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Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye
Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye ( non, Sigurðr ormr í auga) or Sigurd Áslaugsson was a semi-legendary Viking warrior and Danish king active from the mid to late 9th century. According to multiple saga sources and Scandinavian histories from the 12th century and later, he is one of the sons of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok and Áslaug. His historical prototype might have been the Danish King Sigfred who ruled briefly in the 870s. Norwegian kings' genealogies of the Middle Ages name him as an ancestor of Harald Fairhair and used his mother's supposed ancestry the Völsung to create an ancestry between Harald and his descendants and Odin. Early life "Snake-in-the-eye" as part of Sigurd's name denoted a physical characteristic. He was born with a mark in his eye, described as the image of the ouroboros (a snake biting its own tail). According to ''Ragnar Lothbrok’s saga'', while Sigurd was just a boy, his half-brothers Eric and Agnar were killed by Swedish king Eysteinn Beli (al ...
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Legendary Kings Of Denmark
The legendary kings of Denmark are the predecessors of Gorm the Old, a king who reigned ca. 930s to 950s and is the earliest reliably attested Danish ruler. Historicity of the earlier legendary kings are thus half legend and half history. The accounts of the Danish kings are confusing and contradictory, and so this presentation tries to separate the various sources from each other. Different sources sometimes mention the same kings. Multiple sources Many kings are mentioned by multiple sources, but are for various reasons still considered more legendary than historical kings of Denmark * Harthacnut (''Hardeknud'') (c. 916 – c. 936), the father of Gorm the Old according to multiple sources. The main question is whether he was king of Denmark or only king of some part of Denmark. His parentage is also disputed, as either from an unknown king Sweyn, or from either Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye or king Erik, both said to be children of Ragnar Lodbrok. * Sigtrygg Gnupasson, depose ...
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Eysteinn Beli
Eysteinn Beli or ''Eysteinn hinn illráði'', Swedish: ''Östen Illråde'' (ill-ruler) or ''Östen Beli'', was a semi-legendary king of Sweden who would have ruled in the late 8th century. ''Krákumál'' According to ''Krákumál'' (stanza 7), he fell at Ulleråker south of Uppsala. Ragnarssona þáttr The apparently oldest version, ''Ragnarssona þáttr'', relates that Ragnar Lodbrok's sons had left Sweden and conquered Zealand, Reidgotaland (here Jutland), Gotland, Öland and all the minor islands. Ivar the Boneless, the leader, then settled at Lejre with his brothers. Ragnar was jealous with his sons' successes, and set Eysteinn as the jarl of Sweden, telling him to protect Sweden from his sons. He then went east across the Baltic Sea to pillage and to show his own skills. Ragnar's sons Eric and Agnar then sailed into Lake Mälaren and sent a message to king Eysteinn that they wanted him to submit to Ragnar's sons, and Eric said that he wanted Eysteinn's daughter Borghild ...
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Blood Eagle
The blood eagle was a method of ritually executing a chosen member as detailed in late skaldic poetry. According to the two instances mentioned in the Sagas, the victims (in both cases members of royal families) were placed in a prone position, their ribs severed from the spine with a sharp tool, and their lungs pulled through the opening to create a pair of "wings". Until the 1980s, there was continuing debate about whether the rite was a literary invention, a mistranslation of the original texts, or an authentic historical practice. Accounts The blood-eagle ritual-killing rite appears in just two instances in Norse literature, plus oblique references some have interpreted as referring to the same practice. The primary versions share certain commonalities: the victims are both noblemen (Halfdan Haaleg or "Long-leg" was a prince; Ælla of Northumbria a king), and both of the executions were in retaliation for the murder of a father. Einarr and Halfdan There are two sources that ...
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Ragnarssona þáttr
The ''Tale of Ragnar's sons'' ( non, Ragnarssona þáttr) is an Old Norse story about Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Summary Ragnar Lodbrok When Sigurd Ring 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 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 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 s ...
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York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a minster, castle, and city walls. It is the largest settlement and the administrative centre of the wider City of York district. The city was founded under the name of Eboracum in 71 AD. It then became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Deira, Northumbria, and Scandinavian York. In the Middle Ages, it became the northern England ecclesiastical province's centre, and grew as a wool-trading centre. In the 19th century, it became a major railway network hub and confectionery manufacturing centre. During the Second World War, part of the Baedeker Blitz bombed the city; it was less affected by the war than other northern cities, with several historic buildings being gutted and restore ...
