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.