Halfdan Ragnarsson was a commander of a coalition of Norse warriors, originating from where?
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Halfdan Ragnarsson Halfdan Ragnarsson (Old Norse: "Hálfdan" ; or "Healfdene"; Old Irish: "Albann" ; died 877) was a Viking leader and a commander of the Great Heathen Army which invaded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, starting in 865. According to the tradition recorded in the Norse sagas he was one of the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, and his brothers included Björn Ironside, Ivar the Boneless, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye and Ubba. He was the first Viking King of Northumbria and a pretender to the throne of Kingdom of Dublin. He died at the Battle of Strangford Lough in 877 trying to press his Irish claim.
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Great Heathen Army The Great Viking Army or Great Danish Army, known by the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army (OE: "mycel hæþen here"), was a coalition of Norse warriors, originating from Denmark (and likely also from Sweden and Norway) who came together under a unified command to invade the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that constituted England in AD 865.
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Naddodd Naddod (Old Norse: "Naddoðr" or "Naddaðr" , literally "studded") was a Norse-Faroese Viking who is credited with the discovery of Iceland. Naddod was also one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands after Grímur Kamban became the first to settle there around 825. Naddod was born in Agder, which comprises the two Norwegian counties of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder.
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Seljuk Empire The Seljuk Empire or Great Seljuk Empire (also spelled Seljuq) (Persian: آل سلجوق‎ ‎ ) was a medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to western Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia.
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Harthacnut I of Denmark Harthacnut or Cnut I (Danish: Hardeknud ) (born c. 880) was a semi-legendary King of Denmark. "Ragnarssona þáttr" makes Harthacnut son of the semi-mythic viking chieftain Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, himself one of the sons of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok. The saga in turn makes Harthacnut the father of the historical king, Gorm. It has been suggested he is to be identified with the Hardegon of "Northmannia" whose early-10th century conquest of Denmark was related by Adam of Bremen.
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Bali Kingdom The Kingdom of Bali was a series of Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms that once ruled some parts of the volcanic island of Bali, in Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. With a history of native Balinese kingship spanning from the early 10th to early 20th centuries, Balinese kingdoms demonstrated sophisticated Balinese court culture where native elements of spirit and ancestral reverence combined with Hindu influences – adopted from India through ancient Java intermediary – flourished, enriched and shaped the Balinese culture.
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Danegeld The Danegeld ( ; "Danish tax", literally "Dane tribute") was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the "geld" or "gafol" in eleventh-century sources. It was characteristic of royal policy in both England and Francia during the ninth through eleventh centuries, collected both as tributary, to buy off the attackers, and as stipendiary, to pay the defensive forces. The term "Danegeld" did not appear until the early twelfth century. In Anglo-Saxon England tribute payments to the Danes was known as "gafol" and the levy raised to support the standing army, for the defence of the realm, was known as "heregeld" (army-tax).
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Valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie (from Old Norse "valkyrja" "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr), the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"). When the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. Valkyries also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens and sometimes connected to swans or horses.
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Rusla Rusla, nicknamed the "red maiden", was a Norwegian skjaldmö warrior in the tenth century that is mentioned in Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus and Irish annals. Rusla was the daughter of a Viking king of Telemark called Rieg, and sister of Tesandus (Thrond), who was dispossessed of his throne by a Danish king named Omund. Rusla formed a Viking fleet to attack all Danish ships as revenge for the affront to her brother. Rusla was always accompanied by another woman (some sources cite her as sister) Stikla, who was her deputy in all raids. Stikla turned to piracy to avoid marriage, and her name is the origin of the Norwegian city Stiklestad.
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Vestmenn Vestmenn ("Westmen" in English) was the Old Norse word for the Gaels of Ireland and Britain, especially Ireland. Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland and Vestmanna in the Faroe Islands take their names from it. The Norse who settled in Ireland and Scotland, known now as the "Norse–Gaels", called themselves "Austmenn" "Eastmen", i.e. people who had come from the East (Scandinavia).
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Ímar Ímar (Old Norse: "Ívarr" ; died c. 873) was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century who founded the Uí Ímair dynasty, and whose descendants would go on to dominate the Irish Sea region for several centuries. He was the son of the king of Lochlann, identified in the non-contemporary "Fragmentary Annals of Ireland" as Gofraid. The "Fragmentary Annals" name Auisle and Amlaíb Conung as his brothers. Another Viking leader, Halfdan Ragnarsson, is considered by some scholars to be another brother. The Irish Annals title Amlaíb, Ímar and Auisle "kings of the foreigners". Modern scholars use the title "kings of Dublin" after the Viking settlement which formed the base of their power. Some scholars consider Ímar to be identical to Ivar the Boneless, a Viking commander of the Great Heathen Army named in contemporary English sources who also appears in the Icelandic sagas as a son of the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok.
