Ivar Boneless was the son of a Viking hero and legendary Danish and Swedish king, Ragnar Lodbrok who was a well-known figure of Viking Age Old Norse poetry and Icelandic sagas. He is famous in traditional literature for conducting raids against the Holy Roman Empire and the British Isles in the ninth century. Ragnar, meaning Raven, and Lodbrok, meaning leather trousers, got his name from the unusual protective clothing he wore and the giant snake of his first kill. The serpent stood guard at the home of Geatish jarl Herrauð’s daughter, Thora Borgarhjort, whom he took as his first wife.
Aslaug, Ragnar’s third wife was described as a völva, a seer or clairvoyant, and bore him a son, Ivar Boneless. After a long separation, while Ragnar was raiding in England, Aslaug asked her husband to wait three nights before consummating their marriage. Ragnar was very passionate and could not wait, and the result was that their son Ivar, was born with weak bones.
