped. This gives them super powers and they are surrounded by sorcery and "bedevilment." I scoured the dark corners of the internet but I could not find any other references to big, bad battle bovine or magic cows. Not to say there aren't any, I just couldn't find them. So that's all I have to say about that.

Eystein and Ragnar are good buddies and every year they get together for a barbecue and talk. This year it was Eystein's turn to host so Ragnar and his men went to visit. While they were feasting, Eystein had his pretty, young SINGLE daughter serve Ragnar. Seeing the two of them together, Ragnar's men felt that their noble king deserved an equally noble queen, not some pretty peasant he picked up. Their king deserved better than a farmer's daughter. They told him as much and before the end of the night Ragnar was engaged to Ingibjörg. On the road home, Ragnar tells his men by way, don't tell my wife… and he swears them to secrecy on pain of death. What happens in Sweden, stays in Sweden.

Ragnar and his men return home where a welcome party is waiting for him. His wife comes in, plops down in his lap, throws her arms around him and lightly asks if he has any news. He sa6s' nope, none that I can think of and they all go back to celebrating. That night, in bed, Kráka again asks him if he has anything he wants to tell her. He says he already told her no, he's tired so just let him sleep. Not to be put off, she says OK, well let me fill you in then. Because I call it news when a king gets engaged to a girl when he is already married to someone else. Ragnar starts panicking. He demands to know who told her because they are SOOO dead. She tells him to slow his roll. No man told her. She said there were three birds that were watching and they told her. She literally told him a little bird told her. She begs him not to go through with. She tells him that her parents were not actually the old couple but her father was actually the legendary hero king Sigurđr (Sig-earth-er) of the volsungs called Fáfnír's (fow-p-near)bane, hero of the Völsunga (vull-sung-ah) saga, the saga of the volsungs. Her mother no less than Brynhildr, mythical Valkyrja (vulk-ear-ya) or as we now know them, valkyrie. Handmaiden of Ođinn, (oath-in) selectors of the glorious dead in battle to become Einherjar (eye-n-hair-yar) which can literally be translated to 'army of one' the mighty heroes who battle each and slay then are slain in turn every day only to rise and feast in Valhalla, all to train for the day they will fight beside the gods themselves at ragnarök, (rag-ner-uck)the twilight of the gods when the world will begin anew. After her parents were treacherously killed, her foster father Heimir (hay-mere) forsook his own kingdom and people to take her into hiding to protect her, knowing her parents' enemies would be after her next.

He has a giant harp made which he hides the girl inside. One night, Heimir came upon the farm at Spangareid (spawn-ger-wreath) and sought shelter for the night. That night Gríma (Greema) convinces her husband to murder their guest to steal his wealth, breaking hospitality taboos and was in general a big no no. This by the way was what Kráka had been referring to earlier when leaving her revenge curse on the couple. When they split open the harp to get at the riches inside they found her. Gríma says they will keep her around and force her to do all the hard work and if anyone asks they will say she is their daughter. Her husband says no one would ever buy it because she is the most beautiful girl ever and they are hideously ugly. Gríma tells him she has secret ways of dealing with that. She will shave the girl then when her hair starts coming back she will smear it with tar so it grows all matted, black and gross. They'll dress her in the worst rags, make her wear a hood and apparently tell her she is not allowed to bathe. As I said earlier.

Ragnar says yeah, I don't buy it. Why would the daughter of Sigurđr and Brynhildr have such an ugly, common name as Kráka? She tells him that that was the name the old people gave her, named for Gríma's mother. Her true name was Áslög. (Ows-loag) As proof, she tells him that she is pregnant with another son by him. The child will be born with a dragon in his eye and he will be named Sigurđr, after her legendary father. Some time later the child is born. Just as she said, the child was a boy. She hands him to Ragnar who sees that there is indeed a serpent in his eye, just as she had said. Ragnar declares that his newborn son's name would be Sigurđr ormr í auga, (or-mer ee ow-ga) Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye in honor of his legendary grandfather. He also made it known that his wife, Kráka was actually Áslög and she would in fact remain his queen.

On seeing his son for the first poem:

The child shall be called Sigurđr,

He'll hold court in battles;

much like his own mother's

Mighty father shall he be.

Of all Ođinn's kindred

He'll be accounted best.

Showing a snake in his eye,

He'll be the slayer of many.

