Vikings: Every Character Based On Real Historical Figures

With the final season of Vikings over it's hard to know what to do without the rush of battle, steamy affairs, and intense power struggles. For seven years the show gave us a good dose of excitement and drama, while still providing insight into past life and historically important battles and people.

Yet they took a lot of creative license, so it was hard to know which characters were based on real people, and who was completely fictional. There were also a lot of characters who interacted in the show who may have been real, but who never would have met in real life or who lived at different periods in time.

If you're not ready to give up your favorite characters, then keep reading to see which of them were based on historical figures and to discover how similar they were to their real counterparts.

Even though he is the main character of the first few seasons of the show, Ragnar Lothbrok was most likely not the person you saw on TV. Stories of his life are written down in many historical texts as if he were real, but many people think that he is a compilation of several different people.

In the show, he is the first Viking who attacks England and France. Since he lived in the early-mid 9th century, he would have arrived after the countries had already been visited by other Vikings. Some believe that he (or one of the people he is based on) was the first to start settlements and to claim land in the conquered territories though.

Similarly to the show, he is mentioned as the father of Bjorn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless in real life. He was also married to Lagertha and Aslaug, but in real life he also married Princess Thora.

Most sources say he died in England, either by being thrown in a snake pit by King Ælla in Northumbria or by being killed by King Edmund in East Anglia. A few sources say he died during a Viking Siege in France.