47 Fun Facts About Ragnar Lothbrok

What does the Old Norse nickname 'loðbrók' literally mean?

Hairy-breeches: loð means shaggy and brók breeches. In Saxo's telling a king looked over Ragnar's rough outfit, laughed at his shaggy trousers and gave him the nickname as a joke.

According to the sagas, what was Ragnar doing when he earned his nickname?

Fighting a giant serpent that guarded a jarl's daughter, Ragnar wore protective clothing boiled in pitch to foil its venom, and the nickname stuck.

In the sagas, which legendary king is named as Ragnar's father?

Sigurd Ring is said to have beaten his uncle Harald Wartooth at the Battle of Brávellir.

Lagertha is Ragnar's first wife on TV, but who is his first wife in the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok?

Thora, a jarl's daughter, bore Ragnar two sons and then died of an illness; the saga says the grieving king handed his realm to others and went back to raiding.

Ragnar's wife Kráka turns out to be Aslaug, the secret daughter of which hero?

Sigurd Fafnesbane, the dragon-slayer, was her father. The peasants who raised her rubbed her with tar and kept her under a long hood so nobody would guess her birth, and called her Kráka, 'Crow'.

How was the infant Aslaug smuggled to Norway by her foster-father Heimer in the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok?

Hidden inside a harp, Aslaug reached Norway with Heimer; a peasant couple who spotted rich cloth poking out of the harp killed him in his sleep for its treasure and found the girl inside.

Told to come to Ragnar neither dressed nor undressed, Kráka arrives wearing what?

A fishing net, with her long hair let down over it, met Ragnar's first condition; she also bit into an onion to be neither fasting nor fed, and brought a dog so as to be neither alone nor in company.

Saxo Grammaticus's Latin chronicle of about 1200, with Ragnar in Book Nine, is titled what?

Gesta Danorum, 'Deeds of the Danes', gives much of its ninth book to Ragnar; an earlier book tells of Amleth, the prince feigning madness whose story Shakespeare turned into Hamlet.

In Saxo's telling, Lagertha first catches Ragnar's eye by doing what?

Fighting at the front of his army: women a Swedish king had forced into a brothel joined Ragnar dressed as men, and he said afterwards that he owed the victory to one woman.

How does the legendary Ragnar die?

Thrown into a pit of snakes by the Northumbrian king, Ragnar was unharmed until his protective shirt was stripped off, the saga says; only then did the serpents bite.

Which king of Northumbria is said to have executed Ragnar?

Ælla had taken the Northumbrian throne from Osberht with no real claim to it; in 867 the two rivals joined forces against the Vikings at York, and both kings were killed.

In the saga, why does Ragnar invade England with only two ships?

To rival his sons: Ragnar said there was no glory in conquering with many ships and brushed off his wife's warning. Both ships were wrecked on the English coast and he was captured.

Ragnar's death-song, put in his mouth as he lies dying, is which skaldic poem?

Krákumál, 'Kráka's lay', has the dying king tally up his battles and end with the boast 'laughing I shall die'; it was composed in the 12th century, long after any historical Ragnar.

Ragnar's sons are said to have executed the Northumbrian king by which gruesome method?

The blood eagle appears in an 11th-century praise poem saying one of Ragnar's sons had an eagle cut on the king's back; historians still dispute whether it was a real rite or a poet's image later misread.

Which Viking force, said to be led by Ragnar's sons, invaded England in 865?

The Great Heathen Army wintered in East Anglia, where the locals bought peace and supplied horses; the newly mounted Vikings then moved north and seized York.

Ivar the Boneless is often identified with Ímar, a Viking king who ruled from which city?

Dublin: Ímar vanishes from the Irish annals between 864 and 870, the very years Ivar was campaigning in England, which is why many take the two for one man.

In the saga, why was Ivar born 'boneless'?

His father ignored Aslaug's three-night wait, the saga says, and the boy was born with gristle where bone should be; carried everywhere by his men, he still became the brothers' strategist.

Björn Ironside is said to have co-led a Viking raid of 859–861 into which sea?

The Mediterranean raid passed Gibraltar to plunder Iberia and Italy, and a Norman chronicler later named Björn among its leaders; saga and chronicle alike have the raiders aim for Rome and stop at the town of Luna.

A Norman chronicler names which Viking as Björn Ironside's foster-father and fellow raider?

Hastein stars in a ruse Norman legend tells: he plays dying, or dead, to be carried inside a walled town for Christian rites, then springs up to sack it.

In the saga, Aslaug foretells a snake mark in her unborn son's eye to stop Ragnar doing what?

Leaving her for a king's daughter was Ragnar's plan until Aslaug revealed she was no peasant and named the proof in advance; the boy was born with the mark and became Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.

Legend says Ragnar's daughters wove a magic war banner for their brothers that showed which bird?

A raven: the Annals of St Neots say the sisters wove the banner in a single midday, and that the bird flapped its wings before a victory and hung motionless before a defeat.

A Viking chief named Reginherus, often identified with Ragnar, attacked which city in 845?

Paris was plundered by Reginherus's fleet until the Franks bought it off. The raid inspired the Paris storyline of the TV series Vikings, where Ragnar feigns death to be carried into the city for a Christian funeral.

In his famous last words, the dying Ragnar calls himself an old what?

Boar: 'How the piglets would grunt if they knew what the old boar suffers,' he says. The piglets are his sons, and the line is a promise that they will come to avenge him.