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Thing of all Swedes The Thing of all Swedes ("allra Svía þing", "Þing allra Svía", "Disaþing", or "Kyndilþing") was the governing assembly held from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden, occurring at the end of February or early March in conjunction with a great fair and a religious celebration called Dísablót. The "Law of Uppland" informs that it was at this assembly that the king proclaimed that the leidang would be summoned for warfare during the summer, and all the crews, rowers, commanders and ships were decided.
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Denmark Denmark ( ; Danish: "Danmark" , ] ), officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and a sovereign state. The southernmost of the Scandinavian nations, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The Kingdom of Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, Funen and the North Jutlandic Island. The islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has an area of 42924 km2 , total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2210579 km2 , and a population of 5.75 million (as of 2017 ).
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Garmr In Norse mythology, Garmr or Garm (Old Norse "rag") is a wolf or dog associated with both Hel and Ragnarök, and described as a blood-stained guardian of Hel's gate.
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Norse rituals Norse pagan worship is the traditional religious rituals practiced by Norse pagans in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times. Norse paganism was a folk religion (as opposed to an organised religion), and its main purpose was the survival and regeneration of society. Therefore, the faith was decentralized and tied to the village and the family, although evidence exists of great national religious festivals. The leaders managed the faith on behalf of society; on a local level, the leader would have been the head of the family, and nationwide, the leader was the king. Pre-Christian Scandinavians had no word for religion in a modern sense. The closest counterpart is the word "sidr", meaning custom. This meant that Christianity, during the conversion period, was referred to as "nýr sidr" (the new custom) while paganism was called "forn sidr" (ancient custom). The centre of gravity of pre-Christian religion lay in religious practice — sacred acts, rituals and worship of the gods.
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Hrothgar Hrothgar (Old English: "Hrōðgār" ] ; ) was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century.
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History of Denmark The history of Denmark as a unified kingdom began in the 8th century, but historic documents describe the geographic area and the people living there—the Danes—as early as 500 AD. These early documents include the writings of Jordanes and Procopius. With the Christianization of the Danes c. 960 AD, it is clear that there existed a kingship in Scandinavia, controlling the current Danish territory roughly speaking. Queen Margrethe II can trace her lineage back to the Viking kings Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth from this time, thus making the Monarchy of Denmark the oldest in Europe. The area now known as Denmark has a rich prehistory, having been populated by several prehistoric cultures and people for about 12,000 years, since the end of the last ice age.
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Berserker Berserkers (or berserks) were champion Norse warriors who are primarily reported in Icelandic literature to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the English word "berserk".
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Ingólfr Arnarson Ingólfr Arnarson (spelled with a in Modern Icelandic: "Ingólfur Arnarson" ] ) and his wife, Hallveig Frodesdatter and together with his brother Chiorleif, are commonly recognized as the first permanent Norse settlers of Iceland. According to tradition, they founded Reykjavík in 874.
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Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (Old Norse: "Haraldr Sigurðarson" ;  1015 – 25 September 1066), given the epithet Hardråde ("harðráði ", roughly translated as "stern counsel" or "hard ruler") in the sagas, was King of Norway (as Harald III) from 1046 to 1066. In addition, he unsuccessfully claimed the Danish throne until 1064 and the English throne in 1066. Prior to becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire.
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Northern Isles The Northern Isles (Scots: "Northern Isles" ; Scottish Gaelic: "Na h-Eileanan a Tuath" ; ) is an archipelago comprising a chain of islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The climate is cool and temperate and much influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main island groups: Shetland and Orkney. There are a total of 26 inhabited islands with landscapes of the fertile agricultural islands of Orkney contrasting with the more rugged Shetland islands to the north, where the economy is more dependent on fishing and the oil wealth of the surrounding seas. Both have a developing renewable energy industry. They also share a common Pictish and Norse history. Both island groups were absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 15th century and remained part of the country following the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, and later the United Kingdom after 1801. The islands played a significant naval role during the world wars of the 20th century.
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Shield-maiden A shieldmaiden (Old Norse: "skjaldmær" , Danish: "skjoldmø" , Norwegian: "skjoldmøy" , Swedish: "sköldmö" , Dutch: "Schildmaagd" , German: "Schildmaid" ) in Scandinavian folklore and mythology was a woman who had chosen to fight as a warrior. They are often mentioned in sagas such as "Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks" and in "Gesta Danorum". Shieldmaidens also appear in stories of other Germanic peoples: Goths, Cimbri, and Marcomanni. The mythical valkyries may have been based on the shieldmaidens. Their historical existence is debated.