48 Fun Facts About Ragnar Lothbrok

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

Hairy-breeches is the literal sense of loðbrók: loð means shaggy hair or fur and brók means breeches, the trousers behind the sagas' famous nickname.

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, who is named as Ragnar's father, a legendary king of the Swedes?

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

In the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok, which jarl's daughter becomes Ragnar's first wife?

Thora Borgarhjort, daughter of Jarl Herrauðr of Götaland, bore Ragnar the sons Eirik and Agnar before dying of illness.

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

Sigurd Fafnesbane, slayer of the dragon Fafnir, fathered Aslaug with the valkyrie Brynhildr; the girl was raised in secret as Kráka.

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, whom the peasant couple Áki and Grima murdered for the harp's supposed treasure before raising the girl as Kráka.

How did Kráka come to Ragnar neither dressed nor undressed, fasting nor eating, alone nor in company?

In a net, biting an onion, with a dog, Kráka met all three conditions: the net was neither clothing nor nakedness, the onion neither a meal nor a fast, the dog not quite company.

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

Gesta Danorum, Saxo's sixteen-book Latin history of the Danes, devotes much of Book Nine to Ragnar and presents him as a king of Denmark.

In Saxo's account, Ragnar wins Lagertha only after killing which two guardians at her home?

A bear and a great hound guarded Lagertha's door; Saxo says Ragnar speared the bear and strangled the hound before she agreed to marry him.

Per Saxo, Lagertha first fought at Ragnar's side to avenge whose death at the hands of King Frø?

His grandfather Siward, a Norwegian king, had been killed by Frø of Sweden; Ragnar came to avenge him and Lagertha fought among the women who joined his army.

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?

The real Ælla died on 21 March 867 when the Vikings took York.

Per the sagas, Ragnar sailed to conquer England with how many ships, trying not to be outdone by his sons?

Two large ships were all Ragnar took, Aslaug and his men warning that so small a force would be his undoing; he was captured soon after landing.

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

Krákumál, 'Kráka's lay', has Ragnar recount his battles in twenty-nine stanzas; scholars date the poem to 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 is first hinted at in Sigvat Thordarson's Knutsdrapa of about 1038, which says one of Ragnar's sons had the eagle cut on the king's back.

In what year did the Great Heathen Army, said to be led by Ragnar's sons, land in England?

The Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865, and the East Anglians made peace and supplied the invaders with horses.

The son of Ragnar who led the Great Heathen Army is often identified with Ímar, a Viking king of which city?

That would make him founder of the Uí Ímair dynasty that ruled York and Dublin.

According to the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, why was Ivar born 'boneless'?

His father ignored Aslaug's three-night wait, the saga says, and the boy was born with cartilage where bone should be; another theory blames a scribe misreading Latin exosus, 'hated'.

Björn Ironside co-led a famous Viking raid of 859–861 into which sea?

The Mediterranean raid of 859-861 took Björn's fleet through the Strait of Gibraltar to plunder the coasts of Iberia, Francia and Italy, including the town of Luna.

Björn Ironside's foster-father and fellow raider in the sagas and Norman chronicles was which Viking?

According to late sagas Björn became King of Sweden and Uppsala.

Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye's nickname refers to a mark in his left eye said to resemble what?

An ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail, was said to ring the pupil of his left eye; Aslaug foretold the mark before his birth.

Per the Annals of St Neots, the 'Raven' banner captured from Ragnar's sons in 878 was woven in a day by whom?

His three daughters, the annals say, wove the raven banner in a single noon; a live raven seemed to flap on it before a victory and hang limp before a defeat.

A Viking leader named Reginherus, often tentatively identified with Ragnar, besieged which city in 845?

Paris fell to Reginherus's fleet of 120 ships on Easter Sunday 845, and the Franks paid 7,000 livres of silver to make the Vikings leave.

How many Frankish prisoners did Reginherus hang on an island in the Seine in 845?

The 111 prisoners were hanged on an island in the Seine as a sacrifice to the Norse gods, terrifying the Frankish army sent to stop the raiders.

Which Frankish king assembled an army to stop Reginherus reaching the Abbey of Saint-Denis in 845?

Charles the Bald divided his army along both banks of the Seine; after the Vikings routed the smaller half, he chose to pay tribute rather than fight on.

Ragnar's fleet in 845 owed allegiance to which Danish king?

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

The only runic inscription mentioning Lodbrok is carved on 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.

A runic inscription calling Lodbrok 'her' led some scholars to theorise what about the name?

The name originally referred to a woman, on this reading: Loðbróka would be a female name, and the famous sons would be hers rather than a male Ragnar's.

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

Völsunga saga precedes the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok in the single medieval manuscript that preserves both, and the later saga continues its story.

In the saga, which Swedish king kills Ragnar's sons Eirik and Agnar?

Eysteinn Beli, king at Uppsala, defeated and killed Eirik and Agnar when they invaded Sweden; Aslaug then urged her own sons to avenge their half-brothers.

In Saxo's version, which of Ragnar's sons was captured by the Hellespontian prince Daxon and burnt alive?

Saxo's Ragnar also fights ski-borne Finnish archers and weather-working Bjarmians in the Arctic north.

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.

Which actor plays Ragnar in the 1958 film The Vikings?

Ernest Borgnine plays a Ragnar who leaps into a pit of wolves sword in hand; Kirk Douglas is his son Einar and Tony Curtis the half-brother Eric.

Who created and wrote the History Channel series Vikings, in which Ragnar is the central character?

Michael Hirst, who had written The Tudors and the film Elizabeth, created Vikings and scripted every episode of its six seasons.

Which Australian actor plays Ragnar Lothbrok in Vikings?

Travis Fimmel had been a Calvin Klein underwear model and a promising Australian rules footballer before acting.

In the TV series, 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.

Vikings premiered on the History Channel on what date?

March 3, 2013 was the premiere of 'Rites of Passage', the first of 89 episodes; the series ended on December 30, 2020 with its final batch released to streaming.

Which event in Vikings' second episode marks the start of the Viking Age in the series?

The raid on Lindisfarne in 793 is dramatised in the second episode, 'Wrath of the Northmen', with Ragnar's crew looting the monastery and taking the monk Athelstan.

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

Katheryn Winnick, a Canadian martial-arts black belt, played Lagertha across all six seasons and directed the eighth episode of season six.

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 episode fifteen, 'All His Ghosts', after he surrendered himself to King Ecbert; the show then followed his sons.

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

Valhalla, as in Vikings: Valhalla, picks up more than a century later with Leif Erikson, Freydís and Harald Hardrada, and ran for three seasons through 2024.

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.

In which English county was a possible Ivar burial mound found with 250-plus skeletons in 1686?

Derbyshire's Repton, where the Great Heathen Army wintered in 873-874, yielded a mass grave of some 250 skeletons around a high-status burial first opened in 1686.

Vikings began filming in July 2012 at which newly built studio complex?

Ashford Studios in County Wicklow was purpose-built for the series in 2012, and the production stayed there for all six seasons.

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

Linus Roache, an English actor known for Law & Order, played Ecbert from the second season until the king's death late in the fourth season.

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

Adam Copeland, who wrestled as Edge, joined in season five as Kjetill Flatnose, one of the settlers Floki leads to Iceland.