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The Axe Ragnar Lothbrok Carries in Vikings, and What It Really Is
Most people who search for Ragnar Lothbrok’s axe are thinking of one thing: the bearded axe that Travis Fimmel’s Ragnar carries through the early seasons of the television series Vikings. It is a small axe with a long hooked beard on a plain wooden haft, tucked into his belt or swung one handed in the raid scenes, and it did more to sell bearded axes to the public than any museum ever has. This post covers who Ragnar was in the sources, what the on screen axe looks like, how it stacks up against real Viking Age finds, and what to actually look for if you want a hand forged bearded axe with that character.
Who Ragnar Lothbrok is in the sagas
Ragnar Loðbrók, the nickname means “hairy breeches,” is the hero of Ragnars saga loðbrókar, a legendary saga written down in Iceland in the thirteenth century, roughly four hundred years after the events it describes. He appears again in the Tale of Ragnar’s Sons, in the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum from around 1200, and in Krákumál, a poem framed as his death song. In these sources he kills a serpent to win his first wife Thora, marries Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd the dragon slayer, raids widely, and finally dies in a snake pit at the hands of King Ælla of Northumbria. His sons then bring an army to England to avenge him.
The sons are the historical anchor. Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan and Ubba are recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Irish annals as leaders of the Great Heathen Army that landed in East Anglia in 865 and went on to overthrow Northumbria and East Anglia. Björn Ironside appears in Frankish sources as well as the Norse ones. Their father is the problem.
Why historians argue about whether he existed
No contemporary source names a Ragnar Lothbrok. What we have instead are several ninth century figures who might have contributed to the legend. Frankish annals record a Viking leader called Reginheri who sacked Paris in 845 and died shortly afterward. The saga tradition may have gathered him and others like him, along with pure folklore, into a single larger than life father for the well documented sons.
The honest summary is that Ragnar is semi legendary. There was probably a real raider or several real raiders behind the name, but the man who kills dragons and dies singing in a snake pit is a literary creation. The series Vikings is a drama built on the legend, not a documentary, and it compresses events that happened decades apart into one lifetime. That is fine for television. It only becomes a problem when someone tries to buy “the historically accurate Ragnar axe,” because there is no such object to be accurate to.
What the axe looks like on screen
Described in general terms, the axe Ragnar carries in the show is a one handed bearded axe. The head is compact with a pronounced beard, the lower part of the blade that hooks down well below the eye, giving a cutting edge much longer than the head’s body would suggest. The finish is dark and plain rather than polished. The haft is straight, unadorned wood of roughly forearm length, sometimes with a simple wrap near the head. It is carried in the belt and used as much as a tool as a fighting piece, which is consistent with how the show presents Ragnar as a farmer first.
That is deliberately a restrained description. The production changed props across seasons, other characters carry their own axes, and we are not going to invent details about who made the screen props or how they were built. If you want that information, look for interviews with the production’s armoury team rather than a knife shop.
How it compares to real Viking Age axes
The good news is that the general shape is not far from what archaeologists dig up. Bearded axes, skeggöx in Old Norse, are among the most common axe forms in Viking Age graves and settlement finds across Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Norse settlements in Britain. The beard exists for practical reasons: it extends the cutting edge without adding much weight, and the hollow behind it lets the user choke up on the haft right under the head for close, controlled work, whether that is carving a plank or catching a shield rim.
The standard reference is still Jan Petersen’s typology from 1919, which sorts Norwegian axe heads into types lettered A through M. Several of the mid sequence types are bearded, and many are surprisingly small by modern expectation. Head weights for one handed Viking axes commonly fall somewhere between about half a pound and a pound and a half, with hafts that put the whole axe somewhere around two to three feet. Big two handed axes, the broad bladed type M that people call the Dane axe, come later in the period and are a different animal, with a thin, wide, flaring blade on a haft that could reach five feet.
Where the screen axe departs from the finds is mostly in finish and in decoration. Real heads were forged from iron, often with a harder steel bit welded into the edge, and the well preserved ones tend to be plainer than television props. Decorated examples exist, and the Mammen axe from Denmark, inlaid with silver, is the famous one, but it was a high status object, not a farmer’s belt axe. Our longer post on Viking axe history goes through the types, the Dane axe and how the axes were used, and our post on what a bearded axe is explains what the beard actually does and why the shape keeps being made.
