Ivar the Boneless: A Viking Warrior That Drew Strength From His Weakness

Ancient Origins

One would expect "boneless" to describe a man without a lick of bravery. Or perhaps a man without a shred of compassion in a heart of ice. Yet in the case of the infamous Ivar the Boneless, son of the renowned Ragnar Lodbrok, "boneless" means precisely what it sounds like: a man lacking sturdy bones, but not power.

 Who Was Ivar?
Possibly the son of Ragnar, best remembered for his horrifying death in a pit filled with venomous snakes, Ivar's existence is as much disputed as his father's. Both men possess names which were highly common in the northern countries in the ninth and tenth centuries, and there are records more formal than the Icelandic sagas which describe the deeds of similarly named men. In the case of Ivar, there is more certainty to his life, though the extent to which his accomplishments were his own rather than men of a similar name remains contested.

 Ivar is recorded as likely having a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, indicating that his body can bend beyond what the average human is capable. Rather than enhancing his performance however, such a condition would damage his body over time, gradually weakening him physically. While such a diagnosis was not quite believable in the ninth century, Ivar's "strange state" was unusual enough that its origins were tacked on to his mythological bio: if he was the son of Ragnar, Ivar's bone deficiency is attributed to Ragnar succumbing to his overwhelming lust for Ivar's mother, Aslaug, before the agreed upon time. In other words, it was a curse.

Ivar the Boneless as portrayed in the History Channel Series ‘Vikings’ (History Channel) 

The Great Heathen Army 

Historically, Ivar—despite his boneless moniker—is highly valued for his role as the leader of the Great Heathen Army in 865 AD, discussed in detail in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of the same year. This army—called "heathen" because the ninth century still preceded Christianity in certain northern realms—is credited with a high-scale invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in modern day England. This amalgamation of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian warriors (though these countries were not defined in the ninth century the same way they are today) destroyed their Anglo-Saxon enemies in a short-lived, three-day battle.

History Channel ‘Vikings’ Ivar the Boneless, second left, with his brothers. (History Channel)

According to sources, the Great Heathen Army was headed by Ragnar Lodbrok's three sons, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ivar the Boneless*, and Ubba. As previously stated, due to the lack of certainty in whether their father Ragnar was the same as the snake-sufferer, it is up for debate precisely why the heathen warriors chose to invade England—that is, if there was a reason beyond the "usual" pirating practices begun when the Vikings invaded Lindisfarne in 793 AD.** If Ivar and his brothers were, in fact, the children of the legendary Ragnar, the significance of this battle increases as the king of Northumbria (one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms) was directly responsible for Ragnar's death.

 Ivar’s Later Identity
 As Ivar the Boneless' parentage is under the umbrella of "legendary", there are other theories as to who this possible historical figure may be. One predominate suggestion is that he is Ímar, a Norse-born ninth century leader of the Viking settlement, Dublin.*** Ímar is recorded in the Irish Annals, an overarching term for the various historical documents written in regions that correlate to modern day Ireland. As Ímar's life and battle against the king of Ulster coincide chronologically with that of Ivar the Boneless, it has often been contemplated whether these two men were one and the same, and it is merely the fault of time and medieval biases that they're ancestry is recorded differently. Further, Ívar is no longer mentioned in any historical records following the year 870, not even as a deceased individual. Ímar, on the other hand, resurfaces at this time after an absence from the Irish Annals, and his death year is definitively determined as 873. Thus, if Ivar and Ímar were, in fact, the same individual with alternating names, giving Ímar/Ivar Ragnar Lodbrok as a father would have made his role in various battles and settlements far more pertinent mythologically as well as historically.

Imperfect as Ivar might have been by Viking standards, his "bonelessness" seemingly did little to affect his performance as a warrior and leader. He survives in historical record through the test of time, and his deeds are recorded with the same strong language one would expect from a man of his rank. Whether or not Ivar and Ímar are one, the acts attributed to Ivar directly paint him as a durable, determined Viking warrior, whose eventual defeat of his mythological father's killer is his final defining moment.

*A different historical source, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dictates a leader named Ingvar, believed also to be the same as Ivar.

**This attack marked the "beginning" of the Viking Age.

***Dublin was initially settled by the Vikings, just like York in northern England.

Top Image: Ivar the Boneless as portrayed in the History Channel Series ‘Vikings’ (History Channel)

By Ryan Stone

Why Would You Cremate and Bury Your Home? A Bizarre Viking Ritual Explained

Ancient Origins

The Vikings had a very bizarre tradition that might be totally unique: they buried their own homes. From the Bronze Age until the Viking Age, historians have noted that burial mounds were placed on top of the remains of Viking longhouses. The internal posts that served as roof-supporting beams were usually taken off before the house was set on fire and once the house had burned to the ground, one or more burial mounds were positioned on top of its remnants.

Vikings Burnt and Buried Their Own Houses
As Heritage Daily reports, Marianne Hem Eriksen, a postdoc at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo has investigated these uncommon “deaths” and burials of Scandinavian longhouses for quite some time now. She says, “I studied seven different house burials from the Iron Age in Scandinavia, in five different locations: Högom in Sweden; Ullandhaug in Rogaland; Brista in Uppland, Sweden; Jarlsberg in Vestfold; and Engelaug in Hedmark.”

Eriksen believes that the burial mounds were not always tied with human death, but instead they could possibly mark the cremation and burial of a house within Viking society. She explained to Heritage Daily, “In some cases we have been unable to find human remains, even in places where we could expect such remains to have been preserved. Nevertheless, archaeologists have more or less implicitly assumed that somewhere or other, there must be a deceased individual.

Artist’s interpretation of a ‘Viking Village.’ (Lukasz Wiktorzak/ArtStation)

Living in a Typical Viking Longhouse
As Robin Whitlock suggests in a previous Ancient Origins article, a typical longhouse was a long and probably very chaotic structure, plagued by noise and dirt. This was primarily because a number of families tended to live in the same house along with their animals (that were kept at one end of the structure.) This area would also be where the crops were stored and it would have been separated into stalls for animals and crops. The fire was a source of heat and light, but there was no chimney and that meant the longhouse would have been very smoky. Sometimes, additional lighting was provided in the form of stone lamps with fish liver oil or whale oil as the fuel. Seating was either in the form of wooden benches along the walls or an available spot on the floor.

The walls of a longhouse were commonly made from a structure of wooden poles with wattle and daub infilling. In Denmark, some longhouses had forges inside them, although more commonly the forge was housed in a separate building. The size of the longhouse depended on the wealth of the owner and in some areas of Denmark royal longhouses were located in settlements within round earthen embankments consisting of four longhouses. Each longhouse accommodated the crew of a ship and their families. The roof was made of thatch or wooden shingles.

Reconstruction of a Viking house from the ring castle Fyrkat near Hobro, Denmark. (Malene Thyssen/CC BY SA 3.0)

Can a House Die?
The question popping up from such practices is simple: Can a house (or any object for that matter) die? Marianne Hem Eriksen had to dig deep into anthropology’s mysteries to find more sources about people’s attachment to their houses in various cultures. She told Heritage Daily,

“To people in Madagascar, a house has its own life cycle. It is born, lives, grows old and dies. The Batammaliba people of West Africa perform rituals during the construction of houses, the same rites of passage that they perform for newborn babies, adolescents and adults. When the house is completed, they perform a ritual where they ‘kill’ the house. The house has been alive during the building process, and must be killed to make it habitable for people. Many cultures believe that the house is metaphorically linked to the human body.”

 The Link Between Human Bodies and Objects in Viking Culture
After years of research and study on the topic, Eriksen is pretty convinced that the Vikings saw a link between the human body and the house they were living in during their lifetime. As she told Heritage Daily:

“Many of the Norse words that are related to houses are derived from the human body. The word window comes from wind and eye and refers to openings in the walls where the wind comes in. The word gable, i.e. the top of the end wall of the house, means head or skull. This connection between bodies and houses may have led them to think that a house has some kind of essence, some kind of soul.”

‘Viking Long house door. Norway, Epcot Center.’ (One Lucky Guy/CC BY NC SA 2.0)

This possibly explains why Norse people during that period would often give their house a proper funeral when it had completed its circle of life. As Eriksen explained:

“By burning down the house they may have had a wish to cremate it, to liberate the life force of the house. If houses and people could be part of a network that had ‘agency’ – vitality and personality – this could at least be part of the explanation for the longevity of longhouses in Scandinavia.”

