Aslaug or Áslaug, also Aslög, Kraka (or Kráka) and Randalin, was a Viking queen of Scandinavia who appears in the Völsunga saga, saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and Edda by Icelandic author Snorri Sturluson.
Aslaug's History
Aslaug was the daughter of the legendary dragon slayer Sigurd and the shield-maiden Brynhildr (Brunhild), but grew up with her foster father Heimer, Brynhild's father.
Upon the death of Sigurd and Brunhildr, Heimer found himself responsible for the safety of the little girl and had a harp built large enough to hide the child inside.
Thus they were both traveling, like a poor itinerant harp player with Aslaug inside.
They both arrived at Spangereid, Lindesnes in Norway, where they spent the night at Åke and Grima's homestead. Åke thought he had seen the harp as a vessel containing a valuable treasure, and told his wife Grima. Grima convinced her husband that he should kill Heimer in his sleep.
But when they opened the harp, they discovered a child, and then adopted her as their own, naming her Kraka (raven). In order to hide her noble origin, they forced the girl to wear dirty, threadbare clothes.
One day, while she was taking a bath, she was discovered by Ragnar Lodbrok's Vikings who were nearby baking bread. Confused by Kraka's beauty, they let the bread burn and when Ragnar asked for explanations, they told him about the girl.
Ragnar sent for her, not caring whether she was clothed or naked, hungry or sated, accompanied or unaccompanied.
Kraka appeared dressed in a chain mail, eating an onion and accompanied by a dog. Ragnar was impressed by her beauty and married her; the two had four sons, including Ivar, Björn, Halfdan and Rognvald.
When Ragnar visited Viceroy Eysteinn Beli of Sweden, he persuaded him to reject Kraka and marry the Swedish princess Ingeborg. On his return, three birds had informed Kraka of Ragnar's plans, and he reproached her for her boldness by revealing her noble origin.
To prove that she was the daughter of Sigurd, the one who killed Fafnir, she told him that she would give birth to a child who would have a snake in one eye, and that son was Sigurd nicknamed "the one with the snake in his eye".
When Östen learned of Ragnar's change of heart, he rebelled, but died on the battlefield against the sons of Kraka.
Ragnar was captured by the Angles during a Viking expedition in Northumbria, in England, according to legend for not heeding Kraka's warnings about the poor state of his fleet.
Ragnar was thrown into a pit of poisonous snakes but as he was wearing a magic chain mail that Kraka had made for him, he could not be harmed. It was only when the webbing was removed that Ragnar died from snake bites.
In Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar appears Aslaug, daughter of Sigurd Ragnarsson, thus same name as her grandmother, who married Helgi the Fearless of Ringerike.
In the saga of Ragnar Lothbrok and Ragnarssona þáttr, Aslaug and her sons Björn and Halfdan, while in Selandia, Denmark, learned of the death of their brothers Eric and Agnar at the hands of Eysteinn Beli and dressed as shield-maiden and taking the name "Randalin", rode overland with her army to give battle to the Swedes, while her sons did so by sea with their fleet.
