Ragnarr loðbrók (Ragnar Lodbrok)

Ragnar Lodbrok — 'Hairy-Breeches' — is the larger-than-life viking king who straddles legend and history. King of Denmark and Sweden, he won his first fame and his first wife by killing the giant serpent that guarded the maiden Thora, wearing the shaggy hide breeches that gave him his name; and his second, the wise Aslaug, who proved her cunning in riddles. From him sprang a brood of famous sons — Ivar the Boneless foremost — so renowned that Ragnar fretted his own fame would be eclipsed by theirs, and sailed on one last reckless raid to England to outdo them. It ended in shipwreck and capture, and King Ella threw him into a pit of serpents, where he died singing that his sons would avenge him — 'the piglets would grunt if they knew how the old boar suffered.' They did: the Great Heathen Army that ravaged England was, the sagas say, his sons collecting the debt. Pride, serpents, and a death-song — the viking age's favourite king.