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I'm Hello and welcome to the history of Vikings.

Today I'm joined by Dr. Elizabeth Ashman-Roe, a reader in Scandinavian History at the University of Cambridge, where she has been teaching Viking and medieval Scandinavian history since 2008. A graduate of Cornell University, she is the author of numerous articles about Scandinavian history and literature. Her first book was about the Icelandic

illuminated manuscript known as Flatierbrach, and her second book was about Ragnar Ladbrook. She's

also one of the co-authors of a brand new book about Norse Gaelic contacts in the Irish

Sea area. Dr. Elizabeth Ashman-Roe, thank you so much for joining me today.

It's my pleasure. It's always good to talk to people who are interested in the Vikings.

Thank you. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. I've been wanting to speak with you for some time,

and I'm exceptionally excited about our topic of conversation today, which is the

legendary hero of the Old Norse world, Ragnar Lothbrook, someone who, whose name is

familiar with both students of Viking studies and I think more amateur fans of just this

era in history, I think probably due to the history channel's

hit TV show. But Ragnar Lothrake, he is a legendary character in the Old Norse world,

but I'm curious, if we're to look at things historically, where do we get this idea of Ragnar

from? Well, as you mentioned, he's well known now from the television show, and it might be good to

begin by clarifying where the show gets its information from before delving into the historical

sources.

But I can begin by saying that he was a historical figure, and there

is evidence for that. But the show itself comes from two main sources. One is the story of

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