Ivar the Boneless


Ivar the Boneless, also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was a Viking leader who invaded Anglo-Saxon England. According to Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, he was the youngest son of Ragnar Loðbrok and his wife Aslaug. His brothers included Björn Ironside, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Hvitserk, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Ubba.
The origin of the nickname is not certain. "Ívarr beinlausi" could be translated to "Ivar legless", but "beinlausi" could also be translated as "boneless", since "bone" and "leg" translates to the same word, "ben", in Danish. Several of the sagas describe him as lacking legs/bones, while a passage in Ragnarssona þáttr suggest it refers to male impotence with Ivar's "Bonelessness" being merely figurative.
According to the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, Ivar's bonelessness was the result of a curse. His mother Aslaug was Ragnar's third wife. She was described as a völva, a type of seer or clairvoyant. She said that she and her husband must wait three nights before consummating their marriage after his return following a long separation. However, Ragnar was overcome with lust after such a long separation and did not heed her words. As a result, Ivar was born with weak bones.
Another hypothesis is that he was actually known as "the Hated", which in Latin would be Exosus. A medieval scribe with only a basic knowledge of Latin could easily have interpreted it as ex os, thus "the Boneless", although it is hard to align this theory with the direct translation of his name given in Norse sources.
While the sagas describe Ivar's physical disability, they also emphasise his wisdom, cunning, and mastery of strategy and tactics in battle.
He is often considered identical to Ímar, the founder of the Uí Ímair dynasty, which at various times, from the mid-ninth to the 10th century, ruled Northumbria from the city of York, and dominated the Irish Sea region as the Kingdom of Dublin.

Chronology

The Anglo-Saxon chronicler Æthelweard records his death as 870. The Annals of Ulster describe the death of Ívar in 873. The death of Ívar is also recorded in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland under the year 873.
The identification of the king of Laithlind as Gothfraid was added by a copyist in the 17th century. In the original 11th-century manuscript, the subject of the entry was simply called righ Lochlann, which more than likely referred to Ímar, whose death is not otherwise noted in the Fragmentary Annals. The cause of death—a sudden and horrible disease—is not mentioned in any other source, but it raises the possibility that the true origin of Ivar's Old Norse nickname lay in the crippling effects of an unidentified disease that struck him down at the end of his life.
In 1686, a farm labourer named Thomas Walker discovered a Scandinavian burial mound at Repton in Derbyshire close to a battle site where the Great Heathen Army overthrew the Mercian King Burgred of his kingdom. The number of partial skeletons surrounding the body—over 250—signified that the man buried there was of very high status. It has been suggested that such a burial mound is possibly the last resting place of Ivar.
According to the saga, Ivar ordered that he be buried in a place that was exposed to attack, and prophesied that, if that was done, foes coming to the land would be met with ill-success. This prophecy held true, says the saga, until "when Vilhjalm bastard came ashore he went and broke Ivar's mound and saw that body had not decayed. Then Vilhjalm had a large pyre made upon which Ivar's body was] burned... Thereupon, the victory."

Fictional portrayals