Immortal Vikings

Three book-related links, if you'll excuse the plug! My latest piece for History Today is now available to read online at this link. It's about the strange and intriguing story of the mysterious 'St Ragner of Northampton' - one of those medieval saint's legends which tells you relatively little about the saint it's commemorating, but is very revealing about the community which honoured the saint. In this case it seems to tell us something about the Scandinavian connections of at least one man living in medieval Northampton, and the developing legend of the fearsome Ragnar Lothbrok, now one of the most famous Vikings of medieval literature.

If you just can't get enough Ragnar Lothbrok (who can?), I also have a story in this month's BBC History Magazine about the Ragnar legend, explaining how the stories about him grew up and how, after their 'rediscovery' in the 17th century, they helped to shape the modern image of the Vikings:

These are topics I discuss at greater length in my book, along with a range of other stories about the Vikings in England - I talked about some of those recently in an interview with History Answers, which you can read here. (That's the last plug!) The story of St Ragner of Northampton is an example of something I particularly wanted to do in the book: to give prominence to these kinds of local traditions, which differ in some interesting ways from the mainstream, popular narrative about the Vikings people are most familiar with today. (Often one derived from those Old Norse sagas and poems 'rediscovered' in the 17th century, which were unknown in medieval England, in that form at least.) It made me newly aware of what a rich history so many of these English towns have - in the book I talk about stories from Northampton, Grimsby, Crowland, Bury St Edmunds, and more, all individual and fascinating in their own ways. They're a precious heritage of legendary history, celebrating the long and venerable stories of these communities across many centuries. What an incredible thing - and the Vikings are only one part of it...