As a ruthless Viking marauder, Ivar the Boneless was far from alone. Here are some other Viking hard nuts.
ERIC BLOODAXE lived in the tenth century. His father Harald Finehair was King of Norway, and Eric ruled after him. He’s known as ‘Bloodaxe’ probably because he murdered his brothers (there were lots of them, all wanting Harald’s throne or some of his land or both). Later he sailed to England, where he became King of Northumbria, but he made frequent visits to Scotland and Ireland to do a bit of pillaging.
RAGNAR HAIRYBREECHES was supposed to be the father of Ivar the Boneless and his brothers (who included Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Björn Ironside). He’s only known about from legends, so no one knows whether or not he really existed. The legend says that he got his nickname because he wore animal-skin trousers while fighting a dragon, and he’s supposed to have died when he was thrown into a snake pit by King Aella of Northumberland.
ERIC THE RED left Norway with his father, who’d been sent into exile for killing someone, and settled in Iceland. Maybe Eric inherited his father’s temper because, around 980, Eric ended up exiled from Iceland for killing someone in an argument too. Eric embarked on a dangerous 280-kilometre voyage to an unknown land he’d spotted from the highest mountains in Iceland. He called it Greenland, though it’s not very green but extremely cold, icy and inhospitable, and established a colony of Viking hard nuts there.
LEIF ERICSON THE LUCKY was Eric the Red’s son. He travelled even further than his father – he was probably the first European to set foot in North America (five centuries before Christopher Columbus). There are different accounts of Leif’s voyages, but he was either blown off course on his way home to Greenland from Norway, or deliberately set out to find new lands. He probably landed on the Newfoundland coast, where archaeologists have discovered a Viking settlement. Later on a group of Vikings settled there, but eventually they were driven away by the Native Americans, who must have been even tougher than the Vikings.
To find out more about Christopher Columbus – who also sailed to America, go here.
