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Ragnar Lodbrok was a legendary Viking hero, as well as a legendary Danish and Swedish king. He is known from Old Norse poetry of the Viking Age, Icelandic sagas, and near-contemporary chronicles. According to the traditional literature, Ragnar distinguished himself by conducting many raids against the British Isles and the Holy Roman Empire during the 9th century. He also appears in Norse legends, and according to the legendary sagas Tale of Ragnar's Sons and a Saga about Certain Ancient Kings, Ragnar Lodbrok's father was the legendary king of the Swedes, Sigurd Ring.
Fróði is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasöngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.
The Ynglings were a semi-historical dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem Ynglingatal. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings in Beowulf. When Beowulf and Ynglingatal were composed sometime in the eighth to tenth centuries, the respective scop and skald (poet) expected his audience to have a great deal of background information about these kings, which is shown in the allusiveness of the references.
Anund Swedish: Bröt-Anund meaning trail-blazer Anund or Anund the Land Clearer; alternate names Brøt-Anundr or Braut-Önundr was a semi-legendary Swedish king of the House of Yngling who reigned in the mid-seventh century. The name would have been Proto-Norse *Anuwinduz meaning "winning ancestor".
Ingjald illråde or Ingjaldr hinn illráði was a semi-legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings, son and successor of King Anund, and the father and predecessor of King Olof Trätälja. As with many of the 5th-7th century Yngling Kings of Sweden, his historicity is contested.
Ivar Vidfamne was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who originated in Scania. He apparently died circa 700 CE, in Karelia, at a place called Karjálabotnar, which may have been the modern Kurkiyoki, in the Lakhdenpokhsky District of Russia.
Sigurd Ring was a legendary king of the Swedes mentioned in many old Scandinavian sagas. According to these sources he was granted rulership over Sweden as a vassal king under his uncle Harald Wartooth. Later he would take up arms against his uncle Harald in a bid to overthrow him and take the crown of Denmark, a conflict which Sigurd eventually won after the legendary Battle of the Brávellir, where it is said that Odin himself intervened and killed Harald. In the Sagas Sigurd is also known for being the father of the Norse Viking hero and legendary king of Denmark and Sweden, Ragnar Lodbrok. According to Bósa saga ok Herrauds, there was once a saga on Sigurd Ring, but this saga is now lost.
Harald Wartooth or Harold Hiltertooth was a legendary king of Denmark who is mentioned in several traditional sources. He is held to have (indirectly) succeeded his father as king of Zealand and to have expanded his realm. According to different sources, he may have ruled over Jutland, part of Sweden and the historical northern German province of Wendland. He is said to have been finally defeated and killed at the semi-legendary Battle of Bråvalla.
Halfdan the Valiant was a legendary Scanian prince, who was the father of Ivar Vidfamne according to Hervarar saga, the Ynglinga saga, Njal's Saga and Hversu Noregr byggdist. The genealogical work Hversu Noregr byggdist gives his father as Harald the Old, his grandfather as Valdar and his great-grandfather as Hróarr.
Ivar the Boneless, also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was a semi-legendary Viking leader who invaded England and Ireland. According to the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, he was the son of Ragnar Loðbrok and his wife Aslaug. His brothers included Björn Ironside, Hvitserk, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Ubba. Ivar is probably the same person as Ímar.
Gautrekr was a legendary Geatish king who appears in several sources, such as Gautreks saga, Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, Bósa saga ok Herrauðs, Ynglinga saga, Nafnaþulur and Af Upplendinga konungum.
Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye or Sigurd Áslaugsson was a semi-legendary Viking warrior and Danish king active from the mid to late 9th century. According to multiple Saga sources and Scandinavian histories from the 12th century and later, he is one of the sons of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok and Áslaug. 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 the Völsung to create an ancestry between Harald and his descendants and Odin.
Aud the Deep-Minded, also known as Unn, Aud Ketilsdatter or Unnur Ketilsdottir, was a 9th-century settler during the age of Settlement of Iceland.
The petty kingdoms of Norway were the entities from which the later Kingdom of Norway was founded. Before the unification of Norway in 872 and during the period of fragmentation after King Harald Fairhair's death Norway was divided in several small kingdoms. Some could have been as small as a cluster of villages and others comprised several of today's counties.
Olaf the White was a viking sea-king who lived in the latter half of the 9th century.
The name Ragnhild Sigurdsdotter may refer to two different figures from Old Norse literature, an amalgam of them, or a purely fictitious figure.
Guðröðr was a legendary Scanian king who, according to the Ynglinga saga, was the brother of Halfdan the Valiant, Ivar Vidfamne's father. He is only known from late Icelandic sources dating from the 13th century.
Arson in medieval Scandinaviawas a technique sometimes employed in blood feuds and political conflicts in order to assassinate someone. In committing arson, a group of attackers would set fire to the home of an opponent, sometimes by quickly and surreptitiously piling wood, brush and other combustible materials against the exterior of a dwelling and set it on fire. Typically the attackers would surround the house to prevent the escape of its inhabitants, although women, the elderly, and small children were sometimes allowed to leave.
References
Forte, Angelo, Richard Oram and Frederik Pedersen. Viking Empires . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-521-82992-5.