6 Awesome Legends Behind 6 Bad Ass Vikings Characters

4. Lagertha

Played by awesome Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick, shieldmaiden Lagertha could take most of her male Viking counterparts in a scrap, and has shed her fair share of blood over three season of Vikings. Ex-wife of Ragnar and mother to his son Bjorn Ironside, her relationship with Ragnar becomes strained after they lose a child in miscarriage. Determined to father the many sons that the Gods promised him, Ragnar searches elsewhere for a woman to help him fulfil his legacy. Lagertha leaves her husband for another Earl when he proposes that he bring a second wife into their home - the Princess Aslaug, daughter of a dragonslayer. Unwilling to share her bed and her throne with another woman, Lagertha takes her son and leaves Ragnar to start a new family with the now Queen Aslaug, though according to 12th century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, Lagertha had no problem conceiving, giving birth to a son and two daughters. Saxo wrote in the ninth book of his Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) chronology that Lagertha first emerged as a fierce warrior after a Swedish King named Fro invaded Norway, put the Norwegian women he came across into brothels and murdered King Siward, supposed grandfather to one Ragnar Lothbrok. When Ragnar caught wind of this, he rather predictably blew his top and set out of the war path. When he arrived and freed the imprisoned women, many of them dressed up in men's clothing and took up arms against Fro the usurper. One of these women was Lagertha. Saxo wrote: "Lagertha, a skilled Amazon who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman."