Ivar the Boneless
Encyclopedia
Ivar Ragnarsson nicknamed the Boneless (inn beinlausi), was a Viking
leader and by reputation also a berserker
. By the late 11th century he was known as a son of the powerful Ragnar Lodbrok
, ruler of an area probably comprising parts of modern-day Denmark
and Sweden
.
(Halfdene) and Ubbe Ragnarsson
(Hubba), Ivar led the Great Heathen Army
in the invasion of the East Anglia
n region of England
. An accommodation was quickly reached with the East Anglians. The following year, Ivar led his forces north on horseback and easily captured York
(which the Danes called Jorvik
) from the Northumbrians who were at that time engaged in a civil war.
Ivar and the Danes succeeded in holding York against a vain attempt to relieve the city in AD 867.
Ivar is also attributed with the slaying of St. Edmund of East Anglia in AD 869. The story is first known from Abbo of Fleury
's Latin Passion of King Edmund and Ælfric
's Old English adaptation thereof. By their accounts, when Edmund refused to become the vassal of a pagan, he was killed in much the same way as St Sebastian was martyred. Ivar had Edmund bound to a tree, whereupon Vikings shot arrows into him until he died. According to later accounts, Edmund was shot in the nave of a church.
Sometime after 869 Ivar left command of the Great Heathen Army and of the Danes in England to his brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson
and Ubbe
. He appears to have emigrated to Dublin (or, according to some, returned to resume a previous lordship).
or House of Ivar, a dynasty which at various times from the mid-9th through the 10th century ruled Northumbria
from the capital of York
, and dominated the Irish Sea
region from the Kingdom of Dublin.
Their apparent descendants, the House of Godred Crovan
, ruled as Kings of Mann and the Isles from the 11th well into the 13th century, although they were vassals of the Kings of Norway for most of this time.
It is possible that Ivar may be identical to the Ímar, apparent ancestor of the Uí Ímair
dynasty, whose death appears in the Annals of Ulster
in 873:
The death of Ímar is also recorded in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
under the year 873:
The identification of the king of Lochlainn as Gothfraid (i.e. Ímar's father) was added by a copyist in the 17th century. In the original 11th-century manuscript the subject of the entry was simply called righ Lochlann ("the king of Lochlainn"), which more than likely referred to Ímar, whose death is not otherwise noted in the Fragmentary Annals. The cause of death – a sudden and horrible disease – is not mentioned in any other source, but it raises the interesting possibility that the true provenance of Ivar's Old Norse sobriquet lay in the crippling effects of an unidentified disease that struck him down at the end of his life; though "sudden and horrible" death by any number of diseases was a common cause of mortality in the 9th century.
, Ivar Boneless was the eldest son of Ragnar and Aslaug
. It is said he was fair, big, strong, and one of the wisest men who has ever lived. He was consequently the advisor of his brothers Björn Ironside
, Ubbe
, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Hvitserk
.
The story has it that when king Ælla of Northumbria
had murdered their father, by throwing him into a snake-pit, Ivar's brothers tried to avenge their father, but were beaten. Ivar then went to king Ælla and said that he sought reconciliation. He only asked for as much land as he could cover with an ox's hide and swore never to wage war against Ælla. Then Ivar cut the ox's hide into so fine strands that he could envelope a large fortress (in an older saga it was York
and according to a younger saga it was London
) which he could take as his own. (Compare the similar legendary ploy of Dido, Queen of Carthage
.)
As Ivar was the most generous of men, he attracted a great many warriors, whom he subsequently kept from Ælla when this king was attacked by Ivar's brothers for the second time.
Ælla was captured and, when the brothers were to decide how to give Ælla his just punishment, Ivar suggested that they carve the "blood eagle
" on his back. According to popular belief, this meant that Ælla's back was cut open, the ribs pulled from his spine, and his lungs pulled out to form 'wings'.
In Ragnar Lodbrok's saga, there is an interesting prequel to the Battle of Hastings: it is told that before Ivar died in England, he ordered that his body be buried in a mound on the English Shore, saying that so long as his bones guarded that section of the coast, no enemy could invade there successfully. This prophecy held true, says the saga, until "when Vilhjalm bastard (William the Conqueror
) came ashore[,] he went [to the burial site] and broke Ivar's mound and saw that [Ivar's] body had not decayed. Then [Vilhjalm] had a large pyre made [upon which Ivar's body was] burned... Thereupon, [Vilhjalm proceeded with the landing invasion and achieved] the victory."
The poem "Háttalykill inn forni
" describes Ivar as being "without any bones at all".
Alternatively, the English word "bone" is cognate with the German word "Bein", meaning "leg". Scandinavian sources mention Ivar the Boneless as being borne on a shield by his warriors. Some have speculated that this was because he could not walk and perhaps his epithet simply meant "legless"—perhaps literally or perhaps simply because he was lame. However other sources from this period in history mention chieftains being carried on the shields of enemies after victory, not because of any infirmity.
. The disease is more commonly known as "brittle bone disease." In 1949, the Dane Knud Seedorf wrote:
There are less extreme forms of this disease where the person affected can lack use of their legs, but be otherwise normal, as may have been the case for Ivar the Boneless.
In 2003 Nabil Shaban
, a disability rights advocate with osteogenesis imperfecta, made the documentary The Strangest Viking for Channel 4
's Secret History, in which he explored the possibility that Ivar the Boneless may have had the same condition as himself. It also demonstrated that someone with the condition was quite capable of using a longbow
, and so could have taken part in battle, as Viking society would have expected a leader to do. However, it is highly unlikely that a boy with such a debilitating disease could have grown to manhood and achieved fame as a warrior and leader of warriors in the harsh conditions of the 9th century; and a simpler explanation for Ivar's sobriquet seems more likely.
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
leader and by reputation also a berserker
Berserker
Berserkers were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources...
. By the late 11th century he was known as a son of the powerful Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
, ruler of an area probably comprising parts of modern-day Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Invader
In the autumn of AD 865, with his brothers Halfdan RagnarssonHalfdan Ragnarsson
Halfdan Ragnarsson was a Viking chief and one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok with Aslaug. It has been suggested that Halfdan is the same person as Ragnar's son Hvitserk....
(Halfdene) and Ubbe Ragnarsson
Ubbe Ragnarsson
Ubbe, Ubba or Hubba Ragnarsson was a Norse leader during the Viking Age. Ubbe Ragnarsson was one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and, along with his brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, a leader of the Great Danish Army....
(Hubba), Ivar led the Great Heathen Army
Great Heathen Army
The Great Heathen Army, also known as the Great Army or the Great Danish Army, was a Viking army originating in Denmark which pillaged and conquered much of England in the late 9th century...
in the invasion of the East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
n region of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. An accommodation was quickly reached with the East Anglians. The following year, Ivar led his forces north on horseback and easily captured York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
(which the Danes called Jorvik
Jórvík
Scandinavian York is a term, like the terms Kingdom of Jórvík or Kingdom of York, used by historians for the kingdom of Northumbria in the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was dominated by Norse warrior-kings; in particular, it is used to refer to the city controlled by...
) from the Northumbrians who were at that time engaged in a civil war.
Ivar and the Danes succeeded in holding York against a vain attempt to relieve the city in AD 867.
Ivar is also attributed with the slaying of St. Edmund of East Anglia in AD 869. The story is first known from Abbo of Fleury
Abbo of Fleury
Abbo of Fleury , also known as Abbon or Saint Abbo was a monk, and later abbot, of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire near Orléans, France....
's Latin Passion of King Edmund and Ælfric
Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian , Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist...
's Old English adaptation thereof. By their accounts, when Edmund refused to become the vassal of a pagan, he was killed in much the same way as St Sebastian was martyred. Ivar had Edmund bound to a tree, whereupon Vikings shot arrows into him until he died. According to later accounts, Edmund was shot in the nave of a church.
