Aelle II of Northumbria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ælle II (d. 867), king of the Northumbrians, became king about 862 on the deposition of Osberht, although he was not of royal birth. Afterwards he became reconciled with Osberht, and together they attacked the Danes, who had invaded Northumbria, and drove them into York. Rallying, however, the Danes defeated the Northumbrians, and in the encounter both Ælle and Osberht were slain.

[edit] Norse sagas

Aella murdering Ragnar Lodbrok

In the Norse sagas Ælle is represented as having brought about the Danish invasion of Northumbria by cruel and unjust actions. More specifically, he murdered the king of Sweden and Denmark, Ragnar Lodbrok, by throwing him into a snake pit.

Ragnar's sons tried to avenge their father, and invaded Northumbria, but were beaten. Ragnar's handicapped son Ivar the Boneless then went to king Ælle and said that he sought reconciliation. Ivar only asked for as much land as he could cover with an ox's hide and swore never to wage war against Ælle. Then Ivar cut the ox's hide into so fine strands that he could envelope a large fortress (in the older Ragnarssona þáttr it was York and according to the younger Ragnars saga loðbrókar it was London) which he could take as his own. As he was the most generous of men, he attracted a great many warriors, whom he consequently kept from Ælle when this king was attacked by Ivar's brothers for the second time.

Ælle was captured and when the brothers were to decide how to give Ælle his just punishment, Ivar suggested that they carve the "blood eagle" on his back. This meant that Ælle's back was cut open, the ribs pulled from his spine and his lungs removed. After justice had been served, Ivar became the king of England.

[edit] References

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum.
Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, De rebus gestis Aelfredi.
J.R. Green, The Making of England, London, 1897.
Northvegr – The Tale of Ragnar's Sons

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904-1926 now in Public Domain.