The dear son of Brynhildr 's

Daughter, pleasing to heroes,

Has flashing face stones

And a most faithful heart;

The bringer of bane fire

Wins battles by his strength,

Budli's (bood-lee) dauntless descendant

Disdains the red gold rings.

I see no young swain,

Except Sigurđr alone,

Bridles laid in the bright stones

Of the brow's borderland;

The daring beasts' day diminisher

Is discerned by this mark:

The dark forests' ring flashes

From the fences of his eyelids.

Ragnar, king and warrior poet has some great examples of kennings. In this poem "face stones," "stones of the brow's borderland" and "fences of his his eyelids" all refer to eyes. "Bridles" and "forests' ring" are snakes. "Bane fire" is a sword so its "bringer" is a warrior while a "beast's day diminisher" is a hunter. (A hunter kills animals, shortening the days of their lifespan.) So Ragnar is saying Sigurđr will be a mighty warrior and hunter.

Eystein was not best pleased. He felt that this was a direct insult on him and his daughter. Friendship cancelled. Seeing as to how they were no longer friends, Ragnar’s sons took this to mean Sweden was now fair game.

Eirek and Agnar, Ragnar's sons from his first marriage decide to attack Sweden. They gather together a large force and prepare to set off. Now they felt that in order for the raid to be a success, it needed to have a good beginning. But as they were pushing the ships into the sea, a man gets caught in front of Agnar's ship and is crushed to death. A decidedly bad omen. But the brothers decide to go anyway, even feeling fate was against them. Eystein hears they are coming so he sends around the "war arrow" a kind of levying symbol, calling the army to assemble to defend their home. When the brothers arrive, he makes sacrifices to charge up his magic cow then sends this super cow out to head his army against the brothers.

When the cow takes the field. She starts roaring and bellowing. The brothers' men, on hearing this, go crazy and start fighting each other. Only the sons of Ragnar have the strength of will to resist. The two of them take on the great armies of Sweden and it is said they fought so hard and well that they nearly break through the enemy lines but eventually the overwhelming odds prove too much for the brothers. Just as was portended, Agnar is slain while Eirek is taken captive. Eystein offers him gold as compensation for his brother and the hand of his daughter in marriage for peace.

Now let's take a quick look at compensation because this will come up again later too. For the Nordic people, murder was a bad, bad thing. See, it wasn't just killing someone, it was also a slight on the family. To regain. The family's honor and avenge their person, they would have to kill someone from the other family in retaliation. Then they of course would be honour bound to kill someone and such and so on. This is called a feud or blood feud. As you can probably imagine, this was not a good thing for anybody. So laws were put in place. If someone kills a person, they must report it then they can pay compensation to the person's family. This was usually in gold or silver and was based on who the person is and what their rank or occupation was. If/when compensation was accepted, those involved shook hands and went away, while maybe not friends, at least not murderous enemies. Feuds were a big deal and could get brutal. Many of the sagas are centered around some feud or other.

Anyway, Eirek refuses. He says he will not accept gold for his brother's life but, if Eystein let's his men go free, rather than seeking revenge, he tells Eystein to gather all the spears he can find and plant their butt's in the ground, making a bed of spear points. In exchange for his mens' freedom, Eirek would throw himself on these spears, ending his feud though not coincidentally obligating his younger brothers to avenge him and Agnar. Just to make sure his point got across, he sends a man with one of his rings to his step mom with the news. Though saddened, he had tried to avoid a feud, Eystein agrees to Eirikr's request. He has the spears readied and Eirikr throws himself on them. As he is laying there impaled on a hundred spears, he sees a raven, a messenger of Ođinn, flying overhead and he utters this verse:

Now the slash gull soars high,

Screaming over my head;

The wound falcon wishes

My warm unfeeling eyes.

Know, if the bird should break

The brow stones from my head

The raven pays me poorly

For plenty of Ekkil's bounty.

"Slash gull" and "wound falcon" both refer to ravens while "brow stones" are eyes. "Ekkil's (ek-eels) bounty" is a little more difficult. According to the Poetic Edda, Ekkil is a king in the realm of the sea. His bounty? Corpses. Basically Eirikr is telling the raven that eating him would be a bad way to repay him for feeding the ravens so many other men in the past.

