Now! Then! Viking mercenaries draw the Anglo-Saxons of Ælla of Northumbria into the streets of York and slaughter them

23 March 0867: Viking mercenaries draw the Anglo-Saxons of Ælla of Northumbria into the streets of York and slaughter them

Ragnar Lodbrok’s death, by Hugo Hamilton (Hamilton 1830).

Roger of Wendover. 1849 (1220s-30s). Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History, Vol. I. Ed. J.A. Giles. London: Henry G. Bohn. Get it:

Excerpt

In the year of our Lord 867, Pope Adrian succeeded Nicolas and sat in the Roman chair four years. In the same year, on All Saints’ day, the cruel army of Danes migrated out of the country of the East Angles to the city of York. At this time too there was the greatest dissension among the Northumbrians, for the people had expelled their lawful king Osbert from his kingdom, and had raised to the throne a usurper named Ella, who was not of the royal lineage; but by divine providence, on the advance of the Danes, Osbert and Ella, for the good of the common al, made peace among themselves, and then with united forces approached the city of York; on which the Danes straightway fled, and determined to defend themselves within the city walls. The Christian kings pursued, made a very fierce attack on the enemy, and cast down the city walls. At length they entered the city, and engaged in battle with the pagans to their own exceeding loss; for in that fight, which was fought on Palm Sunday, there fell the kings Osbert and Ella, and with them eight nobles, with an immense multitude inferior rank. The most cruel victors after this ravaged the entire country of the Northumbrians as far as the mouth of the river Tyne, and subdued it to themselves. The kings of the Northumbrians being slain, a certain man of the English nation named Egbert next governed that kingdom, for six years, in subjection to the Danes.

Palm Sunday is on 13 April 2025.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Ragnar’s snake-pit and the blood-eagling of Ælla

Jelmer Dijkstra (Dijkstra 2013) says that Symeon (Symeon of Durham 2000), which I haven’t read, also dates the battle to Palm Sunday. The Anglo-Norman chroniclers may conceivably be more reliable, but the Scandinavians are certainly more dramatic. Ragnars saga tells how a Scandinavian king called Ragnar Lothbrok, worried that his sons are more feared than he, invades England with a very small force. The English king Ælla confronts him with a very large force:

But howsoever they struck or shot at him, no weapon harmed him, and he received no wound, though he slew a great number of King Ella’s men. Yet the end of the battle was that all of Ragnar’s host fell, and he was overborne by shields and captured. Then they asked him who he was, but he remained silent and answered no whit. King Ella said, “This man shall have a greater test of his hardihood put upon him if he will not tell us who he is. Let him be cast into a snake-pit and let him sit there a long time; but if he says aught by which we may know that he is Ragnar, let him be taken out as quickly as may be.”

So he was led away, and he sat in the pit a long time, but no snake attached itself to him. Folk said, “This is a very mighty man. No weapons bit him to-day, and now no worms sting him.” Then Ella bade them strip off the garment that he wore upper-most. This was done and straightway all the snakes hung upon him with all their might. Then said Ragnar, “The young pigs would grumble if they knew what the old one is suffering.” But although he said this, they did not certainly know that he was Ragnar rather than another king. Then he spoke a verse:

“To many men I brought bitter bale,
And one and fifty battles I’ve fought;
My bane I did not expect from a worm,
But fate is oft not the thing we thought.”

And again he spoke:

“My young ones would snarl if they knew my fate
(There is torment enow as my life is bled);
Fiercely the fangs of the snakes strike home –
Among the beasts I shall soon lie dead.” (Schlauch 1930)

The sons, including Ivar, cross the ocean to take revenge:

[T]he end of it was that King Ella and his men took to flight, but he was captured. Ivar was near by at that time, and he said that they should thus devise his death. “It is now the time,” said he, “to remember the death he gave our father. Let a skilled wood-carver mark out an eagle on his back as deep as may be, and let that eagle be reddened with his blood.”

The man who was called to do this work did as Ivar commanded him. King Ella was very sore before it was completed. He died thereafter, and the brothers thought now that they had avenged their father. (op. cit.)

Dijkstra:

Another episode from the saga needs to be addressed, namely the carving of the blood-eagle on Ælla’s back. This may have a basis in Scandinavian practice. [A.P.] Smyth has argued that it was in fact a sacrifice, carried out by cutting away all of the ribs from the spine and ripping out the lungs. This meaning was lost in later sources, presumably because these writers were unfamiliar with the ritual. Smyth argues that ‘originally (…) the mutilated corpse was itself made to resemble the spread-eagle saturated in gore (…).’ This practice is found in another Scandinavian source, the Orkneyinga saga, and seems to have been a sacrifice of victory in honour of Odin. Smyth argues that this was the reason for the sacrifice, besides the disposal of the Northumbrian royal line.

So Vikings (2013) was pretty restrained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwV3Y9GjOAQ&ab_channel=Vikinger

I’d like to use a passage from Margaret Schlauch’s translation in the book.

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Original

In the year of our Lord 867, pope Adrian succeeded Nicolas and sat in the Roman chair four years. In the same year, on All Saints’ day, the cruel army of Danes migrated out of the country of the East-Angles to the city of York. At this time too there was the greatest dissension among the Northumbrians, for the people had expelled their lawful king Osbert from his kingdom, and had raised to the throne a usurper named Ella, who was not of the royal lineage; but by divine providence, on the advance of the Danes, Osbert and Ella, for the good of the common al, made peace among themselves, and then with united forces approached the city of York; on which the Danes straightway fled, and determined to defend themselves within the city walls. The Christian kings pursued, made a very fierce attack on the enemy, and cast down the city walls. At length they entered the city, and engaged in battle with the pagans to their own exceeding loss; for in that fight, which was fought on Palm Sunday, there fell the kings Osbert and Ella, and with them eight nobles, with an immense multitude inferior rank. The most cruel victors after this ravaged the entire country of the Northumbrians as far as the mouth of the river Tyne, and subdued it to themselves. The kings of the Northumbrians being slain, a certain man of the English nation named Egbert next governed that kingdom, for six years, in subjection to the Danes.

255 words.