Viking Legend: Ragnar Lothbrok

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ragnor Lothbrook is a legendary Viking figure who straddled the line between myth and reality. His adventures and deeds appear in the Viking sagas, but there is little hard evidence for his existence and according to the different sagas he dies on multiple different occasions and in a variety of grisly ways. His sons including Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Björn Ironside, Ubbe and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye are undoubtedly real historical figures and themselves lived extraordinary lives. Was Ragnar really their father though or were these men trying to harness the power of legend by claiming descent from this great figure? To help explore that question Dan is joined by historian and author Justin Pollard. Amongst many other exciting projects, Justin was the historical advisor on the hit show Vikings which brought the story of Ragnar Lothbrok into the popular consciousness. Just and Dan discuss what evidence there is for the existence of Ragnar Lothbrok, the lives of his sons and how he goes about creating historical drama.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, welcome down to Snow's History.
0:02.4	We're talking today about legendary Viking, the most legendary Viking really,
0:06.4	Ragnar Lothbrok.
0:07.4	A man now immortalized in the Vikings TV show that's been watched by 10-1-1-2 people worldwide.
0:13.9	But a man who does have us with Viking kind of souls have always been into.
0:18.0	He sits at the very cusp of legend and history.
0:20.6	His children or people said to be his children are identifiable.
0:24.9	They are tested to in the sources.
0:26.6	But Ragnar Lothbrok, their father, is, well, he's semi-mythical.
0:31.4	For this episode of History, I thought I'd get to the bottom of Ragnar Lothbrok.
0:35.5	Who is this man who seems to, well, personify the explosion of Viking seafarers out of the Baltic world
0:44.0	and whose sons roamed as far as the Mediterranean, really marking the dawn of this era of Norse expansion?
0:50.9	Of course, the only person I could ask him to podcast through this is the very brilliant Justin Pollard.
0:55.7	He's got the most extraordinary CV.
0:57.3	He works as an archaeologist.
0:59.5	He's one of the geniuses behind the QI show and Channel 4's time team.
1:04.6	He does script consultancy for mega historical films and dramas like Elizabeth,
1:09.4	like Atonement, like Les Mizz, and also History Channel series The Vikings.
1:16.1	He's found time during all that to write books himself and to found the crowd sourcing publisher Unbound,
1:23.2	which is a big success here in the UK.
1:25.6	So great fun to have Justin Pollard in the podcast.
1:27.7	I'm sad I haven't had him until now, but we've got him on the big subject,
	...

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