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North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north. It is more than long and wide, covering . It hosts key north European shipping lanes and is a major fishery. The coast is a popular destination for recreation and tourism in bordering countries, and a rich source of energy resources, including wind and wave power. The North Sea has featured prominently in geopolitical and military affairs, particularly in Northern Europe, from the Middle Ages to the modern era. It was also important globally through the power northern Europeans projected worldwide during much of the Middle Ages and into the modern era. The North Sea was the centre of the Vikings' rise. The Hanseatic League, the Dutch Republic, and the British each sought to gain command of the North Sea and access t ...
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Ubba
Ubba (Old Norse: ''Ubbi''; died 878) was a 9th-century Viking and one of the commanders of the Great Heathen Army that invaded Anglo-Saxon England in the 860s. The Great Army appears to have been a coalition of warbands drawn from Scandinavia, Ireland, the Irish Sea region and Continental Europe. There is reason to suspect that a proportion of the Viking forces specifically originated in Frisia, where some Viking commanders are known to have held fiefdoms on behalf of the Franks. Some sources describe Ubba as ' of the Frisians, which could be evidence that he also associated with a Frisian benefice. In 865, the Great Army, apparently led by Ivar the Boneless, overwintered in the Kingdom of East Anglia, before invading and destroying the Kingdom of Northumbria. In 869, having been bought off by the Mercians, the Vikings conquered the East Angles, and in the process killed their king, Edmund, a man who was later regarded as a saint and martyr. While near-contemporary sources do no ...
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Ælla Of Northumbria
Ælla (or Ælle or Aelle, fl. 866; died 21 March 867) was King of Northumbria, a kingdom in medieval England, during the middle of the 9th century. Sources on Northumbrian history in this period are limited, and so Ælla's ancestry is not known and the dating of the beginning of his reign is questionable. In addition to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Ælla is also mentioned in Scandinavian sources, such as the Norse sagas. According to the latter, Ælla captured the legendary Swedish-Danish Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok and put him to death in a pit of snakes. The historical invasion of Northumbria in 866 occurred in retaliation for Ragnar's execution, according to ''Ragnarssona þáttr'' (''The Tale of Ragnar's Sons''). While Norse sources claim that Ragnar's sons tortured Ælla to death by the method of the blood eagle, Anglo-Saxon accounts maintain that he died in battle at York on 21 March 867. Concerning the Norse claim, Roberta Frank reviewed the historical evidence for the ...
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Hellespont
The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; grc-x-classical, Ἑλλήσποντος, translit=Hellēspontos, lit=Sea of Helle), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey that forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. Together with the Bosporus, the Dardanelles forms the Turkish Straits. One of the world's narrowest straits used for international navigation, the Dardanelles connects the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and Mediterranean seas while also allowing passage to the Black Sea by extension via the Bosporus. The Dardanelles is long and wide. It has an average depth of with a maximum depth of at its narrowest point abreast the city of Çanakkale. Th ...
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Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia'' (Penguin, 1995), p.14–16.Kievan Rus
Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic, it was ruled by the , fou ...
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Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the ''Gesta Danorum'', the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of ''Hamlet'' by Shakespeare. Life The '' Jutland Chronicle'' gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand. It is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a common name in medieval Denmark. The name ''Grammaticus'' ("the learned") was first given to him in the ''Jutland Chronicle'' and the ''Sjælland Chronicle'' makes reference to Saxo ''cognomine Longus'' ("with the byname 'the tall'"). He lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened ...
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Björn Ironside
according to Norse legends, was a Norse Viking chief and Swedish king. According to the 12th- and 13th-century Scandinavian histories, he was the son of notorious Viking king Ragnar Lodbrok and lived in the 9th century, between 855 and 858. Björn Ironside is said to have been the first ruler of the Swedish Munsö dynasty. In the early 18th century, a barrow on the island of Munsö was claimed by antiquarians to be ''Björn Järnsidas hög'' or Björn Ironside's barrow.Lagerquist 1997:24 Medieval sources refer to Björn Ironside's sons and grandsons, including Erik Björnsson and Björn at Haugi. Icelandic sagas claim that Björn was the ancestor of the house of Munsö, the line of kings that ruled in Sweden until c. 1060. Björn in Frankish sources "Berno" was a powerful Viking chieftain and naval commander. He appears in contemporary sources such as ''Annales Bertiniani'' and the '' Chronicon Fontanellense''. He is first mentioned in the summer of 855. The oldest text that d ...
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