Björn Ironside

Bjǫrn Ironside (Old Norse: Bjǫrn Járnsíða, Icelandic: Björn Járnsíða, Swedish: Björn Järnsida, Danish: Bjørn Jernside; Medieval Latin: Bier Costae ferreae) was a legendary king of Sweden who lived sometime in the 9th century. Björn Ironside is said to have been the first ruler of the Munsö dynasty. In the early 18th century, a barrow on the island of Munsö was claimed by antiquarians to be Björn Järnsidas hög or Björn Ironside's grave. Hög, from the Old Norse word haugr, means barrow or mound.

Tales refer to Björn Ironside's potential sons and grandsons, including Björn at Haugi, and Eiríkr Björnsson.

Histories
A powerful Viking chieftain and naval commander, Björn and his mentor and father's close friend, Hásteinn, conducted many (mostly successful) raids in France in a continuation of the tradition initiated by their father Ragnarr Loðbrók. In 860, Björn led a large Viking raid into the Mediterranean. After raiding down the Iberian coast and fighting their way through Gibraltar, Björn and Hastein pillaged the south of France, where his fleet over-wintered, before landing in Italy where they captured the coastal city of Pisa. They proceeded inland to the town of Luni, which they believed to be Rome at the time, but were unable to breach the town walls. To gain entry a tricky plan was devised: Hastein sent messengers to the bishop to say that, being deathly ill, he had a deathbed conversion and wished to receive Christian sacraments and/or to be buried on consecrated ground within their church. He was brought into the chapel with a small honor guard, then surprised the dismayed clerics by leaping from his stretcher. The Viking party then hacked its way to the town gates, which were promptly opened letting the rest of the army in. Flush with this victory and others around the Mediterranean (including in Sicily and North Africa) Björn returned to the Straits of Gibraltar only to find ships from Al-Andalus waiting for him. In the desperate fight that followed, Björn lost 40 ships, largely to a form of Greek fire launched from Andalusian catapults. The remainder of his fleet managed to return to Scandinavia, where he lived out his life as a rich man.

Ragnarssona þáttr
The Ragnarssona þáttr (Tale of Ragnar's Sons) tells that he was the son of the Scandinavian king Ragnarr Loðbrók and Áslaug, whom some call Randalin, and that he had the brothers Hvítserkr, Ubbi, Ivarr the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson and Sigurðr snake-eye, and the half-brothers Friðleifr, Eiríkr and Agnarr.

Björn and his brothers left Sweden to conquer Zealand, Reidgotaland (Jutland in today), Gotland, Öland and all the minor islands. They then settled at Lejre in Zealand, Denmark with Ivarr the Boneless as their leader.

Ragnar's sons Eric and Agnar then sailed into Lake Mälaren and sent a message to King Eysteinn that they wanted him to submit to Ragnar's sons, and Eric said that he wanted Eysteinn's daughter Borghild as wife. Eysteinn said that he first wanted to consult the Swedish chieftains. The chieftains said no to the offer, and ordered an attack on the rebellious sons. A battle ensued and Eric and Agnar were overwhelmed by the Swedish forces, whereupon Agnar died and Eric was taken prisoner.

Eysteinn offered Eric as much of Uppsala öd as he wanted, and Borghild, in wergild for Agnar. Eric proclaimed that after such a defeat he wanted nothing but to choose the day of his own death. Eric asked to be impaled on spears that raised him above the dead and his wish was granted.

In Zealand, Björn, Áslaug and Hvítserkr, who had been playing tafl, became upset and sailed to Sweden with a large army. Áslaug, calling herself Randalin, rode with cavalry across the land. In a great battle they killed Eysteinn.

Björn and his brothers attacked Ælla but were beaten back. As Ivarr did not overcome Ælla, 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 Ivarr cut the ox's hide into such fine strands that he could envelop 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. Ivarr made himself popular in England and asked his brothers to attack again. During the battle Ivarr sided with his brothers and so did many of the English chieftains with their people, in loyalty to Ivarr. Ælla was taken captive and in revenge they carved the blood eagle on him.

Later Björn and his brothers pillaged in England, Wales, France, and Italy, until they came to the town Luna in Italy. When they came back to Scandinavia, they divided the kingdom so that Björn Ironside took Uppsala and Sweden.