History Literature / RagnarLodbrokAndHisSons

* FantasticFruitsAndVegetables: Heimir feeds baby Aslaug with a "wine-leek" (''vinlauk''). This is apparently some kind of super-vegetable which provides a complete and balanced diet to small children.

-->And then when the sons of Ragnar had all given up their lives, their troops who had assisted them were dispersed far and wide, and all of them who had been with the sons of Ragnar thought that there was no worth in other princes. (''Ragnar's Saga'')

* GlorySeeker: The main motive of Ragnar and all his sons is to become famous.

Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons were popular stuff of legend of medieval Northern Europe; however the details of the story vary considerably – especially the number and names of the sons. Nevertheless, many of the episodes are obviously [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory based on history]]: Ragnar is implied to be identical to a certain viking warlord Reginer who sacked Paris in 845, Ivar the Boneless is modelled on a certain "Hinguar"[[note]]A Latinization of "Ingvar", Ivar for short.[[/note]] who, together with his brothers, invaded England in 865, and the Ragnarssons’ foray to the South mirrors a real-life viking invasion of the Mediterranean that occurred in 859-862. Altogether, the saga is cleverly stitched between the age of legend and history – while the Ragnarssons are descended from mythic heroes, they are also (supposedly) the ancestors of the historical royal houses of UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}, Denmark and Sweden.

The sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons are among those medieval works that deal explicitly with viking expeditions (even if they are not strong on the realism), and portrayal of Vikings in fiction often takes inspiration from them. This begins, of course, with all the fictional Viking chiefs called Ragnar.

The 1958 Hollywood epic ''Film/TheVikings'' and 2013 TV series ''Series/{{Vikings}}'' are loosely based on the sagas.

* MadeOfIron: The meaning of Bjorn Ironside's nickname, who was said to be impossible to wound -- even though the saga offers no explanation why this should be so.

* AngelUnaware: The wandering stranger that dissuades the Ragnarssons from attacking Rome is obviously an angel or a saint in disguise.

* EndOfAnAge: The ending suggests that the death of the Ragnarssons marks the end of the ''fornaldar'', the time of heroes.

** Subverted with Björn and Ivar. Björn leads quite succesful campaigns on his own and when he eventually is defeated, he still returns home as a rich and powerful man. Ivar does not join his brother's campaign of vengence against Ælla and later sets out on his own path of vengence gradually undermining Ælla and then incites his brothers to attack the king when he is weak.

* TheConqueror: Ragnar.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: This was undoubtedly relished by the author.

* GlorySeeker: The main motive of Ragnar and all his sons.

* IconicOutfit: The "hairy breeches".

* ManipulativeBastard: Ivar.

* RescueRomance: Ragnar and Thora.

* SnakePit: The manner of Ragnar's death.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Aslaug has inherited the ability to understand the language of the birds from her father.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: ''Ragnar's Saga'' claims that Ivar the Boneless founded London. Nevermind that London goes back at least to Britain's Roman era.
* {{Asexuality}}: According to "Tale of Ragnar's Sons", Ivar the Boneless "had no children, because of the way he was: with no lust or love". This seems to be saying that he was asexual.

* DamselInDistress: Thora Hart-of-the-Town.

** This story may be a mythical retelling on how the ''danelaw'' was founded in England. The historical Ella was a king of Northumberland after all.

* FiveManBand
** TheLeader: Björn Ironside. Doubles as ''TheSmartGuy''
** TheLancer: Hvitserk
** TheSmartGuy: Ivar the Boneless, but arguably also EvilGenious.
** The BigGuy: Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye
** TheChick: Aslaug, litterary the mother of the group. Ivar pretends to be this when with Ælla.
** ThoseTwoGuys: Erik and Agnar.
** TheMentor/SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Ragnar Lothbrok]].

[[caption-width-right:300:"Why did it have to be [[SnakePit snakes]]?"[[hottip:*:"Because we don't have the technology for {{shark pool}}s yet?"]]]]

* TearsOfBlood: Aslaug weeps a single tear of blood for Erik and Agnar.

* CinderellaCircumstances: The way Aslaug/Kraka is raised.

* DragonHoard: The dragon hatched a pile of gold from a single gold coin.

* {{Homage}}: There are several scenes which evoke similar events from ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs'': Aslaug receives a warning by understanding the language of the birds, as did Sigurd after eating Fafnir's heart, and Ragnar's execution by snake pit echoes the death of Gunnar the Niflung in the same way.

* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Aslaug has inherited the ability to understand animal talk from her father.

* {{Homage}}: There are several scenes which evoke similar events from ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs'': Aslaug receives a warning by understanding the language of the birds, as did Sigurd after eating Fafnir's heart, and Ragnar's execution by snake pit echoes the death of Gunnar of Niflung in the same way.

* EndOfAnEra: The ending suggests that the death of the Ragnarssons marks the end of the ''fornaldar'', the time of heroes.