Legendary Viking king, sea-lord of the sagas
The most famous Viking king of the Norse sagas, renowned for dragon-slaying, far voyages, and defiance. Legend says he killed a great serpent bare-handed in specially made hairy breeches, earning the name "Hairy-Breeches." He led his longships to raid far and wide, and was at last cast into a snake-pit by an English king, singing to the end: "if the piglets knew the plight of the old boar, they would surely rise to avenge it" — and his sons did indeed cross the North Sea and raise a great host that shook England.
Defeated and captured, Ragnar was cast by the Northumbrian king Ælla into a pit of snakes. Without fear, he sang out his prophetic death-song with a smile, hinting that his sons would surely avenge him. Years later, Ivar the Boneless and his other sons led the "Great Heathen Army" across the North Sea, taking city after city to avenge their father — one death-song raising a whole Viking epic.
How far Ragnar was a real person and how much is the layered invention of later sagas is still unsettled among historians; the traces of his sons (Ivar the Boneless and others) in the sources are in fact clearer.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.