 Eriksen is currently continuing her study on the topic and has published an article on the same in the European Journal of Archaeology.

Viking Longhouse – Reconstruction. (Eric Gross/CC BY 2.0)

Top Image: ‘Light and Structure’ - Reconstruction of Viking Longhouse: Central Jutland, Denmark. Source: Eric Gross/CC BY 2.0

By Theodoros Karasavvas

The Toy Boat that Sailed the Seas of Time

Ancient Origins

A thousand years ago, for reasons we will never know, the residents of a tiny farmstead on the coast of central Norway filled an old well with dirt.

Maybe the water dried up, or maybe it became foul. But when archaeologists found the old well and dug it up in the summer of 2016, they discovered an unexpected surprise: a carefully carved toy, a wooden boat with a raised prow like a proud Viking ship, and a hole in the middle where a mast could have been stepped.

"This toy boat says something about the people who lived here," said Ulf Fransson, an archaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) University Museum and one of two field leaders for the Ørland Main Air Station dig, where the well and the boat were found.

"First of all, it is not so very common that you find something that probably had to do with a child. But it also shows that the children at this farm could play, that they had permission to do something other than work in the fields or help around the farm."

The story of a small farm Finding a 1000-year-old Scandinavian toy boat is not that common, but it's not that uncommon either. In fact, a similar boat, in both age and construction, was found in downtown Trondheim in 1900, when the road in front of what is now the Trondheim Main Public Library was dug up to install sewer pipes.

The finds from the city at that time included a big spoon, different handles, pegs made of wood and "a little boat," according to the acquisitions list. This particular boat is even on display at the NTNU University Museum.

But in the Middle Ages, Trondheim was already established as a trading post and a city, one that was the nation's capital during the Viking Period until 1217. The concentration of people, and the wealth generated by trade almost certainly ensured that at least some children had the time and ability to play -- and thus toys, like the boat, to play with.

The find from Ørland, however, is very different, says Ingrid Ystgaard, an archaeologist who is head of the entire Ørland Main Air Base project.

"The Middle Age farm here is far from the sea, it is not that strategically located," she said. "There are other farms in Ørland that were better located."

Thus, this medieval farm was probably not the richest farm in the area, far from it. Yet life here was good enough so that someone had time to carve the toy boat for a child.

And the child had time to play with it.

A really cool toy
Boats were among the most technologically advanced objects made in the Middle Ages, Fransson said.

"If you built a Viking ship or a knarr (a type of boat), both children and adults would have thought it was very important, it was very specialized construction," he said.

"This is a 'real' boat. You don't have to do this much work to make a toy for a child," Fransson said. Whoever made it "worked to make something that also looked like a boat."

A realistic looking toy boat would thus have been perceived as "really cool, just like kids today think that race cars or planes are really cool," he said.

A model of a knarr – exhibited in a museum in Hedeby, in northern Germany. A knarr was a kind of a freighter, and was broader and shorter than a Viking war ship. Photo: Wikipedia

From bay to dry land
One of the things that archaeologists find most fascinating about the entire Ørland project has to do with the location of the dig itself.

 Ørland is a rectangle of land on Norway's outer coast that looks like the head of a seahorse jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. But it didn't always look this way.

Consider this: Norway was once covered with kilometres of ice during the last Ice Age, more than 13,000 years ago. The great weight of the ice sheet depressed the land it sat on. After the glaciers disappeared, the land has gradually risen up, or rebounded.

 This rebound created many changes along Norway's coast, most notably when land that was once an island rose up and became a part of the mainland, or an area that might have once been a shallow bay became dry land.

Ørland is one of these places. In roughly 200 BC, during the Iron Age, Ørland's big chunky peninsula looked more like a thin curled finger, with a big bay trapped on its southern side. Now that bay is dry land, nearly 2 km from the coast.

The Museum's single largest dig -- ever
Fortunately for the NTNU archaeologists, the Iron Age seaside location is precisely where the Ørland Main Air Base decided to expand its facilities to accommodate the purchase of new F-35 fighter jets, approved by the Norwegian Parliament in 2012.

