Lendle

Written as a kind of sequel to The Saga of the Volsungs, and following directly on from the former in some manuscripts, The Saga of Ragnar Shaggy-breeches exists in an uneasy half-and-half world between legend and history. Although some characters in The Saga of the Volsungs are based on historical persons, its central hero, Sigurd the Dragonslayer, is a mythic superhuman. Ragnar Shaggy-breeches, however, and his ambitious sons, Ivar the Boneless and his brothers, are identifiable as historical figures – although Ragnar himself is as much of a dragonslayer as Sigurd, and his sons fight even stranger monsters. The link between Sigurd and Ragnar is a little tenuous, and entirely unhistorical; Aslaug, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild becomes Ragnar’s second wife under bizarre circumstances. Ivar himself appears in English history as a Viking invader who killed various Anglo Saxon kings, including the St Edmund after whom Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk gets its name. In the saga, however, his transformed into a cunning trickster who uses a trick common to Germanic origin legends to become the founder of London. His father Ragnar is held to be based on a historical Viking leader who besieged Paris, while his murderer Ella is also historical – although there is no reason to believe they ever met, let alone that Ella consigned Ragnar to death in a snake pit. It is clear that the Christian Scandinavians of the High Middle Ages, the period during which the sagas achieved their written form, were ashamed of their heathen ancestors’ excesses, and Ivar’s character in particular receives a whitewash. In the end, he becomes a kind of saintly figure himself, whose uncorrupted body magically guards England from invasion until William the Conqueror disinters him.The saga itself is something of a hotchpotch, with its anonymous author apparently drawing upon writers such as the Dane Saxo Grammaticus and the Norman Dudo of San Quentin, and it has never had the literary acclaim of The Saga of the Volsungs. Nevertheless, it has been adapted on several occasions in recent decades, being the basis for the 1958 film The Vikings, and more recently the Vikings TV series. Both of these adaptations have been criticised on grounds of historic accuracy, but when their source is taken into account, with its wild and unlikely legendary narrative, they seem very sober in comparison. To do the saga justice would require the talents of more idiosyncratic filmmakers; a Ray Harryhausen, if not a Terry Gilliam, would be required to adequately realise Sibilia, the giant troll-cow whose frenzied mooing drives her enemies insane…