Another version of this story is found in the tales of Ragnar’s sons. This account is in general very similar to the saga of Ragnar Lođbrök and his sons, even down to word for word quotes of peoples' speech. This particular part of the story though looks quite different. In this version, Ragnar is king of Sweden and Denmark. His sons are out raiding and running amuck, taking lands for themselves but the lands they are taking are Ragnar’s lands. They are staking claim to territory that belonged to their father to try and prove that they are in fact better than their father. This doesn't exactly thrill him, his own children divvying up his lands amongst themselves against his will. Fearing that they would target Sweden he puts Eystein in place as an earl and charges him to keep his sons out. Sure enough, Eirik and Agnar come a-knocking demanding control of Uppsala and the hand of Eystein's daughter who in this version is called Borghild. Eystein puts it to the vote and he and his people decide to stick with Ragnar. There are no magic cows in this version but Eystein does have overwhelming odds in his favour and comes out the victor, killing Agnar in the battle. He offers gold and the hand of Borghild in compensation but Eirik refuses. He cannot bear the shame of his defeat and asks to be killed. Instead of laying on a bed of spears, he demands that Eystein's men put the points of their spears under him and raise him up over the battlefield so that he would lay there impaled above his men.

And we're back to the saga of Ragnar Lođbrök and his sons.

Eirik and Agnar's surviving men make their way back home and report what had happened to Áslög. She is not happy. They say she cried a single tear. It was blood red and hard as a stone. It was the only tear she had ever been seen to cry until then and never would she again. Ragnar is at the king convention, id like to see the swag from that!! And her sons are still out meeting new and exciting people, killing them and taking their stuff.. when the boys get home, they tell her about Rognvald's death and about all their victories and show off all their coil new loot to mom. she tells them, yeah, that's nice. Now you need to go do something about your older brothers' deaths. No tears for her own son, Rognvald notice. Middle children.

She says Eirik and Agnar were the greatest warriors out there and their brothers so she wouldn't blame them if they "exact terrible vengeance " on Eystein. She even says she'll help to make it as big and bad as possible. Avengers assemble!

As always, Ivarr was the brains of the bunch and he tells her yeah, no. I will never go to Sweden with the intent of attacking Eystein. Ain't happening. Indignant, she says that if roles were reversed, Eirik and Agnar would have set out to take revenge right away because they were warriors and men. Ivarr tells her he doesn't see what that has to do with anything. Does she know anything about Eystein's defenses and strategy? She says no, but what do you know about it? So Ivarr tells them all about the magic cow Sibilja (sib-bill-ya)and how first she would come and make all the troops go crazy and fight each other, then the wicked and cruel King Eystein would mop up the rest. Nuh-huh, not happening, end of story.

Then little three year old Sigurd toddler up and says mommy, i have something to say. Then he speaks this verse:

It will take us three nights,

If you are troubled mother-

Far must be our faring-

For our forces to be ready.

If blade edges aid us,

Eystein the king shall not

Hold Uppsala's high seat,

Though hoarded wealth he offer.

No fancy kennings but not bad for a three year old. His mom says OK, me and you will go get revenge all by ourselves without your scaredy cat brothers. They're too chicken. Ashamed, one by one the brothers agree to go. The brothers were like, ok, I'll go get my sword… but Ivarr says wait a sec, we need to plan first? Seriously people. Let's get together an army, devise a strategy THEN go attack Sweden.

Sigurd goes and talks to his foster father and in 3 days this toddler puts together a fleet of five ships, fully crewed with himself in command. I can only imagine this is absolutely adorable. After five nights, Hvitserk and Bjorn had another fourteen ships between them. By the end of the week, Ivarr and Áslög had another ten ships each. Ivarr also tells them that he sent an army of ground forces marching that way as they speak. Áslög says great, if you'd told me ground troops would have been useful i would have got some of them together then we really could have had an army.

