Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye () or Sigurd Ragnarsson was a semi-legendary Viking warrior and Danish king active from the mid to late 9th century. According to multiple

saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

sources and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n histories from the 12th century and later, he is one of the sons of the legendary Viking

Ragnar Lodbrok Ragnar Lodbrok (Old Norse: ''Ragnarr loðbrók'', ), according to legends, was a Viking hero and a Legendary Kings of Sweden, Swedish and Legendary kings of Denmark, Danish king.Aslaug. His historical prototype might have been the Danish King Sigfred who ruled briefly in the 870s. Norwegian kings' genealogies of the Middle Ages name him as an ancestor of Harald Fairhair and used his mother's supposed ancestry to Völsung in order to create an ancestry between Harald and his descendants and

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

Early life

"Snake-in-the-eye" as part of Sigurd's name denoted a physical characteristic. He was born with a mark in his eye, described as the image of the

ouroboros The ouroboros or uroboros (; ) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent symbolism, snake or European dragon, dragon Autocannibalism, eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via Egyptian mythology, ancient Egyptian iconogra ...

(a snake biting its own tail). According to ''Ragnar Lothbrok's saga'', while Sigurd was just a boy, his half-brothers

Eric The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-N ...

and Agnar were killed by Swedish king Eysteinn 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 controlled

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

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 and Björn Ironside mustered 14, and Aslaug and Ivar the Boneless marshaled 10 ships each, and together they took vengeance upon Eysteinn. The Danish historian

Saxo Grammaticus Saxo Grammaticus (), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author ...

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 through Rus' to the

Hellespont The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey t ...

Death of Ragnar Lothbrok and the Great Heathen Army

Most of the legendary sources say that King Ælla 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 brother Björn Ironside supposedly gripped a spear so tightly that the imprint of his fingers was left in the wood. Sigurd and his brothers swore they would avenge Ragnar's death. In 865–866, the Viking leaders Ivar the Boneless and Ubbe crossed the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

with a ''stor 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 sacked

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, 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 to ''

Ragnarssona þáttr The ''Tale of Ragnar's sons'' () is an Old Norse story about Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Summary Ragnar Lodbrok When Sigurd Ring dies, Ragnar Lodbrok succeeds him as the king of Sweden and Denmark. Many foreign kings come to take parts of hi ...

'' (''The Tale of Ragnar's Sons'', part of the ''Sagas of Ragnar Lothbrok''), Ælla was captured alive and executed afterwards by blood eagle.

Sigurd's descendants

''Ragnarssona þáttr'' states that when his father died, Sigurd inherited

Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

, the Danish islands, and Viken. It is also possible he was for a time co-ruler of Denmark with his brother Halfdan, because Frankish sources mention certain Sigfred and Halfdan as rulers in 873 – the names Sigurd and Sigfred were often mixed up in Nordic literature. He could have succeeded his brother Halfdan Ragnarsson as the sole king of Denmark in about 877, when Halfdan fell in battle in the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

. A Danish Viking king called Sigfred, who appears to have become landless by this time, was killed in

West Francia In medieval historiography, West Francia (Medieval Latin: ) or the Kingdom of the West Franks () constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capet ...

in 887; he is quite possibly the same person. Sigurd married Blaeja, the daughter of king Ælla of Northumbria and they had two children, Harthacanute and Áslaug Sigurðardóttir, who was married to Helge of the Dagling lineage.''Tale of Ragnar's Sons''
ch. 5 Helge may have briefly succeeded his purported father-in-law as king of Denmark before being overthrown by Olof, a Viking chief who swept down from Sweden in about the year 900. The ''

'' states that Danish king Harthacanute was a son of Sigurd. However, the 11th century chronicler Adam of Bremen mentions Hardegon (probably Harthacanute) as the son of a certain Sven. Hardegon or Harthacanute succeeded Sigtrygg Gnupasson as the king of part of Denmark (probably

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

, but according to later tradition

and

) in about 916. According to the ''Ragnarssona þáttr'', he nevertheless lost Viken (

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; ) is an inlet in southeastern Norway. The fjord begins at the small village of Bonn in Frogn, Frogn Municipality and stretching northwards to the city of Oslo, and then curving to the east and then south again. It then flows s ...

) that had been part of the Danish realm in the 9th century. He was the father of

Gorm the Old Gorm the Old (; ; ), also called Gorm the Languid (), was List of Danish monarchs, ruler of Denmark, reigning from to his death or a few years later.Lund, N. (2020), p. 147

, the king of Denmark. Gorm succeeded his father as king and married Thyra. Gorm's son,

Harald Bluetooth Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson (; , died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway. The son of King Gorm the Old and Thyra Dannebod, Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 – c. 986, introduced Christianization of Denmark, Christianity to D ...

succeeded his father as king and married possibly three times with Gunhild, Tove and Gyrid. Harald had a son named

Sweyn Forkbeard Sweyn Forkbeard ( ; ; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 until his death, King of England for five weeks from December 1013 until his death, and King of Norway from 999/1000 until 1014. He was the father of King Ha ...

. Sweyn succeeded his father as king and married Gunhild (

Świętosława Świętosława was a Polish princess, the daughter of Mieszko I of Poland and sister of Bolesław I of Poland, who married two Scandinavian kings. Some chroniclers recount that a princess, whose name is not given, was married first to Eric ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

). They had a son named

Cnut the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

. Sweyn also ruled England in his lifetime and established the Danish Empire. When Sweyn died, his elder son Harald 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 married Emma of Normandy with whom he had a son named

Harthacnut Harthacnut (; "Tough-knot"; – 8 June 1042), traditionally Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III, was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and King of England from 1040 to 1042. Harthacnut was the son of King Cnut the Great (wh ...

. 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 Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

became ruler of England in 1042. 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, married Helgi the Sharp of the Dagling dynasty. They had a son named Sigurd 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 of Ringerike died, Sigurd Hart supposedly went to Norway to succeed him as king of Ringerike.

Popular culture

* Sigurd features prominently in the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

's 2013 television series ''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

'' played by David Lindström. * Sigurd is also one of the antagonists in the 2014 video game DLC '' Mount and Blade: Viking Conquest''. * Sigurd is also mentioned as a brother of Halfdan Ragnarsson in the 2020 video game ''

Assassin's Creed Valhalla ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla'' is a 2020 action role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the successor to 2018's ''Assassin's Creed Odyss ...

''.

References

Sources

*'' Tale of Ragnar's Sons'' (''Ragnarssona þáttr'') *'' Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok'' (''Ragnars saga Loðbrókar'')

External links

The Tale of Ragnar's Sons
- translation by Peter Tunstall {{s-end Norwegian petty kings 9th-century monarchs in Europe Viking warriors 9th-century Danish people 9th-century Norwegian people 9th-century Vikings Medieval legends