“’Cease, my strain!  I hear a voice
From realms where martial souls rejoice;
I hear the maids of slaughter call,
Who bid me hence to Odin’s hall: 
High seated in their blest abodes
I soon shall quaff the drink of gods. 
The hours of life have glided by;
I fall, but smiling shall I die.’”

                                      Death Song of Regner Lodbrock (Herbert’s tr.).

[Sidenote:  Founding of London.] Ragnar Lodbrok’s sons had reached home, and were peacefully occupied in playing chess, when a messenger came to announce their father’s sad end.  In their impatience to avenge him they started out without waiting to collect a large force, and in spite of many inauspicious omens.  Ella, who expected them, met them with a great host, composed not only of all his own subjects but also of many allies, among whom was King Alfred.  In spite of their valor the Normans were completely defeated by the superior forces of the enemy, and only a few of them survived.  Ivar and his remaining followers consented to surrender at last, provided that Ella would atone for their losses by giving them as much land as an oxhide would inclose.  This seemingly trifling request was granted without demur, nor could the king retract his promise when he saw that the oxhide, cut into tiny strips, inclosed a vast space of land, upon which the Normans now proceeded to construct an almost impregnable fortress, called Lunduna Burg (London).

Here Ivar took up his permanent abode, while his brothers returned to Hledra.  Little by little he alienated the affections of Ella’s subjects, and won them over to him by rich gifts and artful flattery.  When sure of their allegiance, he incited them to revolt against the king; and as he had solemnly sworn never to bear arms against Ella, he kept the letter of his promise by sending for his brothers to act as their leaders.

[Sidenote:  Death of Ella.] As a result of this revolution Ella was made prisoner.  Then the fierce vikings stretched him out upon one of those rude stone altars which can still be seen in England, and ruthlessly avenged their father’s cruel death by cutting the bloody eagle upon him.[1] After Ella’s death, Ivar became even more powerful than before, while his younger brothers continued their viking expeditions, took an active part in all the piratical incursions of the time, and even, we are told, besieged Paris in the reign of Louis the Fat. [Footnote 1:  See Guerber’s Myths of Northern Lands, p. 85.]

Other Danish and Scandinavian vikings were equally venturesome and successful, and many eventually settled in the lands which they had conquered.  Among these was the famous Rollo (Rolf Ganger), who, too gigantic in stature to ride horseback, always went on foot.  He settled with his followers in a fertile province in northern France, which owes to them its name of Normandy.