Another episode of Vikings premieres tonight at 10pm on The History Channel. And while many people enjoy the Viking bloodbaths, conquerors, and blood brothers, the question begs itself: who was the real Ragnar Lothbrook? 

There's a few things to remember about Norse history: much of it is oral. So, there's bound to be some things that are lost forever to the annals of history, or exaggerated through the ages.

Ragnar Lothbrook (or, if we want to keep the original Viking orthography, Ragnar Lodbrok) did exist, as did his two sons: Bjorn Ironsides (whose mother was the shieldsmaiden Lagertha) and Ivar the Boneless (whose mother was the Princess Aslaug) -- yes, folks, Ragnar had "baby mama drama" before "baby mama drama" drew in television ratings. The question is... how many of Ragnar's accomplishments were real, and how many were the stuff of legend?

The first thing we notice about Ragnar is that he's claimed to be a descendant of the Norse god Odin. On its surface, this claim sounds silly. If we go deeper, however, how different is this claim from the claim that the followers of Christianity are the sons and daughters of God? 

But more than that (spoiler alert for what's to come in this season of Vikings!): he was always fighting for the Danish throne, and he was briefly the King of both Denmark and a large part of Sweden. He was a great Viking commander who, during his lifetime, was dubbed "the scourge of England and France" because there wasn't a piece of land in either country that he didn't want to invade, conquer, and lay claim. But his luck eventually ran out in England: in the 9th century, he was shipwrecked on the English coast and captured by King Aella, who put him to death by throwing him in a pit of vipers. 

The Volsungasaga sings the praises of Ragnar: it's a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and destruction of the Burgundians). It is largely based on epic poetry. The earliest known pictorial representation of this tradition is the Ramsund carving, Sweden, which was created c. 1000 AD.