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Ivar the Boneless

Ivar Ragnarsson (died possibly 873) nicknamed the Boneless (inn beinlausi), was a Danish Viking chieftain (and by reputation also a berserker), who, in the autumn of 865 A.D., with his brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson (Halfdene) and Ubbe Ragnarsson (Hubba), led the Great Heathen Army in the invasion of the East Anglian region of England. An accommodation was quickly reached with the East Anglians. The following year, Ivar led his forces north on horseback and easily captured York (what the Danes called Jorvik) from the Northumbrians who were at that time engaged in a civil war. Ivar succeeded in holding York against a vain attempt to relieve the city in A.D. 867. He was the son of the powerful Ragnar Lodbrok, ruler of an area probably comprising parts of Denmark and Sweden.

Ivar is also attributed with the slaying of St. Edmund of East Anglia in 869 AD. By some accounts, when Edmund refused to become the vassal of a pagan, Ivar had Edmund bound to a tree, whereupon Vikings shot arrows into him until he died. According to others, he was shot in the nave of a church.

There is some disagreement as to the meaning of Ivar's epithet "Boneless." Some have suggested it was a euphemism for impotence or even a snake metaphor (he had a brother named Snake-in-the-Eye). However, the Scandinavian sources describe a condition that is sometimes understood as similar to a form of osteogenesis imperfecta (see below). The poem Háttalykill inn forni describes Ivar as being "without any bones at all".

Alternatively, the English word "bone" is cognate with the German word "Bein", meaning "leg". Apparently Ivar the Boneless was carried everywhere. So perhaps his epithet simply meant "legless" - perhaps literally or perhaps simply because he was lame.

It is possible that Ivar may be identical to the Ímar whose death appears in the Annals of Ulster in 873:

Ímar, king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain, ended his life.

Scandinavian sources

According to the saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, Ivar Boneless was the eldest son of Ragnar and Kraka. It is said he was fair, big, strong, and one of the wisest men who has ever lived. He was consequently the advisor of his brothers Björn Ironside, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Hvitserk.

The story has it that when king Ælla of Northumberland had murdered their father, by throwing him into a snake-pit, Ivar's brothers tried to avenge their father, but were beaten. Ivar then went to king Ælla and said that he sought reconciliation. He only asked for as much land as he could cover with an ox's hide and swore never to wage war against Ælla. Then Ivar cut the ox's hide into so fine strands that he could envelope a large fortress (in an older saga it was York and according to a younger saga it was London) which he could take as his own. As he was the most generous of men, he attracted a great many warriors whom he consequently kept from Ælla when this king was attacked by Ivar's brothers for the second time.

Ælla was captured and, when the brothers were to decide how to give Ælla his just punishment, Ivar suggested that they carve the "blood eagle" on his back. According to popular belief, this meant that Ælla's back was cut open, the ribs pulled from his spine, and his lungs pulled out to form 'wings'.

In Ragnar Lodbrok's saga, there is an interesting prequel to the Battle of Hastings: it is told that before Ivar died in England, he ordered that his body be buried in a mound on the English Shore, saying that so long as his bones guarded that section of the coast, no enemy could invade there successfully. This prophecy held true, says the saga, until "when Vilhjalm bastard (William the Conqueror) came ashore[,] he went [to the burial site] and broke Ivar's mound and saw that [Ivar's] body had not decayed. Then [Vilhjalm] had a large pyre made [upon which Ivar's body was] burned.... Thereupon, [Vilhjalm proceeded with the landing invasion and achieved] the victory."

Genetic disease

In 1949, the Dane Knud Seedorf published Osteogenesis imperfecta: A study of clinical features and heredity based on 55 Danish families, where he wrote:

Of historical personages the author knows of only one of whom we have a vague suspicion that he suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, namely Ivar Benløs, eldest son of the Danish legendary king Regnar Lodbrog. He is reported to have had legs as soft as cartilage ('he lacked bones'), so that he was unable to walk and had to be carried about on a shield.

There are less extreme forms of this disease where the person affected can lack use of their legs, but be otherwise normal, as may have been the case for Ivar the Boneless. The disease is more commonly known as "Brittle bone disease."

In 2003 Nabil Shaban, a disability rights advocate with osteogenesis imperfecta, made the documentary The Strangest Viking for Channel 4's Secret History, in which he explored the possibility that Ivar the Boneless may have had the same condition as himself. It also demonstrated that someone with the condition was quite capable of using a longbow, and so could have taken part in battle, as Viking society would have expected a leader to do.

In popular culture

Harry Harrison's Hammer and Cross series has a character by the same name, but the appellation "the boneless" refers to his impotence, not an inability to walk.
In the 1958 film "The Vikings" Ivar has his name changed to Einar and is played by Kirk Douglas.
In the 1989 film Erik the Viking a character by the name of Ivar the Boneless is portrayed by John Gordon Sinclair. In the film, Ivar is portrayed as a rather weedy, cowardly Viking with a high pitched voice and a tendency to get seasick.
In The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer Ivar is a king who was formerly a famous berserker, called Ivar the Boneless only behind his back. He was called Ivar the Valiant until he married the cruel, powerful and beautiful (in her human form) shapeshifter Frith HalfTroll.
Ivar is a minor character in Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novel, The Last Kingdom. The earl Ragnar the Elder explains that Ivar got his name because he was so thin that it appeared that one could use him to string a bow. This joke might also be a play on his name, as the name Ivar is derived from yrr ar, meaning "yew warrior". Yew was a wood commonly used for making bows.