Ragnar approched Aslaug.
"So you took him back."
Aslaug nodded to her husband. She held her baby in a firm but gentle grasp. She backed away from Ragnar as he approched her, almost as if to sheild her baby from him. Ragnar had not been suprised when he had realised that Aslaug had brought the child back. Ragnar had not counted on it, but it was something that he knew might very well happen. He had been more concerned about how to handle it. Should he try it again and have his men prevent Aslaug from doing it again? Or have one of his men sneak it away? Give it to Rán, stab it, bury it in the ground? So many ways to go about.
"You do understand I think he should have died last night?"
Aslaug nodded silently.
"Yet, here he is. Alive, at your beheft."
Aslaug was silent.
"Why?"
"If you don't know the answer yourself, I do not think you have the claim to the title 'father', Ragnar." Aslaug spoke the word with all the defiance of a queen.
"What?!" Ragnar roared in fury. Aslaug shivered, but did not betray her fear to Ragnar.
"I said that anyone who wants to kill his own child has no claim to the title 'father'!" Ragnar did not utter a single word. Fury, like raging fire was burning inside him, but like Aslaug, he did not want to betray his emotions. Was he not the most feared warrior in all of Agder? Why should he allow a woman who never carried anything but children in her life to make him angry? He collected himself.
"What makes you think that you know what's better for our children than I? I have had more children than you, and been a father for longer than you have been a mother." Ragnar said the words with a devious smile that would have made old Loki smirk.
"Then you should know better than try to murder your own children. Is this not your son? Does he not have your eyes?" Aslaug held the boy-child so Ragnar could see his eyes. Ragnar turned away his gaze from the child.
"Look at him." Aslaug spoke as softly and deviously as Ragnar now.
"I sware upon all the Gods of victory and all the elves in the mounds that this is our child, else may Thor strike me to Hel. Can you sware the same oath to that he is not our boy?"
"No." Ragnar did not flinch a bit.
"Then you have no right to take his life. No matter if you think his life will be full of pain and misery. I will never give up hope of his happiness. I have speaken to the Seer. This boy's fate is clouded in mist. We have no knowlage of what his future holds." Ragnar was silent. First he looked at the boy, then he looked into Aslaug's eyes. Aslaug did not avert her gaze, but looked right back in Ragnar's eyes. She did not cower. The flaming eyes of Ragnar Lothbrok did not scare her. For a brief moment both of them stared unflinchinly into each other's eye. They where like wolfes, ready to do battle for supremacy. Then, unexpectedly, Ragnar reached out for the boy. Aslaug took a step back to prevent him from grasping the child, but Ragnar did not attempt that. Instead he stroke the boy's head. He had given in. Trying to kill the child was not worth the hatred of Aslaug. She had made the decision. She was responsible for the child's happiness.
"A child should have a name."
"His name is Ivar."
Ragnar nodded.
"Like the old king."
Once more Ragnar stroke Ivar's head.
"Ivar the Boneless."
Ragnar started humming.
"Yew is bent bow, and fragile iron and Cruel Striker of arrows. Bow of the Ynglings."
Aslaug did not show it, but it was as if a large stone had been lifted from her chest. She and Ragnar sat down and they both started cuddling with the child.
And that's how Ivar was named.
It was a most violent and eventfull year in the life of Ragnar and his wife Aslaug. When Ragnar was in viking with king Horik of the Danes, the geatish jarl Borg invaded Kattegat as vengence for leaving him out of their raid, despite being promised to join it. Ragnar and the hird of jarl Sigvard drove Borg out of Kattegat. However, king Horik asked Ragnar to make peace with Borg as his hird and ships where needed for conquest in Wessex. Ragnar invited Borg back promissing forgiveness. But Ragnar had trecherous intents. Jarl Borg's hird was killed by quickfire and Ragnar carved a blood eagle upon Borg's back. Later, king Horik came to the conclusion that Ragnar Lothbrok was a threat to his reign. In the dark of night, king Horik assaulted Kattegat himself but Ragnar and his men proved to be to mighty for him. Horik and all his family was slain, save for his son Erlendr. Then Ragnar became king of the Danes.
GLOSSARY
Boneless – In Scandinavian langues bone also means leg.
Cruel Striker – Cruel Striker means the way the bowstring hits the arrow, but it is also the name of Loki's father which in Old Norse translates to "Farbauti"
Ivar – possibly "Yew warrior", possibly derived from Ingvar: "Ing's warrior" (Ing being the theorised orignal name of the God Freyr).
Ynglings – a legendary royal line that supposedly was founded by the God Yngvi-Freyr.