Things are finally ready to get underway. Áslög shows up all armed and armoured and Ivarr is like yeah, you're not getting on any of our ships. If you really want to come, you can get a horse and lead the ground troops. She changes her name to Randalín. (Rond-a-lean) It means shield maiden or warrior woman. It is from "rönd" (Row-nd) meaning rim, a kenning for shield and Hlín, the name of a goddess and a common kenning for a woman. It is also perhaps derived form the old Norse Icelandic "hlíf" (h-leaf) meaning to protect or shield. If this is the case, Randalín (ronda-lean)would be a protective shield, apt for a mother. It is also possible that it is taking the masculine name "rand" (again for shield) and making it feminine by adding Hlín (H-lean) to the end. Kind of like how you can add "ette" or "ine" or "ina" to the end of a traditionally masculine name to make it feminine. Take Pauline, feminine form of Paul for example. (Or Paulina or Paulette) Personally, given how poetic the people in the sagas are, especially this family, all of these are true. By calling herself Randalín, the feminine of Rand via Hlín, she was calling herself a shield maiden, a woman warrior, and a protector of her children whom she was getting ready to fight beside on the field of battle. These sagas are complicated like that and words and phrases can often have many meanings. It also strikes me that "ine" to denote feminine is very reminiscent of Hlín. Maybe derivative? I don't know. These are my own, personal musings. I'm just a storyteller, not a linguist or an expert in old Norse Icelandic. Maybe some professor somewhere has a definitive answer but if they do, I don’t know it.

The avenging armies reach Sweden and march toward Eystein, laying waste to everything in their path, leaving nothing alive.

Eystein heard about this and sends out the war arrow again and starts prepping bessie. I mean Sibilja. When the avengers assemble before the Eystein, they are met by a large force and one angry looking magic god-cow. Seeing the Ragnarsons, Eystein lets Sibilja loose. Ivarr had planned for this though. He tells the men to yell battle cries and bang their weapons together to drown out the maddening bellows of the cow. He has others go chop down a large tree and make it into a massive, tree sized bow and to chop down other trees to make huge, tree sized arrows. The men think he is crazy but they do as he tells them. Armed with his tree bow and arrows he orders his guard to throw him when they see the cow coming. So that “either I will lay down my life, or else she will get her death.” The cow comes charging in and even over the noise the soldiers were making, the cow’s bellows were still enough to drive them mad. Only the Brother’s could resist. Ivar cooly draws his tree bow so far back that he overdrew the arrow behind the stave and lets loose. The arrow whips forth with a deafening twang of the giant giant bowstring. He fires in rapid succession with one tree arrow after another with amazing speed and deadly accuracy. Even all the way across the battlefield, every arrow hit its mark, each a perfect bull’s eye. Literally. Every arrow, one after the other hit the cow square in the eye, the force of the arrows knocking her rolling across the ground. Still in the game, the now enraged cow jumps up and comes charging blindly towards Ivarr. Ivarr tells his men to throw him now. Magically Ivar is light as a feather and they effortlessly hurl him all the way across the field Ivar changes again, becoming massively heavy as he descends on the cow. He falls with the force of a cannon ball, crushing every bone in her body to dust. The cow dead, Ivarr’s men rush in to scoop him up, he is his normal weight again.

This use of magic is interesting. See, magic such as this was known as seiðr (Say-ther) and was forbidden to men. Only women were allowed to use it. Even among the gods. Except Oðinn. Oðinn could use whatever magic he wants. And though it isn’t said, I suspect Loki. But Loki doesn’t really count. Loki is gender fluid. And form fluid, being able to change and transform into whatever shape he/she wishes. They even gives birth at one point. But that is a story for another time.

The cow vanquished, Ivarr is lifted up by his warriors and he gives a great speech, telling them their only obstacle has been dealt with and giving their marching orders. Even though he is far away, every man hears him clearly as if he is whispering in their ear, right next to them. And the whole thing is done in complete silence. So whatever the speech he telepathically communicated to his men, there is no record of it. The men charge in and win the day. Eystein is killed and what few of his men survived were let surrender and a truce was made. Then Ivarr says let's ditch this place and find a real challenge. So the brothers move on and Randalín returns home with some of the men.

The Ragnarsons head south and defeat every large town they come across. Three year old Sigurd is right there with them every step of the way, fighting in every battle. His cute little toy battle ax in his pudgy little toddler hands. Maybe that's just me.

On their journeys they hear about a town called Vifilsborg, (Vi-fills-borg) named for and ruled by a chief named Vifil. (Vi-fil)

When the brothers arrived, Vifil and many of his men were out and about somewhere. The boys set up their tents outside the city and have peace talks with the inhabitants. They tell them to surrender the town and all would be allowed spared. Refuse and no quarter would be given once the fighting started. They had the larger force and they were the Ragnarsons. No one could withstand them. So better to just submit and get it over with. The townies laugh and say why would they surrender when these boys have even been tested.

