Ubba Ragnarsson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ubba , also Ubbe , Habba or Hubba Ragnarsson († 878 ) was supposedly one of the many sons of the legendary Nordic Viking leader Ragnar Lodbrok , but this is by no means certain. There are only sparse and sometimes contradicting sources about Ubba.

Together with his brothers Ivar the Boneless and Halfdan , Ubba was the leader of the "great army" of the Danes (called the Great Pagan Army by the Anglo-Saxons ), with which the brothers landed in England in 865 and from 866 to 874 three of the four English kingdoms ( Northumbria , East Anglia and Mercia ).

In 875, the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred the Great obtained a truce with Ubba, but this was broken two years later by Ubba's brother Halfdan.

Ubba was killed in 878 by West Saxon troops at the Battle of Cynuit in Devonshire . In the Anglo-Saxon chronicle it is noted:

“ And in the winter of that year [878] the brother of Ívarr and Hálfdan landed with 23 ships in Devonshire, Wessex, where he and with him 800 men and 40 of his army were killed. In addition, the banner they called 'ravens' (guðfani) was stolen. "

Geffrei Gaimar mentions in his "Estorie des Engles" (written around 1140), the Ubbas banner:

“ The raven was Ubba's banner (gufanun). He was the brother of Iware (Ivar); he was buried by the Danes in a very large hill in Devonshire called Ubbelawe. "

Other Ubbas brothers were (allegedly) Sigurd Orm-i-auga Ragnarsson , Bjørn Jernside Ragnarsson , Rathbarth Ragnarsson, Dunyat Ragnarsson, Agnar Ragnarsson, Regnald Ragnarsson, Eirik Vindhatt Ragnarsson and Fridleiv Ragnarsson, whereby only Ubba, Ivar and Halfelsdan were mentioned in Chronicles and their existence is thus somewhat assured.

reception

Bernard Cornwell has processed the story of the Ragnar sons Halfdan, Ubba and Ivar and the Danish attempt to subjugate England in his book series The Saxon Stories . The television series The Last Kingdom is based on the novels by Cornwell.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ vikinganswerlady.com: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/banners.shtml , quote from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (to be found in the section "Literary Accounts Describing the Raven Banner")
  2. ↑ vikinganswerlady.com: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/banners.shtml , quote from the Estorie des Engles (to be found in the section Literary Accounts Describing the Raven Banner )
personal data
SURNAME Ubba Ragnarsson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ragnarsson, Ubba; Ubbe Ragnarsson; Habba Ragnarsson '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of the legendary Norse warrior Ragnar Lodbrok
DATE OF BIRTH 8th century or 9th century
DATE OF DEATH 878