Sometime after 869 Ivar left command of the Great Heathen Army and of the Danes in England to his brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson
Halfdan Ragnarsson
Halfdan Ragnarsson was a Viking chief and one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok with Aslaug. It has been suggested that Halfdan is the same person as Ragnar's son Hvitserk....
and Ubbe
Ubbe Ragnarsson
Ubbe, Ubba or Hubba Ragnarsson was a Norse leader during the Viking Age. Ubbe Ragnarsson was one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and, along with his brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, a leader of the Great Danish Army....
. He appears to have emigrated to Dublin (or, according to some, returned to resume a previous lordship).
Uí Ímair
Ivar is widely believed to be identical with the founder of the Uí ÍmairUí Ímair
The Uí Ímair , or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest...
or House of Ivar, a dynasty which at various times from the mid-9th through the 10th century ruled Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
from the capital of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, and dominated the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
region from the Kingdom of Dublin.
Their apparent descendants, the House of Godred Crovan
Godred Crovan
Godred Crovan was a Norse-Gael ruler of Dublin, and King of Mann and the Isles in the second half of the 11th century. Godred's epithet Crovan may mean "white hand" . In Manx folklore he is known as King Orry.-Ancestry and early life:...
, ruled as Kings of Mann and the Isles from the 11th well into the 13th century, although they were vassals of the Kings of Norway for most of this time.
Death
Ivar disappears from the historic record sometime after 870. His ultimate fate is uncertain.It is possible that Ivar may be identical to the Ímar, apparent ancestor of the Uí Ímair
Uí Ímair
The Uí Ímair , or Dynasty of Ivar, were an enormous royal and imperial Norse dynasty who ruled Northern England, the Irish Sea region and Kingdom of Dublin, and the western coast of Scotland, including the Hebrides, from the mid 9th century, losing control of the first in the mid 10th, but the rest...
dynasty, whose death appears in the Annals of Ulster
Annals of Ulster
The Annals of Ulster are annals of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the...
in 873:
Ímar, king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain, ended his life.
The death of Ímar is also recorded in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland are a Middle Irish combination of chronicle from various Irish annals and narrative history. They were compiled in the kingdom of Osraige, probably in the lifetime of Donnchad mac Gilla Pátraic , king of Osraige and of king of Leinster.The Fragmentary Annals were...
under the year 873:
The king of Lochlainn, i.e. Gothfraid, died of a sudden hideous disease. Thus it pleased God.
The identification of the king of Lochlainn as Gothfraid (i.e. Ímar's father) was added by a copyist in the 17th century. In the original 11th-century manuscript the subject of the entry was simply called righ Lochlann ("the king of Lochlainn"), which more than likely referred to Ímar, whose death is not otherwise noted in the Fragmentary Annals. The cause of death – a sudden and horrible disease – is not mentioned in any other source, but it raises the interesting possibility that the true provenance of Ivar's Old Norse sobriquet lay in the crippling effects of an unidentified disease that struck him down at the end of his life; though "sudden and horrible" death by any number of diseases was a common cause of mortality in the 9th century.
Scandinavian sources
According to the saga of Ragnar LodbrokRagnar Lodbrok
Ragnar Lodbrok was a Norse legendary hero from the Viking Age who was thoroughly reshaped in Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas.-Life as recorded in the sagas:...
, Ivar Boneless was the eldest son of Ragnar and Aslaug
Aslaug
Aslaug, Aslög, Kraka, Kráka or Randalin, was a queen of Scandinavian mythology who appears in Snorri's Edda, the Völsunga saga and the saga of Ragnar Lodbrok.-The Legendary Aslaug:...
. It is said he was fair, big, strong, and one of the wisest men who has ever lived. He was consequently the advisor of his brothers Björn Ironside
Björn Ironside
Björn Ironside was a semi-legendary king of Sweden who would have lived sometime in the 9th century. Björn Ironside is said to have been the first ruler of a new dynasty...
, Ubbe
Ubbe Ragnarsson
Ubbe, Ubba or Hubba Ragnarsson was a Norse leader during the Viking Age. Ubbe Ragnarsson was one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and, along with his brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, a leader of the Great Danish Army....
, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Hvitserk
Hvitserk
Hvitserk was one of the legendary sons of the 9th-century Norse king Ragnar Lodbrok and his wife Kraka, attested to by the Ragnarssona þáttr. Since he is not mentioned in any source that mentions Halfdan Ragnarsson, some scholars have suggested that they are the same individual.After having...
.
The story has it that when king Ælla of Northumbria
Aelle II of Northumbria
Ælla was king of Northumbria in the middle of the 9th century. Sources on Northumbrian history in this period are limited. Ælla's descent is not known and the dating of his reign is problematic. He is a major character in the saga Ragnarssona þáttr .-Chronicles:Ælla became king after Osberht was...
had murdered their father, by throwing him into a snake-pit, Ivar's brothers tried to avenge their father, but were beaten. Ivar then went to king Ælla and said that he sought reconciliation. He only asked for as much land as he could cover with an ox's hide and swore never to wage war against Ælla. Then Ivar cut the ox's hide into so fine strands that he could envelope a large fortress (in an older saga it was York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and according to a younger saga it was London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) which he could take as his own. (Compare the similar legendary ploy of Dido, Queen of Carthage
Dido, Queen of Carthage
Dido, Queen of Carthage is a short play written by the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, with possible contributions by Thomas Nashe. The story of the play focuses on the classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage...
.)
As Ivar was the most generous of men, he attracted a great many warriors, whom he subsequently kept from Ælla when this king was attacked by Ivar's brothers for the second time.
Ælla was captured and, when the brothers were to decide how to give Ælla his just punishment, Ivar suggested that they carve the "blood eagle
Blood eagle
The Blood Eagle was a method of torture and execution that is sometimes mentioned in Norse saga literature. It was performed by cutting the ribs of the victim by the spine, breaking the ribs so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out. Salt was sprinkled in the wounds...
" on his back. According to popular belief, this meant that Ælla's back was cut open, the ribs pulled from his spine, and his lungs pulled out to form 'wings'.
In Ragnar Lodbrok's saga, there is an interesting prequel to the Battle of Hastings: it is told that before Ivar died in England, he ordered that his body be buried in a mound on the English Shore, saying that so long as his bones guarded that section of the coast, no enemy could invade there successfully. This prophecy held true, says the saga, until "when Vilhjalm bastard (William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
) came ashore[,] he went [to the burial site] and broke Ivar's mound and saw that [Ivar's] body had not decayed. Then [Vilhjalm] had a large pyre made [upon which Ivar's body was] burned... Thereupon, [Vilhjalm proceeded with the landing invasion and achieved] the victory."
Nickname
There is some disagreement as to the meaning of Ivar's epithet "the Boneless" (inn Beinlausi) in the sagas. Some have suggested it was a euphemism for impotence or even a snake metaphor (he had a brother named Snake-in-the-Eye). It may have referred to an incredible physical flexibility; Ivar was a renowned warrior, and perhaps this limberness gave rise to the popular notion that he was "boneless".The poem "Háttalykill inn forni
Háttalykill inn forni
Háttalykill inn forni, also known in short as Háttalykill, is an Old Norse poem, attributed to Rögnvaldr Kali Kolsson of Orkney and Hallr Þórarinsson in the Orkneyinga Saga. The poem survives only in late manuscripts...
" describes Ivar as being "without any bones at all".
Alternatively, the English word "bone" is cognate with the German word "Bein", meaning "leg". Scandinavian sources mention Ivar the Boneless as being borne on a shield by his warriors. Some have speculated that this was because he could not walk and perhaps his epithet simply meant "legless"—perhaps literally or perhaps simply because he was lame. However other sources from this period in history mention chieftains being carried on the shields of enemies after victory, not because of any infirmity.
Genetic disease
Still another interpretation of the nickname involves Scandinavian sources as describing a condition that is sometimes understood as similar to a form of osteogenesis imperfectaOsteogenesis imperfecta
Osteogenesis imperfecta is a genetic bone disorder. People with OI are born with defective connective tissue, or without the ability to make it, usually because of a deficiency of Type-I collagen...
. The disease is more commonly known as "brittle bone disease." In 1949, the Dane Knud Seedorf wrote:
There are less extreme forms of this disease where the person affected can lack use of their legs, but be otherwise normal, as may have been the case for Ivar the Boneless.
