Editing Ragnar Lodbrok (section)

== Sources and historical accuracy ==
[[File:Rayner Lothbroc & Kraka by August Malmström c 1880.jpg|upright|thumb|left|Ragnar receives [[Aslaug|Kráka]] (Aslaug), as imagined by [[August Malmström]].]]
[[File:Ragnar Lodbroks död by Hugo Hamilton.jpg|thumb|right|19th-century artist's impression of Ælla of Northumbria's execution of Ragnar Lodbrok]]
Whereas Ragnar's sons Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Björn Ironside, Ubba and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye are historical figures, opinion regarding their father is divided. Contemporary academia regards most of the stories about him to be fiction. According to [[Hilda Ellis Davidson]], writing in 1979, "Certain scholars in recent years have come to accept at least part of Ragnar's story as based on historical fact."<ref name="auto1">Davidson p. 277</ref><!-- A generation later, however, Katherine Holman wrote in 2003: <blockquote>Although his sons are historical figures, there is no evidence that Ragnar himself ever lived and he seems to be an amalgam of historical figures and literary invention.<ref name="Z">Holman 2003 p. 220</ref></blockquote> First of all, this does not contradict what Ellis Davidson writes, and the claim of any change in scholarly views is not covered by the reference-->

The most significant medieval sources that mention Ragnar include:
* Book IX of the {{Lang|la|[[Gesta Danorum]]}}, a 12th-century work by the Christian Danish chronicler {{lang|la|[[Saxo Grammaticus]]|italic=no}}
* the ''[[Tale of Ragnar's Sons|Tale of Ragnar's sons]]'' ({{lang|non|Ragnarssona þáttr}}), a [[legendary saga]]
* the ''[[Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok]]'', another saga, a sequel to the {{lang|non|[[Völsunga saga]]}}
* the {{lang|non|[[Ragnarsdrápa]]}}, a [[skaldic poem]] of which only fragments remain, attributed to the 9th-century poet [[Bragi Boddason]]
* the {{lang|non|[[Krákumál]]}}, Ragnar's death-song, an old and mysterious skaldic poem

In her commentary on Saxo's {{Lang|la|[[Gesta Danorum]]}}, Davidson notes that Saxo's coverage of Ragnar's legend in book IX of the {{Lang|la|Gesta}} appears to be an attempt to consolidate many of the confusing and contradictory events and stories known to the chronicler into the reign of one king, Ragnar. That is why many acts ascribed to Ragnar in the {{Lang|la|Gesta}} can be associated, through other sources, with various figures, some of whom are more historically tenable.<ref name="auto1"/>

The candidates scholars like to associate with the "historical Ragnar" include:
* the ''Reginherus'' or ''Ragnar'' who [[Siege of Paris (845)|besieged Paris]] in 845
* the Danish King [[Horik I]] (d. 854)
* King [[Reginfrid]] (d. 814), a king who ruled part of Denmark in tandem with his brother [[Harald Klak]], but was expelled by Horik I and his brothers and later fell in a battle against them
* possibly the [[Rognvald Eysteinsson|Ragnall]] (Ragnvald or Ragnar) of the [[Irish Annals]]{{sfn|Davidson|1980|p=277}}

Attempts to reliably associate the legendary Ragnar with one or several of those men have failed because of the difficulty in reconciling the various accounts and their chronology. But the tradition of a Viking hero named Ragnar (or similar) who wreaked havoc in mid-9th-century Europe and who fathered many famous sons is remarkably persistent, and some aspects of it are strengthened by relatively reliable sources, such as Irish historical tradition and, indirectly, the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''.<ref name="auto"/>