Tale of Ragnar's Sons
The Tale of Ragnar's sons (Old Norse: Ragnarssona þáttr) is an Old Norse story about Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Summary. Ragnar Lodbrok. When Sigurd Hring dies, Ragnar Lodbrok succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark. Many foreign kings come to take parts of his kingdom as they think Ragnar is too young to defend it. Herrauðr, the earl of Götaland and one of Ragnar's vassals had a daughter, Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr, who was very beautiful. He gave her a lindworm, but after some time, it encircles her tower and threatens anyone  who approaches it, except for her servants who fed it with an ox every day. At his symbel, Herrauðr promises his daughter to the man who kills the serpent. When Ragnar hears of this, he goes to Västergötland and dresses himself in shaggy clothes that he had treated with tar and sand. He took a spear and approached the serpent, which then blew poison at him. Ragnar protected himself with his shield and speared the serpent through its heart. He then cut off the serpent's head, and when the people found out what had happened, he married Thora. Then , he proceeded to liberate his kingdom. Ragnar and Thora had two sons, Eirik and Agnar, before Thora fell ill and died when the sons were only a few years old. Ragnar then married Aslaug, also known as Randalin, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhildr. They had 4 sons, Ivar the Boneless, who was the oldest, Bjorn Ironside, Hvitserk, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, so named because his iris had the image of a snake encircling the pupil. The death of Eric and Agnar. Ragnar's sons grow up and in order to show themselves the equals of their father , they war far and wide. They conquer Zealand, Reidgotaland (here Jutland), Gotland, Öland and all the small islands. Ivar, the eldest and cleverest, is their leader and he installs himself at Lejre. As Ragnar does not want his sons to overshadow him, he appoints Eysteinn Beli as the king of Sweden and tells him to protect it from his sons. One summer when Ragnar is pillaging in the Baltic region, his sons Eric and Agnar came into lake Mälaren. They send a messenger to Gamla Uppsala asking Eysteinn to meet them. They then demand that Eysteinn be their vassal and  that he give his daughter Borghild as wife to Eric. Eysteinn consults the Swedish chieftains and they decide to attack Eric and Agnar. After a long battle against overwhelming numbers, Eric is captured and Agnar slain. Eysteinn wants peace and offers his daughter to Eric and as much of Uppsala öd (the network of royal estates that financed the Swedish monarchy) as he wanted. Eric declares that after such a defeat he does not wish to live and asks to be raised on spearpoints above the slain so that he will be pierced and killed. His wish is granted. When  Aslaug and her sons hear the news in Zealand, they decide to avenge the dead brothers. Aslaug calls herself Randalin and rides with 1500 warriors across land, while her sons go in ships. After a long battle Eysteinn dies and Eric and Agnar were avenged. Ragnar is not happy that his sons have taken revenge without his help, and decides to conquer England with only two knarrs, in order to show himself a better warrior than his sons. The ships are built in Vestfold as his kingdom reached Dovre and Lindesnes, and they are enormous ships. Aslaug does not approve  of the idea as the English coast was not fit for such ships, only for longships, but Ragnar does not listen to her advice. Ragnar arrives safely with his army in England and begins to ravage and burn. The death of Ragnar and his sons' vengeance. When king Ælla of Northumbria learns of the pillaging army, he musters an overwhelming force and defeats Ragnar's army. Ragnar is dressed in a silken jacket which Aslaug had made and nothing can pierce it. Finally, he is taken prisoner and thrown into a snake pit. However, as the snakes could not bite  him, the Englishmen take off his clothes and then the snakes kill him. Although It's not certain that Ragnar died this way. Ragnar's three sons he had with Aslaug: Halfdan, Inwaer (Ivar the Boneless), and Hubba (Ubbe)—who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other medieval sources, led a Viking invasion of East Anglia in 865. They may have sought to avenge Ragnar’s death, which may or may not have been murder, or they may have been claiming land to which they believed they had a right as a result of a previous invasion by Ragnar that  may or may not have actually happened. This sort of ambiguity pervades much that is thought to be known about Ragnar, and it has its roots in the European literature created after his death. In the Gesta Danorum (c. 1185) of the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, for example, Ragnar 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 loðbrókar and Þáttr af Ragnarssonum. Ragnar's sons attack England but Ivar does not want to fight as the English army is too large; he fears they will lose and will have to go home again. Ivar, however, stays in England and asks Ælla for weregild, claiming that he can not go home without some compensation to show his brothers. Ivar only asks for as much land as he can cover with an ox's hide. He cuts it into such a fine long string of hide that he can encircle an area so large that  he is able to capture the already existing fortress of York which was the capital of Northumbria, When this is done He allies himself with all of England and finally all the chieftains in the region become loyal to Ivar and his brothers. Then, Ivar tells his brothers to attack England. During the battle Ivar sides with his brothers and so do many of the English chieftains with their people, out of loyalty to Ivar. Ælla is taken captive and in revenge Ragnar's sons carve the blood eagle from him. Ivar becomes king over north-eastern England which his  forefathers owned (i.e. Ivar Vidfamne and Sigurd Hring), and he has two sons, Yngvar and Husto. They obey their father Ivar and torture king Edmund the Martyr and take his realm. Ragnar's sons pillage in England, Wales, France and Italy, until they come to the town of Luna in Italy. When they come back to Scandinavia, they divide the kingdom so that Björn Ironside has Uppsala and Sweden, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye has Zealand, Scania, Halland, Viken, Agder, all the way to Lindesnes and most of Oppland, and Hvitserk receives Reidgotaland (Jutland) and Wendland. Sigurd Snake-in-the -Eye marries king Ælla's daughter Blaeja and they have a son named Harthacnut, who succeeds his father as the king of Zealand, Scania and Halland, but Viken rebels and breaks loose. Harthacanute has a son named Gorm, who is big and strong but not as wise as his ancestors. Sigurd's great-granddaughter marries the Hedmark king Halfdan the Black and the saga concludes with saying that their son eventually became the first king of Norway: Harald Fairhair.