Gripla - 20.12.2016, Page 36

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also runs there in the vicinity, in which the northmen say Kráka was in
the habit of washing herself, and it is still called Krákulækur today. one
may still find all these place-names in the Stavanger District in norway.103
the learned scholarly historian, Þormóður torfason, says that the ragnar
who married Áslaug was born anno Christi 720 and that he ruled for 40
years until he was killed in England by Ælla who in truth may be called
a king, but however this does not require him to have been high king of
England.104 Þormóður also says that this Ragnar had been over 70 years
old when he died. a completely different ragnar loðbrók is he who was
killed in England in the days of Saint Edward the king. He was the father
of Ingvar and ubba who raided there afterwards and avenged him cruelly
on King Edward around about 870. He [Þormóður] thinks him to have
also been the father of Björn járnsíða who around the same time according
to the saga raided in france. and so it is from these two that the master,
who has composed the saga, has made one ragnar loðbrók. Whether or
not the later ragnar had been sometime king in Denmark, I do not know,
although he is so named by Master William.105 Gormur inn gamli was
then king in Denmark. It is most likely this Ragnar had been either his
litteratur 36 (Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, 1906–1908), 111–16; Fornaldar sögur Norður-
landa, ed. Guðni Jónsson, 4 vols. (reykjavík: Íslandingasagnaútgáfan, 1954), 1: 107–303
at 221–24.
103 these contemporary traditions are printed by Þormóður torfason at the end of Book 1,
chapter 4, “De fabulosis Islandorum monumentis,” (“Concerming the Legendary records
of the Icelanders”), in his Series dynastarum et regum Daniæ, 30–37 at 35–36, and in Part
one, Book 10, chapter xlvi of his Historia rerum Norvegicarum, 1: 491; Norges Historie,
ed. titlestad, 2: 226–29, and in norwegian by Jonas ramus, Norriges Kongers Historie
(Copenhagen: Pet. nørwig, 1719). for appropriate extracts see Jón Helgason, “Åtlaug på
Spangereid,” 79–89.
104 this information did not make it into Halldór’s Chronologiæ tentamen.
105 I.e., William of Jumièges. See The Gesta normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges,
Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, ed. Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, 2 vols., Oxford
Medieval texts (oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), Bk. I [table of Contents], Bier filius
Lothroci regis Dacie filio (Björn, son of King Lothbroc of Denmark) (1: 8–9); Bk. 1.1: Quo
tempore pagani, cum Lotroci regis filio, nomine Bier Coste quidem ferree, procurante
eius expeditionem Hastingo, omnium paganorum nequissimo, a noricis seu Danicis
finibus eructuantes [‘at that time heathen belched forth from norse and Danish lands
with the son of King Lothbroc, named Björn Ironside, whose expedition was organized
by Hasting, the most wicked of all the pagans’] (1: 10–11). See also Bk. 1.4, 1: 16–17, and
van Houts’ introduction, 1: xxxvii. Latin editions of William’s work were published in
frankfurt in 1603 and in Paris 1613. See further Elizabeth ashman rowe, Vikings in the
West, 65–68, 158–59, 164–90.