Which Frankish king paid Reginherus 7,000 pounds of silver and gold in 845 to withdraw his Vikings?

Charles the Bald set out to fight the raiders but, judging that his men could not win, gave up the fight and struck a bargain with them instead.

The Viking chief Reginherus, who raided Francia in 845, served which Danish king?

Horik I is himself one of the candidates scholars have proposed for a 'historical Ragnar'.

A 12th-century runic inscription naming Lodbrok is carved inside which prehistoric tomb?

Maeshowe on Orkney, a Neolithic chambered tomb, was broken into by Norse crusaders in the 12th century, who left some thirty runic graffiti, one naming Lodbrok.

The Viking army said to have been brought to England by Ragnar's sons was beaten in 878 by which king?

Alfred the Great had been driven into hiding in the Somerset marshes months earlier; he rallied his men, won at Edington, and the beaten Viking king accepted baptism with Alfred as his sponsor.

The 13th-century Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok is written as a sequel to which other saga?

Völsunga saga comes first in the one medieval manuscript that holds both; Aslaug, born to its heroes and married to Ragnar in the sequel, is the thread that joins the two stories.

In the saga, which enchanted animal helps a Swedish king defeat Ragnar's sons?

A cow called Síbilja, whose bellowing made enemy armies panic and turn on each other; Ivar finally brought her down by shooting out her eyes with a giant bow and having himself hurled onto her back.

In Saxo's telling, Ragnar's captured son Hvitserk turns down a princess and chooses what instead?

Burning alive with his captured friends was Hvitserk's own request: he reasoned that Ragnar would take a milder revenge if his son had chosen the manner of his death himself.

Saxo says Ragnar's gruesome death was God's rightful vengeance for what?

His contempt for Christianity, shown when he made Denmark renounce the new faith after Harald's conversion, was in Saxo's telling repaid by a horrible end.

Kirk Douglas starred in the 1958 film The Vikings, but which actor played his father, Ragnar?

Ernest Borgnine played the father although he was a few weeks younger than Kirk Douglas, his screen son Einar; Tony Curtis played the half-brother Eric.

Who created the TV series Vikings, in which Ragnar is the central character?

Michael Hirst, who had written The Tudors and the film Elizabeth, scripted all 89 episodes of Vikings himself across its six seasons.

Which actor plays Ragnar Lothbrok in the TV series Vikings?

Travis Fimmel grew up on a farm in Victoria and hoped to play Australian rules football for St Kilda until a broken leg sidelined him; he broke through instead as a Calvin Klein underwear model.

In the TV series Vikings, Ragnar starts out as a farmer from which settlement?

The real Kattegat is a sea area between Denmark and Sweden, not a town.

Where was Vikings filmed?

Ireland doubled for Scandinavia: the series was shot in County Wicklow, with longship scenes on the Poulaphouca Reservoir and at Luggala.

The TV series Vikings premiered in March 2013 on which channel?

History launched Vikings on March 3, 2013, and it ran for 89 episodes; in an unusual deal, the final ten went to a streaming service first, leaving the channel that commissioned the show to air them later.

In the TV series Vikings, Ragnar's first raid on England hits which monastery?

Lindisfarne, whose sacking in 793 traditionally opens the Viking Age, falls to Ragnar's crew early in the first season; among the captives is the monk Athelstan, whom Ragnar keeps as a slave and later befriends.

Who plays Lagertha in the TV series Vikings, and also directed an episode of the sixth season?

Katheryn Winnick made her directing debut on the show just after Lagertha was killed off: the episode she directed has Bjorn mourning his mother, her own character.

Which actor plays Ragnar's brother Rollo in the TV series Vikings?

Clive Standen plays Rollo, Ragnar's jealous brother, who in the show betrays him for Frankia and becomes Duke of Normandy.

In which season of Vikings does Ragnar die?

Season four brought Ragnar's death in its fifteenth episode, 'All His Angels', after King Ecbert handed him over to his enemies; the show then followed his sons for two more seasons.

The Netflix sequel to Vikings that premiered in February 2022 is subtitled what?

Valhalla, as in Vikings: Valhalla, begins a hundred years after the first show and follows Leif Erikson, Freydís and Harald Hardrada; a young William the Conqueror, a descendant of Rollo, turns up too.

Which actor plays the boat-builder Floki in the TV series Vikings?

Gustaf Skarsgård, a son of Stellan, plays Floki through all six seasons; the character builds Ragnar's first raiding ship and later sails to Iceland.

Medieval genealogies make Ragnar's son Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye an ancestor of which king, the first to rule all Norway?

Harald Fairhair descends from Sigurd through a daughter or a great-granddaughter, depending on the saga; either way the link let Norway's kings count Ragnar among their forefathers.

Which artist performs 'If I Had a Heart', the title theme of the TV series Vikings?

Fever Ray, the solo project of Sweden's Karin Dreijer, released the song in 2008 as a debut single; it was not written for the show, which adopted the brooding track for its opening credits five years later.

Who plays King Ecbert of Wessex, added as a series regular in Vikings' second season?

Linus Roache played Ecbert up to the king's last stand: he hands the crown to his son, stays behind to face the invading Vikings and is allowed to choose his own death.

Which WWE wrestler joined Vikings' fifth season as the warrior Kjetill Flatnose?

Adam Copeland, who wrestled as Edge, turned to acting after doctors ended his ring career in 2011; he plays one of the settlers Floki leads to Iceland, and went back to wrestling in 2020.