The stories of Ragnar Lothbrok have become so wrapped in legend that few can tell where the man ends and the myth begins. For centuries, the Norse sagas, poems, and Icelandic chronicles painted him as a terrifying Viking warrior and a Danish king, a man who claimed direct descent from Odin himself. That divine lineage was not mere vanity. It gave his rule legitimacy and struck fear into the hearts of his enemies.
The sagas describe him as the largest and most handsome man ever seen, a warrior of great wisdom, generous to his own men and merciless to his foes. In short, he was the ideal Viking. Yet historians have long struggled to separate fact from fiction. Nearly everything known about Lothbrok comes from semi-legendary sources composed decades or even centuries after his time.
The richest accounts of his deeds come from Icelandic sagas, which described him slaying a giant serpent, sometimes called a dragon, to rescue a beautiful maiden named Thora Borgarhjort. After killing the beast, he won her hand in marriage. Other accounts tell of his first wife, the fierce shield-maiden Lagertha, whom he won by killing a bear and a massive dog that roamed outside her home. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus provided some of the only records of Lothbrok’s turbulent marriages and private life.
He claimed Lothbrok had children with Lagertha before divorcing her. His second wife, Thora, was a princess, the daughter of a Swedish king. Saxo recorded several sons from that marriage, including Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Bjorn Ironside, and Ivar the Boneless. But most historians believe these famous sons had a different mother.
According to the sagas, after Thora died of an unknown illness, Lothbrok fell in love with Kraka, a beautiful and exceptionally wise woman living with peasant farmers. Her real identity was Aslaug, the hidden daughter of the dragon-slayer Sigurd and the warrior Brynhildr. With her, Lothbrok fathered Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironside, and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye. Saxo also recorded a possible fourth wife and a son born from what may have been an extramarital affair.
While the tales of dragon-slaying may be myth, Lothbrok’s sons were certainly real. Multiple chronicles from different times and places confirm that Ivar the Boneless, Ubba, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Fridleif, Halfdan Ragnarsson, and Bjorn Ironside all existed. Because his sons were real, historians have searched for proof that Lothbrok himself was also a real man. One piece of evidence comes from the Chronicon Roskildense, a twelfth-century document describing Lothbrok as the father of the cruel Norse king Ivar and his brothers.
Around 1190, the Danish historian Sven Aggesen became the first person in recorded history to use Lothbrok’s full name as it is known today. His account gained weight through his claim that Lothbrok’s son Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye conquered Denmark, sent its king to Valhalla, married the king’s daughter, and took the throne himself. By the twelfth century, whether real or invented, Lothbrok’s legend had spread throughout the Norse world. Part of the difficulty in confirming his life is that almost all information comes from Norse sources.
The Norman historian William of Jumièges wrote about King Lothbrok of Denmark exiling his son Bjorn Ironside from the kingdom. The chronicles record that Bjorn went raiding from Normandy to the Mediterranean. The German chronicler Adam of Bremen mentioned Lothbrok in passing while writing about Ivar the Boneless and his cruelty toward Christians. The famous stone tomb at Maeshowe in the Orkney Islands contains the only confirmed runic inscription that actually mentions Lothbrok, though the tomb was built long before his time.
The inscription describes Lothbrok’s sons, saying they were bold and that few men matched their strength and skill. This mention has led some to believe Lothbrok may have actually been a shield-maiden. But whatever Lothbrok was, man or legend, he was above all terrifying. Multiple sources confirm he mastered the Viking style of hit-and-run warfare, striking with speed and overwhelming force only when he held the advantage, spreading fear in his opponents before they could even organize a defense.
The siege of Paris in 845 is one of the best-documented Viking raids in history, and it is certainly attributed to Lothbrok. Frankish accounts of the siege specifically name a leader called Raginarius, whom historians hesitate to definitively identify as Ragnar Lothbrok. Yet Lothbrok was the only one who could have done something as terrible and great as what followed. Before reaching Paris, while making his way up the Seine, he raided Rouen.
This forced Charles the Bald to split his army in half, allowing Lothbrok to easily destroy both parts. He did not stop there. Reports indicate he took more than a hundred prisoners and hanged them on an island in the Seine to demoralize the Frankish forces. With his troops defeated and Paris plundered and burned, Charles the Bald had no choice.
He surrendered to Lothbrok. The legendary Viking’s terms were outrageous. Just to make him leave and never return, Charles paid Lothbrok an incredible 7,000 livres of silver, one of the largest ransoms ever paid to the Vikings. The Frankish chroniclers were understandably bitter about the ransom, but if their accounts are accurate, justice came quickly.
They claim that shortly after leaving Paris, Lothbrok fell severely ill and died in Denmark. Christian writers called it divine retribution. But Saxo Grammaticus tells a different story, claiming Lothbrok continued raiding after leaving Paris. Saxo writes that Lothbrok raided the Irish coast in 851 and even established a settlement near modern Dublin.
From there, he sailed back and forth along the Irish and English coasts doing what he did best. The Icelandic sagas support Saxo’s claim that Lothbrok went raiding in England, where they say he met a terrible end. According to these records, the Anglo-Saxon king Aella of Northumbria captured Lothbrok and threw him into a pit of snakes in 865. Other accounts of Lothbrok’s death are less legendary.
One says he likely perished doing what he loved: raiding. According to these stories, he met his end between 852 and 856 in a storm in the Irish Sea. Many scholars agree this version of his final days is probably more accurate. According to the thirteenth-century Icelandic Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok, by the time he sacked Paris, his sons Bjorn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless had already established reputations as fearsome Vikings.
But Lothbrok did not want his sons to overshadow him. So he sailed to conquer England with a small force of men and only two ships. Thus, according to the legend, King Aella was able to defeat him. When Lothbrok’s sons learned of their father’s death, they did what any true Viking would do.
They fell into a rage. They gathered a force of four thousand fighters and sailed toward England. The Great Heathen Army was unlike any army the world had seen before. When they reached Thetford, they put their swords to work against their enemies immediately, killing Edmund the Martyr in a famous incident.
Then they marched toward the city of York, where they fulfilled their father’s final prophecy. In that battle, Lothbrok’s sons defeated King Aella and sent him to Valhalla, where Lothbrok was waiting for him. This victory paved the way for Viking occupation and eventually led to the creation of the Danelaw. Ivar led the Great Heathen Army for five more years, eventually dying in Dublin in 873.
After that, Halfdan took command of the Norse forces and conquered Wessex. When the Danish king Bagsecg fell during the Battle of Ashdown, Halfdan seized the opportunity to make peace with the new and powerful King of Wessex, Alfred the Great. Meanwhile, the rest of Lothbrok’s sons were causing chaos elsewhere. Between 857 and 859, the chronicles record a fearsome Viking and skilled naval commander who raided Paris and its surroundings.
The chronicle identifies this warrior only as Bjorn. According to some sagas, Bjorn Ironside became king of Sweden and Uppsala, then passed the crown to his son Erik. However, historians note that if these accounts are taken literally, they contain chronological inconsistencies. The legend of Ragnar Lothbrok, with its tales of dragon-slaying and prophecy, may have been carefully constructed to pave the way for Viking raids.
Some historians believe most of what is known about Lothbrok was political propaganda. If so, it was effective. Many sagas record that the mere mention of his name was enough to spread panic among his enemies. For centuries after his death, across the Norse lands, everyone wanted a piece of Lothbrok’s glory.
Kings, chieftains, and the fiercest Viking warriors all claimed descent from the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok.