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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 4845596" data-attributes="member: 77019">Ok as promised earlier, here is another colorful anecdote on the subject of Wyrms, this time from the Vikings... in fact one of the most famous Vikings in history, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar_Lodbrok" target="_blank">Ragnar Lodbrok</a> Ragnar, whose cognomen translates to 'hairy pants', was both a very colorful literary character and a man whose actions "echo in eternity" as few others have before or since. We know he really existed and there are quite a few legends about him, but we don't really know much about his real life which took place just before the dawn of written history in this part of the world (Scandinavia).  Ragnar was portrayed by Ernest Borgnine in this famous (and frankly awesome, though totally unhistorical) 1958 film starring Kirk Douglas as one of his sons, and Tony Curtis as Kirks nemesis, a slave and illegitimate British prince. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvB1jLld1W0"]YouTube - The Vikings[/ame] We do know a little bit more about Ragnars death, and considerably more from both written archeological records about the events which occurred right after his death, namely the invasion and sacking of Britain by a massive Viking army led by his sons, supposedly in revenge for his killing at the hands of a Saxon King. Serpents played a major role in Ragnars life, he earned his Cognomen (fairly late in his career) for slaying two fearsome "Wyrms" in Sweden, and died when he was shipwrecked in Northumbria, England, and the local Saxon King Aella had him thrown into a pit of vipers.  <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Ragnar_Lodbroks_d%C3%B6d_by_Hugo_Hamilton.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> As he was being bitten to death, Ragnar predicted the reaction by his powerful and already famous (and possibly adoptive) sons <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_the_Boneless" target="_blank">Ivar the Boneless</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_Ironside" target="_blank">Bjorn Ironsides</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurd_Snake-in-the-Eye" target="_blank">Sigurd Snake-Eye</a> Halfdan and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubbe_Ragnarsson" target="_blank">Ubbe Ragnarson</a> in a famous laconic comment: "Oh how the little pigs will squeal when they learn the fate of the old boar". He then composed his own death-poem according to the Icelandic skald-lay, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kr%C3%A1kum%C3%A1l" target="_blank">Krákumál</a> (or lay of Kraka) in words that still resonate today.  "We swung our sword;that was ever so long agowhen we walked in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautland" target="_blank">Gautland</a>to the murder of the dig-wulf.Then we received Þóra;since then(at that battle when I killed the heather-fish)people called me Furry-pants.I stabbed the spearinto the loop of the earth." He was right about the little pigs, Ivar and the boys conquered every kingdom in Britain save Wessex, and that was saved only by a miracle by one of the most capable leaders the British Isles have ever seen, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great" target="_blank">Alfred the Great</a>. Aella was captured by Ragnars sons who carved the blood eagle on his back.  I could go on and on about the exploits of Ragnars sons and the Vikings, but this is about dragons. So I'm going back to an earlier point in Ragnars semi-mythical life.  We have two sources on Ragnar, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Danorum" target="_blank">Gesta Danorum</a> ('History of the Danes') by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxo_Grammaticus" target="_blank">Saxo Grammaticus </a>, and a short Saga called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarssona_%C3%BE%C3%A1ttr" target="_blank">Ragnarssona þátt</a> (tale of ragnar's sons). The story we are interested in today takes place after Ragnar has already divorced his formidable first wife <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathgertha" target="_blank">Lathgertha</a> (who nevertheless comes back to save his life at a critical moment many years later) and goes courting a new wife Thora, a sort of Damsel in distress (later to be replaced another impressive she-warrior named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aslaug" target="_blank">Aslaug</a>, a formidable shield-maiden who according to legend once led 1,500 soldiers into battle) Anyway, Thora (also called Kraka) while beautiful, had a nasty pest problem that Ragnar had to deal with before he could go 'a courting. Quoting the wiki: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrau%C3%B0r" target="_blank">Herrauðr</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl" target="_blank">earl</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6taland" target="_blank">Götaland</a> and one of Ragnar's vassals has a daughter <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Eora_Town-Hart" target="_blank">Þora Town-Hart</a> who is very beautiful. He gives her a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindworm" target="_blank">lindworm</a>, but after some time, it encircles her bower and threatens anyone who approaches it, except for her servants who fed it with an ox every day. At his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bragarfull" target="_blank">bragarfull</a>, Herrauðr promises his daughter to the man who kills the serpent.When Ragnar hears of this, he goes to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4sterg%C3%B6tland" target="_blank">Västergötland</a> and dresses himself in shaggy clothes that he has treated with tar and sand. He takes a spear and approaches the serpent which blows poison at him. Ragnar protects himself with his shield and his clothes and spears the serpent through its heart. He then cuts off the serpent's head, and when the people find out what has happened, he marries Thora.  Saxo Grammaticus, a gifted if not always accurate writer, had a bit more colorful description of this event in book IX of his Gesta Danorum: <a href="http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book9.html" target="_blank">OMACL: The Danish History: Book Nine</a> Afterwards, changing his love, and desiring Thora, the daughter of the King Herodd, to wife, Ragnar divorced himself from Ladgerda; for he thought ill of her trustworthiness, remembering that she had long ago set the most savage beasts to destroy him. Meantime Herodd, the King of the Swedes, happening to go and hunt in the woods, brought home some snakes, found by his escort, for his daughter to rear. She speedily obeyed the instructions of her father, and endured to rear a race of adders with her maiden hands. Moreover, she took care that they should daily have a whole ox-carcase to gorge upon, not knowing that she was privately feeding and keeping up a public nuisance. The vipers grew up, and scorched the country-side with their pestilential breath. Whereupon the king, repenting of his sluggishness, proclaimed that whosoever removed the pest should have his daughter.  Many warriors were thereto attracted by courage as much as by desire; but all idly and perilously wasted their pains. Ragnar, learning from men who travelled to and fro how the matter stood, asked his nurse for a woolen mantle, and for some thigh-pieces that were very hairy, with which he could repel the snake-bites. He thought that he ought to use a dress stuffed with hair to protect himself, and also took one that was not unwieldy, that he might move nimbly. And when he had landed in Sweden, he deliberately plunged his body in water, while there was a frost falling, and, wetting his dress, to make it the less penetrable, he let the cold freeze it. Thus attired, he took leave of his companions, exhorted them to remain loyal to Fridleif, and went on to the palace alone. When he saw it, he tied his sword to his side, and lashed a spear to his right hand with a thong. As he went on, an enormous snake glided up and met him. Another, equally huge, crawled up, following in the trail of the first. They strove now to buffet the young man with the coils of their tails, and now to spit and belch their venom stubbornly upon him. Meantime the courtiers, betaking themselves to safer hiding, watched the struggle from afar like affrighted little girls. The king was stricken with equal fear, and fled, with a few followers, to a narrow shelter. But Ragnar, trusting in the hardness of his frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not only with his arms, but with his attire, and, singlehanded, in unweariable combat, stood up against the two gaping creatures, who stubbornly poured forth their venom upon him. For their teeth he repelled with his shield, their poison with his dress. At last he cast his spear, and drove it against the bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard. He pierced both their hearts, and his battle ended in victory. After Ragnar had thus triumphed the king scanned his dress closely, and saw that he was rough and hairy; but, above all, he laughed at the shaggy lower portion of his garb, and chiefly the uncouth aspect of his breeches; so that he gave him in jest the nickname of Lodbrog. Also he invited him to feast with his friends, to refresh him after his labours. Ragnar said that he would first go back to the witnesses whom he had left behind. He set out and brought them back, splendidly attired for the coming feast. At last, when the banquet was over, he received the prize that was appointed for the victory. By her he begot two nobly- gifted sons, Radbard and Dunwat. These also had brothers -- Siward, Biorn, Agnar, and Iwar. So was it a dragon or just a bad snake infestation? Who knows, but the whole thing makes for an interesting story, full of detail and flavor you can use to add dragons into a Viking campaign. G. Next: Dragon slayers who are werewolves...</blockquote>

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