Pagan holidays - Ragnar Lodbrok Day

It is not known for certain whether the person whose memory day is revered by the Scandinavians on March 28th existed There is not a single factual document confirming the reality of Ragnar Lothbrok's life Nowadays in Norway, Sweden and Denmark the king’s most famous campaign is celebrated as a symbol of courage and bravery This conqueror had absolutely no plans to die after seeing Paris The date March 28 was chosen because on that day in 845, Ragnar carried out the famous siege of the capital of the West Frankish kingdom Semi-mythical sources claim that the Viking leader commanded more than five thousand warriors and had 120 ships in his fleet For those times, these figures are so impressive that they cause disbelief Perhaps a certain prototype of Lodbrok really existed, distinguished by the abilities of a tactician, strategist and commander, successful in military campaigns Due to the romanticization of this personality, as well as due to the loss of written sources, the image of Ragnar began to be idealized and overgrown with legends Legends have survived to this day about the direct relationship of Lodbrok with Odin, the supreme deity of German-Scandinavian mythology, the All-Father (Father of all things) The name Lodbrok itself is etymologically a compound word - Lod + Brok, that is, Fate + Banner, Fate-Znamenny The king's banner depicted Odin's raven, his wing indicating the fateful direction In fact, the Vikings loved to use a banner with the image of a black raven on campaigns The dark triangular spot of the flag was visible from afar, and was intended to frighten by the very fact Lodbrok is not original here, but it was he who perpetuated the tradition of the Raven Banner in his name The hero has another nickname - Ragnar Leather Pants One of his wives, Lagertha, made these clothes for her husband And those trousers were so strong that they acted as armor No arrows or spears were taken from Lodbrok Having fallen into a pit with poisonous snakes, Ragnar managed to get out of it and survive because the reptiles could not bite through the famous pants The fame of them subsequently played a cruel joke in the fate of the king Having many wives and concubines, Ragnar fathered a large number of sons The children took after their father and could soon outshine their famous parent Lodbrok was afraid of this and in every possible way refreshed the glory of his heroic deeds, so as not to give primacy to his sons And he called to his sons at the very end of his glorious life, sitting in a pit with the notorious snakes The fact is that the English king Ella II, who knew about the story with pants and reptiles, was able to capture the frantic Ragnar He decided to throw the Viking into the snake's den The trousers were able to protect only part of the body, but the rest was available for bites Dying in terrible agony, Lodbrok exclaimed that “his piglets should know what it’s like for him, the old boar” This meant the hero's children; the king thus called upon them to take revenge And the sons took revenge Ragnar's descendants were especially furious that their father's death did not occur on the battlefield, but in the shameful den of snakes The British were defeated, Ella II was brutally executed And in the epic of the Scandinavians there remained the legend of Ragnar Lothbrok, the hero in leather pants