Ragnarsdrápa is a skaldic poem composed in honour of the Scandinavian hero 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:...

. It is attributed to the oldest known skald

Skald

The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...

 Bragi Boddason

Bragi Boddason

In his Edda Snorri Sturluson quotes many stanzas attributed to Bragi Boddason the old , a court poet who served several Swedish kings, Ragnar Lodbrok, Östen Beli and Björn at Hauge who reigned in the first half of the ninth century...

 who lived in the 9th century, and composed for the Swedish king Björn at Haugi

Björn at Haugi

Björn at Haugi , Björn på Håga, Björn II or Bern was according to Hervarar saga a Swedish king and the son of Erik Björnsson, and Björn ruled together in diarchy with his brother Anund Uppsale:This account dates king Björn to the first half of the 9th century, as his nephew Eric Anundsson was...

http://25.1911encyclopedia.org/S/SW/SWEDEN.htm. Bragi describes the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had given to him. The images included:

• the attack of Hamdir and Sorli against King Jörmunrekkr
  Ermanaric
  Ermanaric was a Greuthungian Gothic King who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled an enormous area north of the Black Sea. Contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus recounts him as a "most warlike man" who "ruled over extensively wide and fertile regions"...
  
  
• the never-ending battle between Hedin and Högni
  Hedin and Högni
  Hjaðningavíg , the legend of Heðinn and Hǫgni or the Saga of Hild is a Scandinavian legend from Norse mythology about a never-ending battle which is documented in Sörla þáttr, Ragnarsdrápa, Gesta Danorum, Skíðaríma and in Skáldskaparmál. It is also held to appear on the image stone at Stora Hammar...
  
  .
• Thor's fishing for Jörmungandr
  Jörmungandr
  In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr , mostly known as Jormungand, orJörmungand , or Midgard Serpent , or World Serpent, is a sea serpent, and the middle child of the giantess Angrboða and the god Loki...
  
  
• Gefjun's ploughing of Zealand from the soil of Sweden

The extant fragments of Ragnarsdrápa are preserved in Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

's Prose Edda

Prose Edda

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...

. The episodes of Hamdir and Sorli, and Hedin and Högni are explicitly ascribed to Ragnarsdrápa while the other parts are inferred by scholars to belong to the same poem.

The poem is often compared with Húsdrápa

Húsdrápa

Húsdrápa is a skaldic poem partially preserved in the Prose Edda where disjoint stanzas of it are quoted. It is attributed to the skald Úlfr Uggason. The poem describes mythological scenes carved on kitchen panels...

and Haustlöng

Haustlöng

Haustlöng is a skaldic poem composed around the beginning of the 10th century. The poem is preserved in the 13th century Prose Edda, which quotes two groups of stanzas from it, and is attributed to the Norwegian skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir. The poem describes mythological scenes painted on a shield...

which also describe artworks depicting mythological scenes.

External links

• Ragnarsdrápa in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.
• Two editions of the original text
• The first two half-stanzas read aloud
• Translation and discussion of six half-stanzas