ootnote 1: Wolf in the sanctuaries.]

CHAPTER XVI.

RAGNAR LODBROK.

"Last from among the Heroes one came near,
No God, but of the hero troop the chief--
Regner, who swept the northern sea with fleets,
And ruled o'er Denmark and the heathy isles,
Living; but Ella captured him and slew;--
A king whose fame then fill'd the vast of Heaven,
Now time obscures it, and men's later deeds."
MATTHEW ARNOLD, _Balder Dead_.

[Sidenote: Ragnar Lodbrok saga.] Ragnar Lodbrok, who figures in history as
the contemporary of Charlemagne, is one of the great northern heroes, to
whom many mythical deeds of valor are ascribed. His story has given rise
not only to the celebrated Ragnar Lodbrok saga, so popular in the
thirteenth century, but also to many poems and songs by ancient scalds and
modern poets. The material of the Ragnar Lodbrok saga was probably largely
borrowed from the Volsunga saga and from the saga of Dietrich von Bern, the
chief aim of the ancient composers being to connect the Danish dynasty of
kings with the great hero Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir, and thereby to
prove that their ancestor was no less a person than Odin.

The hero of this saga was Ragnar, the son of Sigurd Ring and his first
wife, Alfild. According to one version of the story, as we have seen,
Sigurd Ring married Ingeborg, and died, leaving Frithiof to protect his
young son. According to another, Sigurd Ring appointed Ragnar as his
successor, and had him recognized as future ruler by the Thing before he
set out upon his last military expedition.

This was a quest for a new wife named Alfsol, a princess of Jutland, with
whom, in spite of his advanced years, he had fallen passionately in love.
Her family, however, rudely refused Sigurd Ring's request. When he came to
win his bride by the force of arms, and they saw themselves defeated, they
poisoned Alfsol rather than have her fall alive into the viking's hands.

Sigurd Ring, finding a corpse where he had hoped to clasp a living and
loving woman, was so overcome with grief that he now resolved to die too.
By his orders Alfsol's body was laid in state on a funeral pyre on his best
ship. Then, when the fire had been kindled, and the ship cut adrift from
its moorings, Sigurd Ring sprang on board, and, stabbing himself, was
burned with the fair maiden he loved.

Ragnar was but fifteen years old when he found himself called upon to
reign;