The next day the sons of Ragnar attacked ferociously aaaaand accomplished exactly nothing. They stayed there for half a month, trying a new plan every day and still accomplishing nothing. Defeated and dejected, the sons of Ragnar decide to call it a day and pack up to leave. Seeing them start to head home, the townies start taunting them. They hang expensive fabrics over the walls and arrange all their treasures along the top yelling down that they thought the Ragnarsons and their men were supposed to be somebody but these guys were just losers like everyone else who had tried and failed before. This made all of them laugh and start hurling insults, egging them on to come back so they could watch them fail again. Now come back here and they would taunt them a second time.

Now Ivarr did not find this funny. He got so depressed he goes catatonic and for a day doesn't move or speak. When he snaps out of it, he asks who has a plan. They all say, you're the idea guy…

Ivarr says he might have something that will work. He tells them to leave the tents and sneak off into the forest. Everyone gathers wood and that night they put the wood they had gathered all around the stone walls of the city and set it alight, burning the mortar out from between the stones in the walls, making them vulnerable. They then lob a few rocks from a catapult and the walls come tumbling down. The account from the saga of Ragnar Lođbrök and his sons, which has been my source thus far says that as soon battle was joined, the town guards were defeated. Their entire defense plan rested on the strength of their walls. Take that away and they were defeated before the first sword was drawn. The brothers hauled off plenty of loot. They left none alive and burned the city behind them on their way out.

After this hard fought victory the brothers go on a rampage they "destroyed nearly every fort and Castle in the southern realms." It is said they became so famous that everyone, down to the smallest child knew the names of the sons of Ragnar. They were determined not to stop their raiding until they had sacked Rome. But they didn't know how to get there. So they ask for directions. They meet an old beggar that had lived his life traveling the world. He says sure, I just came from there, nice place. So they ask him how far it is. They guy is wearing iron shoes, and he has a mangled other pair over his shoulder. He tells the brothers that when he left Rome, both pairs were brand new.

At that the brothers say whoa now, hold on there, I'm just not ready for that kind of commitment… it's not like he asked them to join the Columbia records club… they turn around and raid some more on their way home.

Meanwhile, Ragnar was sitting at home, oblivious to everything until he starts hearing people talking about how famous his sons were. They were like viking rockstars. I imagine he felt fatherly pride at this. But then they started saying that NO ONE was as famous or as cool as Ragnar’s sons. Now Ragnar is jealous. So he decides to really give them something to talk about. He says he is going to take England with only 2 ships.

The vikings had been raiding Britain since at least 793. In the year 793 it is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle that a monastery at Lindisfarne was raided by heathens on the ides of June. What are the Ides of June? There are three important days each month by which the Roman calendar is built. The Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. These corresponded with phases of the moon and were the basis of the calendar month. The Kalends is the first of each month and is the new moon. The Nones fall on the 5th of the month except for March, may, July and October when they fall on the 7th. These were marked by the first quarter phase of the moon. The Ides were marked by the full moon and are 8 days after the Nones. So most of the time the Ides of the month is the 13th, not the 15th. The Ides of March being on the 15th is actually the exception rather than the rule. But the only time anyone ever hears about the Ides is to say "Beware the Ides of March" this has led to the popular misconception that the ides is the 15th. But this is only the case for 4 out of the 12 months.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicle by the way is famously attributed to the reign of Alfred the Great of Wessex, considered to be the first High King of England.

It is not said who led the raid in 793, but I do not think it likely that it was Ragnar. Ragnar was famously active in the 9th century for starters. Also, Ragnar is recorded as having died in 865. He would have either had to have been very young when he led the raid, which is possible. As I said in the last episode, he was already an accomplished viking leader by 15. Or he would have to be extremely when he led his final raid. Not outside the realm of possibility but still unlikely. Also, if he had done something like discovered Britain, I think it probably would have been mentioned in his saga.

Also, in the show Vikings during the 793 raid, the monastery is presided over by one Cuthbert. While they did not necessarily say this was supposed to be THE Cuthbert but St. Cuthbert was the bishop of Lindisfarne from 685-687. So it would be quite a feat to still be bishop over a hundred years after death. St. Cuthbert by the way was considered to be the most important saint of medieval England. His remains were at Lindisfarne but monks fleeing the carnage of the viking attack had the presence of mind to take his sacred relics. They wandered around until they arrived at a site they had been led to in a vision and Durham cathedral was built. St. Cuthbert's relic were kept here. But that's ranging far afield, so let's get back to Ragnar.

