Ivar the Boneless — the Fearless Viking Chieftain of the Great Heathen Army

7 min readMar 5, 2022

Ivar the Boneless — Leader of the Great Heathen Army

Ivar the Boneless, or Ivar Ragnarsson, was the formidable Viking warlord of the Great Heathen Army in the late ninth century. The Norse sagas celebrated his conquests in Anglo Saxon England long after his death.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounted Ivar the Boneless and his brothers, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ubba, led the Great Heathen Army during the invasion of England in 865.

Ivar the Boneless adopted the symbol of the raven to honour his father Ragnar Lothbrok. The raven was the sacred bird of the Odin and may have protected him from the curse of having no bones.

The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok claimed Ivar the Boneless “could not stand” as there was “only gristle” instead of bone.

The Vikings carried the Danish chieftain, Ivar the Boneless, into battle on a shield. His disability did not prevent him from fighting bravely alongside his Norse warriors.

Legends affirmed Ivar the Boneless displayed the rage and violence of a berserker on the battlefield.

The Scandinavian sources described “Ivarr inn beinlausi” as a giant who commanded the respect of the Vikings. His renowned cunning and military genius came to the fore during his campaigns in England, Ireland and Scotland between 853 and 873.

Ivar the Boneless in East Anglia and Northumbria

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounted that the Great Heathen Army, or “mycel hæþen”, landed on the Isle of Thanet in Kent in 865.

Ivar the Boneless, sailed from the Viking stronghold of Dublin to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia in 866. He joined his brothers, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ubba, and the Great Heathen Army.

The sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, Ivar the Boneless, Ubba and Halfdan Ragnarsson, intended to conquer rather than raid the wealthy Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Their army of three thousand Norse warriors ravaged and eventually colonised Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia.

The sizable Viking force consisted mostly of Danish warriors. Their ranks were augmented by the Norse from Norway, Sweden, Ireland and the Scandinavian colonies in Scotland.

King Edmund of East Anglia provided the Great Heathen Army with horses and provisions as part of the peace negotiations with Ivar the Boneless.

The Great Heathen Army overwintered in East Anglia before marching on Northumbria in 867.

The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland affirmed Ivar the Boneless slaughtered countless Anglo-Saxons during the assault on the City of York.

“York was attacked, and much of every kind of booty was taken from it — for it was rich at that time — and the who were captured there were put to death. It was from that that every misfortune and every harassment of the island of Britain arose” (Fragmentary Annals of Ireland).

Ivar the Boneless, Ubba and Halfdan Ragnarsson forced Aella, King of Northumbria, to suffer the punishment of the blood eagle for murdering their father, Ragnar Lothbrok.

The fall of York allowed Ivar the Boneless and Vikings to take control of Northumbria.

Ivar the Boneless and the Great Heathen Army in Mercia

Ivar the Boneless and the Great Heathen Army proceeded to the kingdom of Mercia in 868. The Vikings captured Nottingham and remained in the town during the winter of 868/869.

Burgred, King of Mercia, sent messengers to King Aethelred of Wessex and his brother, Alfred the Great, rather than driving the Great Heathen Army from his lands.

The Welsh monk, Asser, wrote Aethelred and Alfred the Great, “assembled an immense army from every part of their (realm), and, entering Mercia, came to Nottingham, all eager for battle”.

The combined armies of Mercia and Wessex lay siege to the Vikings at Nottingham but could not overcome the fortifications built by the Norse.

“When now the heathen, defended by the castle, refused to fight, and the Christians were unable to destroy the wall, peace was made between the Mercians and the heathen, and the two brothers, Æthelred and Alfred, returned home with their troops” (Life of Alfred the Great).

Ivar the Boneless agreed not to attack Mercia on the condition King Burgred paid tribute in the form of the Danegeld. He kept possession of the Anglo-Saxon lands conquered by the Great Heathen Army.

The Great Heathen Army returned to York for the winter of 869/870. Ivar the Boneless made the Jorvik, or the City of York, the capital of the Viking held territories in England.

Ivar and his brothers, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ubba, broke the terms of the peace when they returned to East Anglia.

Death of King Edmund at the Hands of Ivar the Boneless

King Edmund fought the Vikings but was captured during the fighting.

The Medieval chronicler, Ari Thorgilsson, wrote Ivar the Boneless ordered the death of Edmund, King of East Anglia.

According to the Benedictine monk, Abbo of Fleury, the Vikings “led the faithful king to a sturdy tree and tied him there with strong bonds, thereupon beating him for a long time with whips”.

“Then, they threw spears at him, as if for sport, until his body was covered with their weapons, like a hedgehog’s bristles”.

“When Hingwar saw that Edmund would not renounce his faith…he commanded them to behead the noble king…With one blow, they struck off his head, and his soul travelled joyfully to Christ” (The Passion of King Edmund).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle detailed the ruthlessness of Ivar the Boneless during the attack on the monastery at Peterborough, or Medhamsted in 870.

The Vikings “came…to Medhamsted, burning and breaking, and slaying abbot and monks, and all that they there found. They made such havoc there, that a monastery, which was before full rich, was now reduced to nothing”.

Ivar the Boneless mysteriously disappeared from the accounts of the English chroniclers in 870.

Ivar the Boneless in Dublin and Scotland

The Irish annals revealed Ivar the Boneless and his kinsman, Olaf the White, lay siege to the fortress at Ail Cluaithe, or Dumbarton Rock, in 870.

Dumbarton Rock was the capital of the kingdom of Strathclyde in southern Scotland.

Ivar the Boneless and Olaf the White destroyed the fortress after a four-month siege.

The Chronicon Scotorum recounted the return of the Viking kings to their stronghold at Áth Cliath, or Dublin, in 871.

“Amlaíb and Ímar returned to Áth Cliath from Alba with two hundred ships, bringing away with them in captivity to Ireland a great prey of Saxons and Britons”

The Annals of Ulster eulogised the death of Ivar the Boneless in 871 with the epithet “king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain”.

Grave of Ivar the Boneless

Scholars believe the mass Viking grave at Repton in Derbyshire may be the final resting place of Ivar the Boneless.

The artefacts recovered from the site date to 873; the time when the Great Heathen Army made Repton their winter quarters.

A local workman called Thomas Walker excavated in the burial mound seventeenth century. He claimed to have found the skeleton of a 9-foot giant lying in a stone coffin.

Human remains were arranged around the coffin with their toes pointing towards the giant skeleton.

Subsequent archaeological digs in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries found no evidence of an unusually large skeleton. The bones in the mound were in disarray.

Analysis of the skeletons and artefacts confirmed they were of Viking origin. Scientists found 246 skeletons in the grave as well as weapons, buckles, pagan symbols of the Norse gods,

Scholars surmised the grave belonged to a Viking nobleman. The Norse buried the nobleman with his fallen warriors possibly after a battle.

The small proportion of female skeletons and children at the site suggested they died at the encampment.

The Vikings sacrificed the children during the pagan funerary rites.

The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok recounted the Vikings buried Ivar the Boneless in England.

The Irish chroniclers reported the demise of Ivar the Boneless in 873 without mentioning the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Vikings may have buried Ivar the Boneless in the mass grave at Repton. They laid him to rest according to the pagan traditions of the Norse religion. His soul voyaged to Odin in Valhalla with the warriors of the Great Heathen Army.