Vikings: What Sigurd’s “Snake In The Eye” Name Means. The Sons of Ragnar Lothbrok is introduced by Vikings and one of them was Sigurd “Snake in the eye”. But why was he named like that? This will be revealed as you read further on this article. According to Screenrant Many characters in Vikings have nicknames related to their personalities or some physical characteristics, as is the case of Sigurd “Snake in the eye” and here’s what his name means.
Created by Michael Hirst (The Tudors), Vikings made its debut on History Channel in 2013, and while it was originally planned to be a miniseries, it was so well-received it lived on for a couple more seasons. Vikings is currently in a midseason break, waiting for its final batch of episodes to arrive.
Vikings: What Sigurd’s “Snake In The Eye” Name Means
Vikings initially followed legendary Norse figure Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel) and his travels and raids alongside his Viking brothers, starting with the Lindisfarne raid. As the series and its stories unfold, it shifted its focus to Ragnar’s sons and their own journeys. Then making Bjorn, Hvitserk, Ubbe, Sigurd, and Ivar the protagonists, with special attention on the arcs of Bjorn and Ivar.
Ragnar was told a prophecy about his sons, which is why he was concerned when Lagertha had a miscarriage, and later had three sons with Aslaug, which he believed were the ones from the prophecy. Ragnar had a lot of expectations about his sons and what they could achieve, and the lives of some of them were marked by prophecies, as was the case of Sigurd “Snake in the eye”, whose name comes from a prophecy by his mother.
The Meaning of Sigurd’s “Snake In The Eye” Name
In Vikings season 2, Aslaug prophesied that her child would be born with the image of Fafnir (a serpent-dragon from Norse mythology) in his eye, just like the creature her father, also named Sigurd, had killed. When he was born, he had a mark on his eye, thus Aslaug named him “Sigurd Snake-in-the-eye”. In the series, the mark on his eye does resemble a snake, but in real life, the legendary Sigurd is believed to have had a slightly different mark on his eye.
Sigurd was a Viking warrior and Danish king According to the sagas, he’s the son of Ragnar Lothbrok which is debatable given that it’s not for sure that Ragnar was a real person. Still, the figure of Sigurd “Snake-in-the-eye” could be a combination of a real person and some fictional details. Just like in the series, Sigurd got his name from a mark in his eye. Although this one is described as the image of the ouroboros, which is a snake biting its own tail. The ouroboros is interpreted as a symbol of the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. With the skin-sloughing process of the snake standing as a symbol for the transmigration of souls, while the biting of its own tail is also seen as a fertility symbol. In Norse mythology, the ouroboros appears as the serpent Jörmungandr. One of Loki’s children and which grew so large it could encircle the world and bite its tail. In the legends of Ragnar Lothbrok, it was he who killed a large serpent, not Aslaug’s father.
In Vikings, Sigurd is best to remember for his death: after mocking Ivar in public and telling him that the only person who ever loved him was now gone (Aslaug), his younger brother threw an axe at him, and Sigurd died on the spot. Ivar showed no resentment, further proving that he is a very dangerous man, especially when angry. Sigurd could have done great things, as the real-life one is said to have done, but Vikings chose to use his death to boost Ivar’s character instead of developing his property. Get more details on this interesting series on this link https://screenrant.com/vikings-show-signurd-snake-eye-name-meaning-explained.