Aslaug
Encyclopedia
Edda
The term Edda applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age...
, the Völsunga saga
Volsunga saga
The Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...
and the saga of Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
.
The Legendary Aslaug
Aslaug was the daughter of SigurdSigurd
Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...
and the shieldmaiden
Shieldmaiden
A shieldmaiden was a woman who had chosen to fight as a warrior in Scandinavian folklore and mythology. They are often mentioned in sagas such as Hervarar saga and in Gesta Danorum. Shieldmaidens also appear in stories of other Germanic nations: Goths, Cimbri, and Marcomanni. The mythical Valkyries...
Brynhildr
Brynhildr
Brynhildr is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie in Norse mythology, where she appears as a main character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events. Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des...
, but was raised by Brynhild's fosterfather Heimer. At the death of Sigurd and Brynhild, Heimer was concerned about Aslaug's security, so he made a harp large enough to hide the girl. He then travelled as a poor harpplayer carrying the harp containing the girl.
They arrived at Spangereid
Spangereid
Spangereid is a village and a former municipality in Vest-Agder county in Norway. It is located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Lindesnes, and it is home to the new Spangereid Canal which crosses the Spangereid isthmus....
at Lindesnes
Lindesnes
Lindesnes is a municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway. Lindesnes was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1964 after the merger of the older municipalities of Spangereid, Sør-Audnedal, and Vigmostad....
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, where they stayed for the night in the house of Åke and Grima. Åke believed that he saw that the harp contained valuable items, and told his wife Grima. Grima then convinced him to murder Heimer as he was sleeping. However, when they broke the harp open, they discovered a little girl, who they raised as their own, calling her Kraka (Crow). In order to hide her noble origins, they forced the girl always to be dirty and to walk in dirty clothes.
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
's men, who had been sent ashore to bake bread. Confused by Kraka's beauty, they allowed the bread to be burnt, and when Ragnar enquired about this mishap, they told him about the girl. Ragnar then sent for her, but in order to test her wits, he commanded her neither to arrive dressed nor undressed, neither hungry nor full and neither alone nor in company. Kraka arrived dressed in a net, biting an onion and with only the dog as a companion. Impressed, Ragnar married her and she gave him the sons, Ivar the Boneless
Ivar the Boneless
Ivar Ragnarsson nicknamed the Boneless , was a Viking leader and by reputation also a berserker. By the late 11th century he was known as a son of the powerful Ragnar Lodbrok, ruler of an area probably comprising parts of modern-day Denmark and Sweden.-Invader:In the autumn of AD 865, with his...
, Björn Ironside
Björn Ironside
Björn Ironside was a semi-legendary king of Sweden who would have lived sometime in the 9th century. Björn Ironside is said to have been the first ruler of a new dynasty...
, Hvitserk
Hvitserk
Hvitserk was one of the legendary sons of the 9th-century Norse king Ragnar Lodbrok and his wife Kraka, attested to by the Ragnarssona þáttr. Since he is not mentioned in any source that mentions Halfdan Ragnarsson, some scholars have suggested that they are the same individual.After having...
and Ragnvald.
When Ragnar visited viceroy Östen Beli of Sweden, Östen persuaded him to reject Kraka and marry the Swedish princess Ingeborg. On his return home, three birds had already informed Kraka of Ragnar's plans, and so she reproached him and told him of her true noble origins. In order to prove that she was the daughter of Sigurd who had slain Fafnir
Fafnir
In Norse mythology, Fáfnir or Frænir was a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Ótr. In the Volsunga saga, Fáfnir was a dwarf gifted with a powerful arm and fearless soul. He guarded his father's house of glittering gold and flashing gems...
, she said that she would bear a child whose eye would bear the image of a serpent. This happened and she bore the son Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye. When Östen learnt of Ragnar's change of mind, he rebelled against him, but was slain by Ragnar's sons at Kraka's behest.
When Ragnar was about to undertake his fated expedition to England, his failure was due to his not heeding Kraka's warnings about the bad condition of the fleet. When Ragnar had been thrown into the snake pit by king Ella, he was protected by an enchanted shirt that Kraka had made. It was only when this shirt had been removed that the snakes could bite Ragnar and kill him.