| Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye | |
|---|---|
 Engraving from 1670 | |
| Legendary kings of Denmark | |
| Reign | c. 873? |
| Predecessor | Halfdan Ragnarsson |
| Successor | Harthacnut I,Helge or Olof the Brash |
| Born | Sigurd Áslaugsson |
| Died | 887 AD (killed inFrisia) |
| Dynasty | Sigfredian |
| Father | Ragnar Lodbrok |
| Mother | Aslaug |
| Religion | Norse Paganism |
Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye (Old Norse:Sigurðr ormr í auga) orSigurd Ragnarsson was a semi-legendary Viking warrior and Danish king active from the mid to late 9th century. According to multiplesaga sources andScandinavian histories from the 12th century and later, he is one of the sons of the legendary VikingRagnar Lodbrok andAslaug.[1] His historical prototype might have been the Danish KingSigfred who ruled briefly in the 870s.[2] Norwegian kings' genealogies of the Middle Ages name him as an ancestor ofHarald Fairhair and used his mother's supposed ancestry toVölsung in order to create an ancestry between Harald and his descendants andOdin.
"Snake-in-the-eye" as part of Sigurd's name denoted a physical characteristic. He was born with a mark in his left eye, described as the image of theouroboros (a snake biting its own tail).
According toRagnar Lothbrok's saga, while Sigurd was just a boy, his half-brothersEric and Agnar were killed by Swedish kingEysteinn Beli (also known as Östen). When Áslaug heard the news of Eric and Agnar's death, even though she was not their mother, she cried blood and asked the other sons of Ragnar to avenge their dead brothers. Because the Swedish king controlledUppsala and a holy cow named Sibilja,Ivar the Boneless believed gods were on Eysteinn's side and feared the magic that ruled there. However, when his younger brother, the three-year-old Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, wanted to attack Eysteinn, the brothers changed their minds. Sigurd's foster-father assembled five longships for him.Hvitserk andBjörn Ironside mustered 14, and Aslaug and Ivar the Boneless marshaled 10 ships each, and together they took vengeance upon Eysteinn.[3]
The Danish historianSaxo Grammaticus relates that Sigurd, as a young man, was close to his father and sojourned for a time in Scotland and the Scottish Islands. After Ragnar's Viking army had slain the local earls, Sigurd and his brother Radbard were appointed sub-rulers of these territories. Later in life Sigurd and his brothers accompanied Ragnar on a hazardous expedition throughRus' to theHellespont.[4]
Most of the legendary sources say that KingÆlla of Northumbria killed Ragnar Lothbrok, in about 865, by having him thrown into a pit of snakes. According to traditional accounts, Ragnar is reputed to have exclaimed as he was dying: "How the young pigs would grunt if they knew what the old boar suffers!" Sigurd and his siblings were reportedly informed of their father's fate by an envoy from Ælla. As he heard the news, Sigurd was supposedly so affected that he cut himself to the bone with a knife he held in his hand; his brotherBjörn Ironside supposedly gripped a spear so tightly that the imprint of his fingers was left in the wood.[5] Sigurd and his brothers swore they would avenge Ragnar's death.
In 865–866, the Viking leadersIvar the Boneless andUbbe crossed theNorth Sea with astor hær ("Great Army"). Traditional accounts claim that all the surviving sons of Ragnar apart from Ivar launched a first attack on Ælla's kingdom, which failed. Sigurd's brother, Ivar the Boneless, devised a strategy in which the Great Heathen Army occupied and sackedYork, to provoke Ælla into engaging on the Vikings' terms. Under Ivar's plan, the Vikings feigned retreat, leading Ælla to underestimate them and become encircled. According toRagnarssona þáttr (The Tale of Ragnar's Sons, part of theSagas of Ragnar Lothbrok), Ælla was captured alive and executed afterwards byblood eagle.[6][7][8]
Ragnarssona þáttr states that when his father died, Sigurd inheritedZealand,Scania,Halland, the Danish islands, andViken. It is also possible he was for a time co-ruler of Denmark with his brother Halfdan, because Frankish sources mention certainSigfred and Halfdan as rulers in 873 – the names Sigurd and Sigfred were often mixed up in Nordic literature.[9] He could have succeeded his brotherHalfdan Ragnarsson as the sole king of Denmark in about 877, when Halfdan fell in battle in theIrish Sea. A Danish Viking king called Sigfred, who appears to have become landless by this time, was killed inWest Francia in 887; he is quite possibly the same person.[10] Sigurd married Blaeja, the daughter of king Ælla of Northumbria and they had two children,Harthacanute and Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, who was married toHelge of theDagling lineage.[11]
Helge may have briefly succeeded his purported father-in-law as king of Denmark before being overthrown byOlof, a Viking chief who swept down from Sweden in about the year 900.[12]
TheRagnarssona þáttr states that Danish kingHarthacanute was a son of Sigurd. However, the 11th century chroniclerAdam of Bremen mentions Hardegon (probably Harthacanute) as the son of a certain Sven. Hardegon or Harthacanute succeededSigtrygg Gnupasson as the king of part of Denmark (probablyJutland, but according to later traditionZealand,Scania andHalland) in about 916. According to theRagnarssona þáttr, he nevertheless lost Viken (Oslofjord) that had been part of the Danish realm in the 9th century.[13] He was the father ofGorm the Old, the king of Denmark. Gorm succeeded his father as king and marriedThyra.
Gorm's son,Harald Bluetooth succeeded his father as king and married possibly three times with Gunhild,Tove andGyrid. Harald had a son namedSweyn Forkbeard. Sweyn succeeded his father as king and married Gunhild (Świętosława ofPoland). They had a son namedCnut the Great. Sweyn also ruled England in his lifetime and established the Danish Empire. When Sweyn died, his elder sonHarald Svendsen became the king of Denmark, while England's former king,Ethelred, reclaimed the throne. Following Harald's death, his brother Cnut the Great became king, re-established the Danish North Sea Empire. He marriedEmma of Normandy with whom he had a son namedHarthacnut. When Cnut died (and after the brothers of Harthacnut also had died), Harthacnut became king of Denmark and England. Upon his death,Edward the Confessor became ruler of England in 1042.[14] Sweyn Forkbeard also had a daughter,Estrid, from whom all ruling kings and queens of Denmark after 1047 descend.
Sigurd's daughter Áslaug, as mentioned above, marriedHelgi the Sharp of theDagling dynasty. They had a son namedSigurd Hart, who married a woman named Ingeborg. Sigurd Hart and Ingeborg had children named Guttorm Sigurdsson and Ragnhild Sigurdsdotter. When Sigurd Hart's uncle, king Fróði ofRingerike died, Sigurd Hart supposedly went to Norway to succeed him as king of Ringerike.[11]
| Legendary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of Denmark | Succeeded by |