Ubbe Ragnarsson

Ubbe, Ubba or Hubba Ragnarsson was a Norse leader during the Viking Age. Ubbe Ragnarsson was one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok and, along with his brothers Halfdan and Ivar the Boneless, a leader of the Great Heathen Army.

In 878, a party of Vikings landed on the coast of Devon after travelling from Dyfed in Wales. There they observed that a number of Saxons had taken refuge in the fort of Cynwit. The Vikings proceeded to besiege the fort, expecting the English to surrender eventually from lack of water. Instead of waiting to die of thirst on top of the hill, the Saxons attacked suddenly out of the fortress at dawn, taking the Danes by surprise and winning a great victory. Ubbe was killed by the Saxons under the leadership of Odda of Devon at the Battle of Cynuit in Somerset.

Little is known about Ubbe Ragnarsson. The information that is available about him is written principally in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Fictional representations
Ubba is a character in Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, as an opponent of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and in C. Walter Hodges' The Marsh King.

Other sources

 * Keary C. F. The Vikings in Western Christendom (T. Fisher Unwin: London. 1891)
 * Schlauch, Margaret, trans. The Saga of the Volsungs: the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok together with the Lay of Kraka (New York: American Scandinavian Foundation, 1964)