Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr (Thora)

Thora Borgarhjört is Ragnar Lodbrok's first wife — the maiden whose rescue wins him his name and his fame. Daughter of an earl, she is given a little serpent as a pet that grows monstrous, coiling around her bower and guarding her so that no man dares approach; her father offers her hand to whoever can kill it. The young Ragnar comes in shaggy, tar-smeared breeches as protection against the venom, spears the great serpent, and so wins both Thora and the by-name Loðbrók, 'Hairy-Breeches', that he carries ever after. She bears him sons before her early death. Thora is the saga's image of the maiden in the serpent-tower — the prize whose monstrous guardian makes the hero, the bride won by the deed that names him, the first of the women through whom Ragnar's legend is built.