Ragnar has two massive ships built, not the sleek, maneuverable longship usually used but big, bulky, ungainly transport ships. His wife Randalín tried to talk him out of it and get him to get together a bunch of smaller, maneuverable ships to make the difficult voyage to go murder and pillage like a normal person. The smaller ships would have an easier time navigating the víks (remember, it means bay or inlet) and if one or two do crash, it won't really matter because his army is spread out over several ships. She is telling him not to put all his eggs in one basket. Or all his men in one boat.

Ragnar refuses saying the is no glory in the conventional. If he wants to be more famous than his sons, he must be extraordinary. So he loads his ships and sets sail. He tells her

What does the ring breaker hear

Come from the rocks howling

That the flinger of hand fire

Must forsake his fleet sea serpents?

Yet i, who freely scatter

All the forearm's layings,

Shall bear with this plan bravely,

Brooch-Bíl, (beel) if the gods will.

Forearm's layings refer to gold, as does hand fire. The flinger of hand fire is a king, distributing gold. Ring breaker also refers to a king. Sea serpents are ships and brooch-bíl is a women, reffering to Bíl a lunar goddess.

Basically he is saying he's going and that's final, no matter what she says.

I'm sure she sighs exasperatedly and says fine. She makes him a magic shirt of hair (ragnar really seems to have a thing for hairy clothes.) Which as long as he wears he cannot be wounded. He takes it and sets out.

Break?

As Ragnar and his crew are sailing, they are taken by a storm off the shore and both ships are wrecked. Miraculously everyone survives and make it to shore with only their weapons and the clothes on their backs. They immediately begin raiding, attacking any settlements they come across.

They had arrived in the territory of king Ælle. (eye-la) his contacts had told him that Ragnar had left home in ships so he had a watch kept. When the ships arrived he heard reports that his lands were being attacked by vikings but none could say if it was Ragnar. Ælle gets together a massive host of defenders and sets out to meet the threat himself. He cautions his men thatvif any of them did findbout it was Ragnar, no one was to attack him or harm him in any way because the king was worried that if anything happenes, Ragnar’s sons would come avenge him.

Ragnar rushes against the much greater army with his men with his magic shirt over a chainmail hauberk, a helmet on his head and his massive spear he had used to rescue Þora. (Thora)

Ragnar fought fiercely. All around him his men were being killed but wherever Ragnar went, the britons were pushed back, even to the point where Ragnar was breaking through their lines. No one could withstand him. Though many tried, no weapon or arrow could touch him because of his magic shirt.

In the end, even this magic was not enough. All of Ragnar’s men were killed. Since no one could hurt Ragnar due to his shirt, they eventually pressed him to the ground with shields and were able to capture him.

Ælle questions him, asking who he is but Ragnar is silent. Seeing he would not speak, Ælle decided something more was needed. He has Ragnar thrown into a pit full of poisonous snakes. He tells his men, the second he says he is Ragnar, lift him out. Still he is silent. The magic of his shirt keeping the snakes at bay. Between no one being able to attack him on the battlefield and now the snakes, Ælle realizes something must be up. He has the shirt stripped off him and throws him back in. This time, with no magic holding them back, the snakes go in for the kill.

The viper venom burning through his veins, Ragnar finally speaks. He says "the pigs would surely grunt now, if they knew what the old pig suffers." Then he speaks a verse:

I have fought 'gainst foes in

Fifty-one battles in all,

Which seemed a splendid feat,

I did scathe to many men;

I never imagined a snake

For the ending of my life;

Many things may happen

Which men themselves expect least.

The piglets would protest loudly

If the boat's plight they knew.

Death has been dealt to me,

Snakes dig in my flesh house

And savagely stab me,

Serpents suck my life out.

Beside the beasts I'll die now,

Soon i will be a corpse.

And with that, He breathed his last. Ragnar Lođbrök had met his end.

Tune in next time to hear what Ælle does next and how the sons of Ragnar respond to their father's death in the stunning conclusion to the Saga of Ragnar Lođbrök and his sons!