Krákumál
Also known as: Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok, Krakumal, Krakumál, Krakumalr, Ragnar Lodbrok’s Death Song
A skaldic death-song placed in the mouth of Ragnar Lodbrok as he faces the snake pit of King Ælla, recalling raids and battles across the North while embracing fate and Valhalla.
Description
Krákumál is a compact heroic lay cast as Ragnar Lodbrok’s final boast before death. In tightly wrought stanzas, the speaker surveys a lifetime of sea-raids, shield-walls, and winter campaigns, measuring honor by wounds and comradeship. The poem frames death as joyous passage, expecting Valkyries to bear the warrior to Odin’s hall. Its rhetorical pattern alternates catalogues of exploits with gnomic reflections on courage and fate, producing a hymnic praise of warrior ethos rather than a linear narrative. Though tradition assigns the words to Ragnar, linguistic and stylistic features point to a twelfth-century West Norse poet working within the skaldic milieu; the lay was later woven into the saga tradition that amplified Ragnar’s legend.
Historiography
The poem survives via later saga transmission, not from a contemporary ninth-century source. Scholarship generally dates it to the twelfth century on linguistic grounds and late skaldic style. Attributions to Ragnar are viewed as literary fiction, while the text’s refrain-like structure and martial catalogues align it with commemorative praise. The piece influenced later receptions of Ragnar in Old Norse prose, Latin chronicles, and modern popular culture.
Date Notes
A late skaldic composition in West Norse; attributed in tradition to Ragnar Lodbrok but likely composed by an anonymous poet. Preserved in later saga manuscripts.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Ragnar Lothbrok
- Aslaug
- Ivar the Boneless
- Björn Ironside
- Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye
- Hvitserk
- King Ælla
Myths
- Ragnar’s Serpent-Slaying Youth
- Raids and Sea-Kings’ Battles
- Death in the Snake Pit
- Boasts of Valhalla
Facts
- Traditionally placed in Ragnar Lodbrok’s mouth as he faces death in a snake pit.
- Most scholars date composition to the 12th century, not Ragnar’s lifetime.
- Form: late skaldic lay with refrain-like, boast-catalogue structure.
- Emphasizes joyful acceptance of death and entry into Valhalla.
- Catalogues raids across multiple regions rather than telling a single linear story.
- Key motifs include shield-walls, sea-raids, wounds as honor, and Valkyries as psychopomps.
- The attribution to Ragnar functions as literary persona rather than historical authorship.
- The poem’s language and metrics indicate West Norse (Icelandic/Norwegian) milieu.
- Later saga prose embeds and amplifies the poem within Ragnar traditions.
- Modern reception ties Krákumál to the archetype of the fearless Viking warrior.