Ragnar Lothbrok: Legend, Myth, and Historical Reality

We start with a moment: a cold night in 845 AD, as a fleet of Viking longships rows up the Seine toward Paris. The man leading them is named Ragnar — or at least, that's what the chronicles say. But who was Ragnar Lothbrok really? Was he one man, or a fusion of several historical figures? In this pilot episode, Lucas and Luna explore the blurry line between the legendary sagas and the fragmented historical record. They discuss the earliest written references, the debates among scholars over Ragnar's identity, and the enduring power of his story — from the siege of Paris to the Great Heathen Army. They also touch on the role of saga literature, the reliability of sources like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Gesta Danorum, and how later kings used the Ragnar myth for legitimacy. This episode sets the stage for a series that will peel back layers of myth to find the history beneath.

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