What to look for in a hand forged bearded axe with that character
If the look you want is Ragnar’s, you are looking for a small one handed bearded axe, dark or satin finished, on a plain hardwood haft. Here is what matters when you compare listings.
Head shape. Look for a beard that drops well below the eye, a cutting edge around four to five inches on a hand axe, and a fairly narrow neck between the eye and the edge. Some modern bearded axes exaggerate the hook until the beard is longer than the body, which looks dramatic but leaves a thin, weak section of steel. A moderate beard is closer to the finds and stronger in use.
Haft length. A one handed axe in the screen style wants a haft in the range of fifteen to twenty inches. Anything under fourteen inches is really a hatchet, and anything past twenty four starts to become a two handed piece. Straight grained ash, hickory or walnut are the common choices. A leather or cord wrap under the head is a nice touch and helps the choke grip.
Weight. As a guide, a hand axe in this style should come in somewhere around one and a half to two and a half pounds overall. Lighter than that and it will feel toy like. Heavier and it stops being a one handed piece and becomes tiring to swing.
Steel and hardness. Our plain steel axes are forged from 1095 high carbon steel, heat treated to 54 to 58 HRC. That range is deliberate. It is hard enough to hold a keen edge for splitting kindling and carving, and soft enough not to chip when the edge meets a knot. Our Damascus axes are forge welded from layered 1095 and 15N20, hardened to 58 to 60 HRC, and the pattern shows in the head after etching. For a plain dark screen style axe, 1095 is the natural choice.
Blade cover. A bearded axe with no edge protection is an accident waiting to happen in a bag or on a wall. Look for a fitted leather cover with a snap or strap that actually holds under the beard, since a loose sleeve slides off a bearded head easily.
Hang and wedge. Check that the head is wedged tight and the eye is fully filled. A loose hang is the most common fault on cheap imports.
Where to find this style on our site
We sell hand forged bearded axes in this style, made the old way in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from our base in Memphis, Tennessee. They are our own designs in the general character of the axe Ragnar carries, not licensed screen replicas, and we do not claim any connection with the production. Several are named for that look, including a Damascus “Ragnar style” bearded axe with a five inch edge on a twenty inch haft and a plain 1095 bearded axe on rosewood with a leather cover and gift box.
You will find all of them in our Viking axes category, and the ones with the true hooked beard are collected under bearded axes. If you want to see the axes alongside seaxes, spears and swords of the same period, the wider Norse arms range holds everything together in one place. Every axe ships with an edge cover, and most can be engraved with a name, a date or a line of Elder Futhark runes before they leave Memphis.
A note on “battle ready” and safety
A 1095 bearded axe at 54 to 58 HRC is a working tool. It will split kindling, carve and throw. It is also perfectly capable of hurting someone, and no film prop is. Treat it as you would any sharp axe: keep the cover on when it is not in use, hang it out of reach of children, and oil the head lightly before storing, because high carbon steel will rust if left damp. If you want the look for display only, the wall plaque versions of our bearded axes are a safer choice for a living room.
Questions people ask
Was Ragnar Lothbrok a real person?
Probably not as a single individual. The sagas describe him, but no contemporary source names him. His sons, including Ivar the Boneless and Björn Ironside, are historically attested, and the legend may combine several ninth century raiders.
What kind of axe does Ragnar use in Vikings?
A one handed bearded axe: a compact head with a long hooked beard, plain dark finish, on a straight wooden haft of roughly forearm length, carried in the belt.
Is the axe in the show historically accurate?
The general shape is close to real Viking Age bearded axe heads found in graves across Scandinavia. The finish and some proportions are television choices, and Ragnar himself is a semi legendary figure, so there is no real original to compare against.
Do you sell the official Ragnar axe from the show?
No. We sell hand forged bearded axes in that general style. They are our own designs, not licensed replicas, and we have no connection with the production.
What size bearded axe matches the screen look?
A hand axe with a four to five inch edge, a fifteen to twenty inch haft and an overall weight of roughly one and a half to two and a half pounds is the closest match.
What steel are your bearded axes made from?
Plain axes are 1095 high carbon steel at 54 to 58 HRC. Damascus axes are 1095 and 15N20 forge welded together and hardened to 58 to 60 HRC.
Where are your axes made?
Every axe is hand forged in the Czech Republic the old way, then imported, inspected and shipped from Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is cut in the United States.
