General Notes

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See Snorre's Saga and the Icelandic Landnamobok (Book of Se
ttlment).
"Greatest of all Vikings" (Makers of England, Arthur Bryant
, p. 95, Doubleday & Comp., 1962)
"Royalty for Commoners", Roderick W. Stuart, 1992, 2nd edit
ion.
"Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire", Foster, 18
74, 2 vols. vol1: West Riding, vol2: North and East Ridings
"Ancestral roots of certain American colonists who came t
o America before 1700", Weis, 1992, seventh edition.
Was RAGNAR LOTHBROK historical?
One of the things that makes this a difficult question to d
iscuss is
that the question "Was Ragnar Lothbrok historical?"  is its
elf
somewhat ambiguous.  Thus, before the question can be discu
ssed, the
question has to first be more clearly defined.  To mentio
n two
opposite extremes, a skeptic could ask whether or not every
thing which
is said about the character of Ragnar Lothbrok is historica
lly
accurate, observe that the answer is certainly "no", and th
en claim
victory.  At the other extreme, a proponent of a historica
l Ragnar
Lothbrok could ask if a Viking by the name of Ragnar ever e
xisted,
point out that a Viking having the correct name ("Reginheri
") appears
in the Frankish annals, and  claim that Ragnar Lothbrok wa
s therefore
historical.  Neither of these two extremes is acceptable i
n a serious
argument on the subject, so I will discuss the subject fro
m the
following middle ground.  The criteria which I will use ar
e that in
order for Ragnar Lothbrok to be considered as historical, t
here should
be a historically documented person of that name who actual
ly
performed a significant number of the deeds attributed to t
he
legendary Ragnar Lothbrok.  I think these are reasonable cr
iteria, and
the  remainder of this discussion is based on these princip
les.  Now,
to answer the question:  No, Ragnar Lothbrok does not appea
r to be a
historical figure, based on the above criteria.  I will giv
e some
comments as to why I have this opinion, and then mention so
me reading
material for those who want more.
RAGNAR
The contemporary historical records of the ninth century (w
hen Ragnar
Lothbrok supposedly lived) show only one Viking of the corr
ect name, a
Viking named "Reginheri" (a Latin form equivalent to the na
me Ragnar)
in France WHO DIED IN THE YEAR 845, according to the contem
porary
Frankish annals.  The emphasized words in the previous sent
ence are
often conveninetly overlooked by those who wish to use Regi
nheri as a
historical prototype for Ragnar Lothbrok.  Since Reginher
i died in
France in the year  845, he cannot have participated in th
e later
events which form the principal part of the legendary Ragnar
Lothbrok's exploits.  In addition, there is no good evidenc
e that
Reginheri was the father of any of the individuals who late
r came to
be regarded as sons of Ragnar Lothbrok.  Thus, Reginheri fa
ils to
satisfy the criterion mentioned above.  No other historica
l Norseman
named Ragnar is known for the appropriate time period.
LOTHBROK
No contemporary record gives this name, and it is significa
nt that
when the name finally does make it appearance in the record
s 200 years
later, it stands alone.  (Ari, writing in the twelfth centu
ry, was the
first known writer to make Ragnar and Lothbrok the same per
son.)  The
name first appears (as "Lothbroc") in "Gesta Normannorum Du
cum", by
William of Jumieges, writing about 1070, in which Lothbro
c is called
he father of Bjorn Ironside.  (A Viking named Bjorn is veri
fied by the
contemporary chronicles, but without the nickname.)  Adam o
f Bremen,
writing soon afterward, called Ivar the son of "Lodparchus"
.  Besides
the fact that this Lothbrok is not attested in any of the c
ontemporary
sources, there seems to be another problem, and that is tha
t the name
("Lothbroka") appears to be a women's name.  See the articl
e on
Ragnars saga" by Rory McTurk in "Medi