In 2003 Nabil Shaban
Nabil Shaban
Nabil Shaban is a British actor and writer. He founded The Graeae - a theatre group which promotes performers with disabilities. He has a son named Zenyel....
, a disability rights advocate with osteogenesis imperfecta, made the documentary The Strangest Viking for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Secret History, in which he explored the possibility that Ivar the Boneless may have had the same condition as himself. It also demonstrated that someone with the condition was quite capable of using a longbow
Longbow
A longbow is a type of bow that is tall ; this will allow its user a fairly long draw, at least to the jaw....
, and so could have taken part in battle, as Viking society would have expected a leader to do. However, it is highly unlikely that a boy with such a debilitating disease could have grown to manhood and achieved fame as a warrior and leader of warriors in the harsh conditions of the 9th century; and a simpler explanation for Ivar's sobriquet seems more likely.
In popular culture
- Ivar The Boneless appears in Harry HarrisonHarry HarrisonHarry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
's Hammer and Cross series which begins with the death of Ragnar and the invasion of the Heathen Army but then departs from historical events through the actions of the imaginary character Shef Sigvarthsson who eventually defeats Ivar in single combat. Different characters offer different explanations for the appellation "the boneless"; some claim it refers to impotence, while others assert that it is because godar in shamanic trances see Ivar in the otherworldOtherworldOtherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...
as a giant serpent. - In the 1958 film The VikingsThe Vikings (film)The Vikings is an adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer in 1958 Technicolor, produced by and starring Kirk Douglas, and based on the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall, based in its turn on legendary material from the sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons. Other actors included Tony Curtis,...
, Ivar has his name changed to Einar and is played by Kirk DouglasKirk DouglasKirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K... - In the 1989 film Erik the VikingErik the VikingErik the Viking is a 1989 feature film written and directed by Terry Jones. The film was inspired by Jones's children's book The Saga of Erik the Viking , but the plot is completely different. Jones also appears in the film as King Arnulf....
, a character named Ivar the Boneless is portrayed by John Gordon SinclairJohn Gordon SinclairJohn Gordon Sinclair is a Scottish actor most famous for playing Gregory in Gregory's Girl. He was born as Gordon John but took the stage name 'John Gordon Sinclair' because Equity already had a Gordon John registered....
. In the film, Ivar is portrayed as a rather weedy, cowardly Viking with a high pitched voice and a tendency to get seasick. - In The Sea of TrollsThe Sea of TrollsThe Sea of Trolls is the first volume of a fantasy trilogy by three-time Newbery Honor winning author Nancy Farmer. The second part is The Land of the Silver Apples , and the final volume, The Islands of the Blessed, was published in 2009.-Plot summary:The Sea of Trolls is set in A.D. 793 in...
by Nancy FarmerNancy Farmer (author)Nancy Farmer is a prominent children's book author from the United States.Farmer was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She earned her B.A. at Reed College and later studied chemistry and entomology at the University of California, Berkeley...
, Ivar is a king who was formerly a famous berserkerBerserkerBerserkers were Norse warriors who are reported in the Old Norse literature to have fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word berserk. Berserkers are attested in numerous Old Norse sources...
, called Ivar the Boneless only behind his back. He was called Ivar the Intrepid until he married the cruel, powerful and beautiful shapeshifter Frith HalfTroll. - Ivar is a minor character in Bernard CornwellBernard CornwellBernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
's historical fiction novel, The Last KingdomThe Last KingdomThe Last Kingdom is the first book in The Saxon Stories series by Bernard Cornwell. The series follows the wars between King Alfred the Great and the Danes or Vikings. The Last Kingdom focuses on Uhtred's upbringing and early adulthood. The book begins when Uhtred marches with his father to war...
. The earl Ragnar the Elder explains that Ivar's sobriquet originated because he was so thin that it appeared that one could use him to string a bow. This joke might also be a play on his name, as the name Ivar is derived from yrr ar, meaning "yewTaxus baccataTaxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
warrior". (Yew was a wood commonly used for making bows.)