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Fafnisbani. He, it is said, to outdo Hengist and Horsa
and the Northmen from Hærethaland, set out to
conquer England with two ships. Captured by Ælla
of Northumberland, he was thrown into the pit
of snakes. His sons, Ivar the Boneless and his
brethren, avenged him by the great invasion and
conquest; but their saga embroiders the true story
with picturesque and mythical ornament. It tells how
Ivar the Crafty, hanging back from the first fruitless
attempt, bargained with Ælla. for as much land as
an ox-hide would cover, the old Hengist and Horsa
plot. Thus founding London (or York), he gained
Ælla’s confidence, brought his brothers’ army back,
and avenged his father with the torture of Ælla and
St. Eadmund. The episode is not made more historical
by placing the scene in Ireland, as Haliday
(Scandinavian Dublin, p. 28) tries to do. A historic Ragnar
was present at the siege of Paris in 845, and Ivar
with his brethren conquered East Anglia and Northumbria;
but the legendary part of the saga is merely one
variant of the inevitable myth of explanation, invented
to show why the Vikings attacked Britain, other
variants being Roger of Wendover’s tale of Berne
the huntsman and Lothbrok, and Gaimar’s of Buern
Buzecarle.
It must be evident that such legends of prehistoric
Vikings–Celtic, English and Scandinavian–are the
natural growth of the story-telling genius at an age
when the great movement was past. After every war
we have a crop of novels about it. At the same
time, the fact of piracy was no invention of the
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