Book 1: Ragnar 'Lothbrok'

2.0 PRINCE RAGNAR SIGURDSON (CIRCA 810 AD)

"In ancient times, Norway was called Thule and was thought to be an island instead of a peninsula and we call it Thule in this Chapter and shall explore how it may have first become the Nor'Way and later Norway."

Brian Howard Seibert

(Circa 810 AD) Prince Ragnar was the son of King Sigurd 'Hring' by his first wife, Alfhild. After she died, although his father was old, he fell deeply in love with young Princess Alfsol, the daughter of King Alf of Jutland, and, when she became of marriageable age the two old kings arranged a bride-price for her. But her brothers refused to give over one so young to one so old in matrimony, and, when King Sigurd 'Hring' defeated the brothers in battle on a plain near Jelling in Jutland, they poisoned her rather than give her up to become his wife. The king then carried her sweet young body on board his ship and sailed it out into open sea and plunged his sword into his own broken heart, dying beside the body of his beloved Princess Alfsol.

Prince Ragnar became King Ragnar while still a youth in minority so, a guardianship was set up for his rule in Liere over Skane and Zealand. At this time, King Frey of Sweden, after slaying Siward, the Vik King of Stavanger Fjord in Rogaland, South Thule, enslaved all the wives and daughters of King Siward's kinsfolk and put them in a brothel temple he dedicated to Freya, goddess of fertility and delivered them to public outrage. Princes and great warriors from all over Scandinavia came to the temple to make their dedications and have their way with Thulian royalty. When King Ragnar heard of this, he wanted to go to Thule to avenge his grandfather, King Siward, but his guardians would not give him leave to go, saying it was too dangerous for one so young. Once young Ragnar turned twelve, he gained the age of majority and led an army into Thule to drive out the Swedes. As he came, many of the older matrons and young maidens who had either suffered insult to their persons or feared imminent peril to their chastity, hastened eagerly to his camp, all dressed in male attire, declaring that they would prefer death to outrage. Nor was young King Ragnar, loath to use the brave shield-maidens against King Frey of Sweden and he welcomed the help of those women whose shame he had come to avenge. Among them was Princess Ladgerda, a skilled shield-maiden, who, though a young woman, had the courage of a man, and she fought in the front ranks among the bravest of the warriors, with her hair falling freely from under her helm and flowing loosely over her shoulders. All marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed her gender.

Once King Ragnar had justly cut down King Frey, the murderer of his grandfather, he asked many questions of his fellow soldiers concerning the maiden whom he had seen so forward in the fray, and he declared that he had gained the victory by the might of that one woman. Ragnar had to return to Liere, but learning that she was of noble birth, he steadfastly wooed her by means of messengers. She spurned his mission in her heart, but feigned compliance, hoping to offset a betrothal her parents had made for her with a young Jarl of Lade in Trondheim Fjord in the north. Giving false answers, she made her panting wooer confident that he would gain his desires; but ordered that a ferocious bear and a fierce dog be set at the porch of her longhall, thinking to guard her own chastity against the ardour of a lover by means of beasts to block the way. Ragnar, comforted by the good news of her false responses, sailed once more across the Skagerrak Sea, and, telling his men to stop in Gaulardale, as her valley was called, he went to the hall of the maiden alone. There the beasts met him, and he was attacked first by the fierce dog and he wrung its neck, then he was charged by the ferocious bear and he thrust it through with his spear and the bear died face down at his feet. When Princess Ladgerda saw how easily King Ragnar had destroyed the vicious beasts and she saw the bear lying facedown at his feet, she foresaw that he would give her a son that would be named after the bear. Thus he wedded the shield-maiden in reward of the peril he had overcome. By this marriage he had two daughters and a son Ladgerda named Fridleif 'Bjorn' , Fridleif after her Anglish Danish father and the byname Bjorn, meaning bear, and they lived three years at peace, but Princess Ladgerda would not leave her Gaulardale Valley in Sogn Fjord and King Ragnar continued his rule in Stavanger Fjord and would visit her when not in Skane or Zealand. Still, young Jarl Haakon of Lade in Trondheim Fjord would not give up his betrothal claim to Princess Ladgerda and it was a source of friction between them.