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48 free Ragnar Lothbrok trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ragnar Lothbrok trivia quiz covers the legendary Viking from three angles: the medieval sources (the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok, the Tale of Ragnar's Sons, Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum and the death-song Krákumál), the history behind them (the 845 siege of Paris, the Great Heathen Army of 865, King Ælla of Northumbria and the very real sons Ivar the Boneless, Björn Ironside, Halfdan, Ubba and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye), and the History Channel drama Vikings, in which Travis Fimmel made the farmer from Kattegat a household name. Expect questions on where the nickname 'hairy-breeches' comes from, the riddle Ragnar set for Kráka, why the serpents would not bite him, what Lagertha kept guarding her house, and how much of any of it modern historians believe. BrainPickle also has a broader Vikings quiz if you want the whole Viking Age. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and each question carries a citation to the page it came from.
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Q 01What does the Old Norse nickname 'loðbrók' literally mean?
Hairy-breeches
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.
Q 02According to the sagas, what was Ragnar doing when he earned his nickname?
Fighting a giant serpent
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.
Q 03In the sagas, who is named as Ragnar's father, a legendary king of the Swedes?
Sigurd Ring
Sigurd Ring is said to have beaten his uncle Harald Wartooth at the Battle of Brávellir.
Q 04In the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok, which jarl's daughter becomes Ragnar's first wife?
Thora
Thora Borgarhjort, daughter of Jarl Herrauðr of Götaland, bore Ragnar the sons Eirik and Agnar before dying of illness.
Q 05Ragnar's wife Kráka turns out to be Aslaug, the secret daughter of which hero?
Sigurd Fafnesbane
Sigurd Fafnesbane, slayer of the dragon Fafnir, fathered Aslaug with the valkyrie Brynhildr; the girl was raised in secret as Kráka.
Q 06How was the infant Aslaug smuggled to Norway by her foster-father Heimer in the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok?
Hidden inside a harp
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.
Q 07How 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
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.
Q 08Saxo Grammaticus's Latin history of about 1200, with Ragnar in Book Nine, is titled what?
Gesta Danorum
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.
Q 09In Saxo's account, Ragnar wins Lagertha only after killing which two guardians at her home?
A bear and a great hound
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.
Q 10Per Saxo, Lagertha first fought at Ragnar's side to avenge whose death at the hands of King Frø?
His grandfather Siward
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.
Q 11How does the legendary Ragnar die?
Thrown into a pit of snakes
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.
Q 12Which king of Northumbria is said to have executed Ragnar?
Ælla
The real Ælla died on 21 March 867 when the Vikings took York.
Q 13Per the sagas, Ragnar sailed to conquer England with how many ships, trying not to be outdone by his sons?
Two
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.
Q 21Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye's nickname refers to a mark in his left eye said to resemble what?
An ouroboros
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.
Q 22Per 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
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.
Q 23A Viking leader named Reginherus, often tentatively identified with Ragnar, besieged which city in 845?
Paris
Q 14Ragnar's death-song, put in his mouth as he lies dying, is which skaldic poem?
Krákumál
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.
Q 15Ragnar's sons are said to have executed the Northumbrian king by which gruesome method?
The blood eagle
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.
Q 16In what year did the Great Heathen Army, said to be led by Ragnar's sons, land in England?
865
The Great Heathen Army landed in East Anglia in 865, and the East Anglians made peace and supplied the invaders with horses.
Q 17The son of Ragnar who led the Great Heathen Army is often identified with Ímar, a Viking king of which city?
Dublin
That would make him founder of the Uí Ímair dynasty that ruled York and Dublin.
Q 18According to the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, why was Ivar born 'boneless'?
His father ignored Aslaug's three-night wait
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'.
Q 19Björn Ironside co-led a famous Viking raid of 859–861 into which sea?
The Mediterranean
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.
Q 20Björn Ironside's foster-father and fellow raider in the sagas and Norman chronicles was which Viking?
Hastein
According to late sagas Björn became King of Sweden and Uppsala.
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.
Q 24How many Frankish prisoners did Reginherus hang on an island in the Seine in 845?
111
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.
Q 25Which Frankish king assembled an army to stop Reginherus reaching the Abbey of Saint-Denis in 845?
Charles the Bald
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.
Q 26Ragnar's fleet in 845 owed allegiance to which Danish king?
Horik I
Horik I is himself one of the candidates scholars have proposed for a 'historical Ragnar'.
Q 27The only runic inscription mentioning Lodbrok is carved on which prehistoric tomb?
Maeshowe on Orkney
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.
Q 28A runic inscription calling Lodbrok 'her' led some scholars to theorise what about the name?
The name originally referred to a woman
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.
Q 29The 13th-century Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok is written as a sequel to which other saga?
Völsunga
Völsunga saga precedes the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok in the single medieval manuscript that preserves both, and the later saga continues its story.
Q 30In the saga, which Swedish king kills Ragnar's sons Eirik and Agnar?
Eysteinn Beli
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.