The expansion plans triggered the need for an archaeological investigation. By the end of the 2016 field season, the NTNU University Museum had excavated nearly 120,000 m2, or roughly four times the size of a good-sized shopping mall, over three summers of fieldwork.

This makes it the single largest archaeological dig undertaken in the history of the museum.

An overview of the Ørland dig where the boat and shoes were found. Photo: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum

Seven farms, 1500 years
 Ørland's fertile soil and strategic location near the mouth of Trondheim Fjord have ensured that people have lived in this area for millennia. So it should come as no surprise that the extensive dig uncovered traces of seven farms, spanning 1500 years, from 500 BC to 1000 AD.

 The farms and farmyards are marked by postholes from structures, garbage dumps, and old wells. These Ørland farms, clustered as they are in one place, tell a unique story of how farming and farm communities evolved in the region over 1500 years, Ystgaard said.

 "This is one of the biggest questions we are studying, the development of farms in this area over a span of 1500 years in the past. It is fantastic material," she said.

Garbage, seeds and pollen
While the field portion of the dig is now completed, archaeologists will continue to work their way through samples they've taken from garbage middens and cooking pits, and sift through dirt that has been removed from house and fence postholes.

A team from the University of Bergen is also hunting for clues about the vegetational history of the area based on pollen in cores they've taken from a nearby wetland called Stormyra.

The garbage middens and cooking pits, with their animal and fish bones and seashells, shed light on what people ate.

The dirt from the postholes offers a different view of daily life. Seeds and grains that have fallen on the ground tend to collect or be swept into corners. That makes postholes a treasure trove of information about the kinds of grains inhabitants ate or grew.

And lastly, by looking at changes in pollen types and amounts over the centuries, based on the cores collected in a nearby wetland, the researchers can reconstruct what the vegetation around the farms was like from the last 2500 years.

They should be able to detect changes caused by grazing animals, logging and farming, of course. All of these puzzle pieces help to fill in the many unknowns about how rural farms operated over the millennia, particularly during the Middle Ages, Ystgaard said.

"We know very little about the organization of farming in Norway in 1000 AD," Ystgaard said. "We have investigated almost no farms in rural communities in Norway from this time."

But with the wealth of information collected from Ørland, "we can look at the social development of farms during this period."

Shoes that date from St. Olav's reign as king
The well that yielded the toy boat and a second well contained other treasures, including pieces of leather that might amount to four leather shoes. The high water table in the filled wells helped preserve the shoes and the wooden boat.

 If any of these objects had been discarded in a drier area, they would have probably decomposed, said Ellen Wijgård Randerz, a conservator at the NTNU University Museum who has responsibility for the artefacts from the project.

When the shoes were first discovered, the researchers thought they must be from more recent times than the Middle Ages, she said.

But when the radiocarbon dating information came back, it was "big news," said Ystgaard. "We found shoes that are contemporaneous with Olav den Hellige," who was king of Norway from 1015 to 1028.

One of the most complete shoes from this time period found at the Ørland site. Photo: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum.

This worn-out sole tells archaeologists that the owner was willing to pay to repair his shoes, since the front of the sole is clearly cut off. The size of the heel suggests the owner was probably male and had fairly large feet. Photo: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum

Walking in their shoes
 Finding the shoes -- which look a little like moccasins, with a leather sole and simple, form fitted shape -- also tells the archaeologists that the farm was not that wealthy.

"These were more of an ordinary shoe, a work shoe that they wore every day," Fransson said. One of the shoe pieces that was found was a heel piece from a large sole, with a hole worn through it. The clean-cut front edge of the heel piece shows that "the shoe was worn out and they did repair it," he said.

But because the researchers found much of a whole shoe, "that tells me that they weren't that poor either, because they had the means to throw (a whole shoe) out," he said.

The shoe had been cut to fit the individual's foot and probably fit reasonably well, Randerz said, but people today probably would find it thin, cold and slippery.

 "They might have stuffed the shoes with grass, and worn thick wool socks, but they were definitely not warm or dry," she said, studying the shoe. "It says a little about what it was like to walk in their shoes."

 Top image: Some child likely played with this carved wooden boat a thousand years ago. It was found in an abandoned well during an extensive archaeological dig at the Ørland Main Air Station, on the coast west of Trondheim.

 Credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University The article ‘The toy boat that sailed the seas of time’ was published by The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).